Whincup vs Winterbottom, a legendary rivalry reignited

Jamie Whincup and Triple Eight versus Mark Winterbottom and Tickford Racing. We've heard this story before.

However, we haven't seen it like this.

One of Supercars' greatest rivalries, and arguably the best of the modern era, has been restored in 2025, some seven years after its final full-time stand-off.

However, where they were once heated rivals fighting for championships for their powerhouse teams, Whincup and Winterbottom will now go head-to-head as co-drivers.

Between 2006 and 2018, Whincup and Winterbottom got into each other with their respective teams before the latter jumped ship to Team 18 and Holden.

That surprise move by Winterbottom shut the door on what was a storied 13-year rivalry between the stars of Triple Eight and Tickford (formerly Ford Performance Racing and Prodrive Racing Australia).

How lucky are we, that a generation of fans drawn to the sport by the Whincup and Triple Eight/Winterbottom and Tickford rivalry will get a second crack at it, beginning with this weekend's AirTouch 500 at The Bend.

Imagine a straight fight for victory at The Bend and/or Bathurst between Whincup and Winterbottom for the lead before handing over to respective main drivers Broc Feeney and Cam Waters. We never thought co-driver box office was possible, yet here we are.

Whether or not there's bad blood between the two remains to be seen, given their careers took different trajectories when Winterbottom departed Tickford in the first place.

What we do know is that the two will go back to the future in a sense, should they cross paths at The Bend and/or Bathurst in coming weeks.

However it plays out, Winterbottom insists there's "fire in the belly" to win again, and recently told Supercars.com that his rivalry with Whincup was both genuine and fierce.

“You should write about rivalries respectfully, but you need to tell how the rivalry starts. It's not just, ‘Oh, there's a guy on track and I'm just gonna have a rivalry with him’," Winterbottom said of Whincup.

“Jamie and I, it was a genuine rivalry because it wasn't just when we got to Supercars, we'd been rivals for 15 years before we even made it.

“That's probably why it showed through as a genuine rivalry between us, because what we had was genuine, from 10 years old in karting all the way through to 40-year-old adults. We probably still acted like 10 year olds, but it was a 30-year rivalry.

“We respected each other, but would do anything to beat each other and didn't worry about either one's feelings about how you got there.”

Adelaide 2008. Hamilton 2012. Perth 2012. Sandown 2012. Pukekohe 2013. Bathurst 2013. Bathurst 2014. Phillip Island 2015. Adelaide 2017. The list goes on. Could we see The Bend 2025 or Bathurst 2025 added to the list?

The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.