Ten of the best
In anticipation of his 100th Supercars Championship race win, Jamie Whincup ranked his top 10 best ever victories for supercars.com.
“It’s very hard to rate all of these and put them in an order, but I’ve done the very best I could,” the Red Bull racer said.
After clocking up 99 in Townsville, Whincup cracked the ton yesterday in great form, leading home Triple Eight teammate Craig Lowndes.
Here are the victories he believes are his best after being the form man of the last decade in Supercars.
Number 10 – Abu Dhabi 2010
Whincup wins two from two at season opener, earning maximum points to lead Mark Winterbottom in the championship. It was Triple Eight’s first race event running Holden Commodores.
“This was the big controversial Ford to Holden switch which was just unknown in that era. That was the big news, that Triple Eight decided to do the big switch.
“We went to Abu Dhabi – obviously a massive event for the category to race in the Middle East.
“It was our first time at Abu Dhabi on the big stage, first time in a Holden – good stuff.”
Number 9 – Oran Park 2008
Saturday’s race win clinches Whincup’s very first Supercars title at the last Supercars event ever held at Sydney circuit. It was also Mark Skaife’s final meeting as a full-time driver.
“My first Championship win – I came very close in 2007 with Garth [Tander].
“I wrote the car off at Hamilton in 2008 and pretty much dropped a round. We battled our way back through all year, so it was an unbelievable feeling to cross the line in that first race on Saturday.
“To win my first championship was pretty incredible stuff.”
Number 8 – Gold Coast 2010
Paired with Steve Owen, Whincup wins by 0.205sec over a young van Gisbergen. Each team hosted one international co-driver to contest the event and TeamVodafone ran a ‘speedo suit’ where winners are awarded surfboards.
“That epic battle with my now new teammate Shane van Gisbergen.
“I worked pretty hard and the Gold Coast is a pretty special event for me because it’s my home event. I wanted that more than anyone else and did what I felt like I needed to in a car that was running out of rear tyres at the end of the race.
“To win a race wearing budgie smugglers – that went down in the memory bank for me!”
