'Sore' Whincup pushes through pain on major mileage day
Jamie Whincup pushes through pain barrier in major mileage day
All 27 drivers and 27 co-drivers hit the track at Queensland Raceway
Whincup set for 24th consecutive Bathurst 1000 start
Jamie Whincup admits he was left feeling “sore” after a big day of testing at Queensland Raceway, which was his first major hit out of the year.
Sporting a black helmet, Whincup joined Broc Feeney at Tuesday’s Ryco Enduro Cup Test Day, with the #88 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet logging a day-high 205 laps.
That represents over 600km of running for the day, with Whincup getting the bulk of track time as he reacquainted himself with Supercars machinery and the rigours of driver changes.
Save for ride days, Whincup has largely been out of race cars this year, and now at 42, the Supercars Hall of Fame admitted he ended Tuesday feeling it.
Whincup wasn't the only one pushing through the pain barrier, with rookie Jarrod Hughes nursing minor injuries after walking away from a major Super2 crash on Saturday.
"You know you always do laps every year, but this time around I was rusty no doubt, fairly rusty at the start of the day,” Whincup said.
"Your brain capacity is flat out driving in the car then you don't really have much left to feel the car and be able to make any changes. But that certainly improved as the day went on.
"I'm pretty sore now though. I feel like I'm fit generally but I don't have any driving fitness whatsoever. So hands and feet and neck and all those still things were starting to get quite sore towards the end of the day.
"End of the day glad I got as many laps in as I did, and I'll do a few more for at the ride day tomorrow. Hopefully that helps me get up to speed.”
Born in 1983, Whincup is 19 years Feeney's senior; only three combinations have a bigger age gap between drivers. Craig Lowndes is 30 years older than Zach Bates, Garth Tander 25 years older than Matt Payne, and Dale Wood 22 years older than Kai Allen.
Whincup is preparing for his 24th consecutive Bathurst 1000 start, which will come after a 500km enduro at The Bend Motorsport Park. Of drivers on the 2025 grid, only Craig Lowndes (31 starts) and Garth Tander (26) have more Bathurst starts.
"It was good to get back behind the wheel of that car today, these days are so valuable for the team,” added Whincup, who retired from full-time driving at the end of 2021.
"I feel like we had a really productive day. The conditions were great, you should never take that for granted great testing conditions. Especially the fact that we've just come out of a race meeting, meaning the track was in a really good place to be able to test on.
"We got through a whole program and Marty [Short, engineer] thankfully gave me a heap of laps which was needed because I haven't done many laps at all this year, so it was critical that I got a heap in to start to feel comfortable behind the wheel of the car. Towards the end of the day we were there."
