SPOR RT 35 A wheel disaster thwarts Whincup

JAMIE Whincup’s Bathurst curse continued yesterday when the V8 immortal suffered another 1000km fail.

Continuing six years of Mount Panorama hurt for the Red Bull record- breaker, Whincup had his Bathurst dream blown by a rogue wheel on lap 40.

In a bizarre failure that also ended Whincup’s championp ship bid, the No. 1 car was forced to survive almost a complete lap with just three wheels after a tyre shot free from his Commodore.

C o - d r i v e r Paul Dumbrell was in the cockpit when a hub failure enabled the wheel to come lose before hurtling down pit straight as the field went left at Hell Corner. Ending what could be his last Bathurst bid with Whincup, Dumbrell cried behind the wheel as Triple Eight engineers fixed the damaged Commodore.

Whincup has not won at Mount Panorama since 2012.

The runaway tyre is the latest in a series of strange failures that have stopped him from adding to his four Bathurst crowns.

The horror show began for the Holden hero in 2013 with a failed last- lap attack. The Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver has suffered blow after blow at Mount Panorama in what is fast becoming a Bathurst curse. He ran out of fuel in 2014, was forced to double stack in 2015, was slapped with a race penalty for causing a crash that denied him victory in 2016 and suffered a broken engine valve last year in what has been a cruel and nd spectacular run of outs. W h i n c u p and Dumbrell rejoined the fight but were locked in a battle to get back on to the lead lap. D u m b r e l l survived two near misses as the day of drama continued. “I have to put my hand up for the second one when I went through the chase,’’ Dumbrell said. “That was a mistake. We were able to repair the car after the wheel and we got back out but I had some pretty big vibrations going through the car.’’ A mid- race safety car put them back on the lead lap and Whincup went back out on a salvage mission. The greatest championship driver in the history of the sport clawed his way through the field to finish 10th. Red Bull Holden Racing team driver Jamie Whincup.