Focused on final rounds
Title’s not yet in the bag, says Whincup
THE Supercars world is still revelling in Shane van Gisbergen’s historic Bathurst 1000 victory that propelled the Kiwi past compatriot Scott Mclaughlin’s previous mark for most wins in a season.
But with two events to go the man himself is playing a straight bat, refusing to talk titles or trophies.
Not even Triple Eight Race Engineering boss Jamie Whincup, the Supercars driver with the most wins, is willing to talk up the campaign, given there is still a job to do in 2022.
“I’m probably not going to give you what you want only because, to understand our mentality, there’s two rounds to go and if you get complacent and don’t do a good job in those last two rounds, you finish the year disappointed,” Whincup said.
“It doesn’t matter what you’ve done up to now, if you don’t round it off you feel flat; you go into the break feeling like you’ve missed an opportunity. Understanding that mentality, it’s hard to stand here now and go ‘ how good have we done so far’ because we’ve still got a job to do this weekend.”
Van Gisbergen has long been the presumptive drivers champion and can clinch the title with a strong performance on the Gold Coast this weekend.
He boasts a 567-point gap to Cam Waters and, with 600 up for grabs over the final two events, it would take a monumental run of bad luck for the Kiwi to not make it back-toback championships.
“Shane has done an unbelievable job to get himself into a commanding position where, and I don’t think I’m out of line by saying this, it’s a matter of when and not if (he wins the title),” Whincup said. “But then we have the teams’ championship and that’s still absolutely up for grabs.”
Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing have shared the past 12 Supercars teams’ championship titles and it looks set to continue in 2022. With 1152 teams’ points to race for, and Triple Eight boasting a 671point gap to DJR, there’s every chance the team can clinch both championship battles on the Surfers Paradise street circuit this weekend.
“DJR didn’t have a good run at Bathurst but any team can have a bad run on any weekend. That’s another reason we can’t get complacent, because we desperately want that teams championship,” Whincup said.
Van Gisbergen is a fourtime winner on the streets of Surfers Paradise – a mark bettered only by his team boss, who owns six winners’ surfboards.