Eyes stick on top prize
Whincup says lack of wins won’t distract him from chase of overall title
RACE wins might be the carrot dangling before Jamie Whincup right now but the Holden star has left no doubt about the ultimate prize in his sights.
Whincup has looked almost disgruntled after any race in which he has missed out on victory this season, including six second-place finishes in the 14 races to date.
But he is well aware that ultimate consistency in racking up points is what could propel him to a record seventh Supercars championship this year.
While others including teammate Craig Lowndes consider winning the Bathurst 1000 the top honour a Supercars driver can achieve, for Whincup it’s all about the end-of-season crown.
“Lowndesy will say Bathurst any day of the week. I am by far the championship,” he told the Bulletin.
“The biggest challenge we have got in our sport – and I’m sure it’s the same in any sport, or business for that matter – is to be consistent.
“It is so difficult to be consistently good week in, week out. Therefore the biggest prize of the year is the championship because that rewards the team that has been the most consistent over a
long period of time.” Rick Kelly epitomised that in 2006 when he clinched the title despite winning only one race.
Whincup hopes he won’t
have to emulate that path after bagging his first victory of the season in Townsville this month.
“I don’t want to think that because I would like to think that we’re going to win some more races this year,” he said, when asked if he keeps Kelly’s rare championship campaign in mind.
“It had been a little bit of a drought but we got one (in Townsville) and hopefully we can build some momentum and we can win races and be in contention.”
The 34-year-old said he and his Red Bull Holden Racing Team outfit “owe it to the sport to make it a battle” with form squad DJR Team Penske, who field the series-leading No.17 Falcon of Scott McLaughlin.
McLaughlin has been far and away the quickest driver this season but is only six points ahead of Whincup, who downplayed talk that his and Red Bull’s relative experience fighting for titles will offset the current speed deficit.
“Obviously Scotty and Ludo and the guys in their team, they weren’t born yesterday,” Whincup said.
“They have got a lot of racing experience but they haven’t won championships together, so not sure.
“Hopefully they are challenged hard right to the end by at least one Red Bull Racing car so we’ll push them hard … if we’re in contention, we’ll throw everything at it.”
Supercars return to action at Ipswich this weekend.