Whincup’s win at Winton gives him sniff of fourth
JAMIE Whincup has put himself on the cusp of a fourth V8 Supercar championship with victory in yesterday’s opening race at Winton in Victoria.
Holden driver Whincup beat teammate Craig Lowndes and Ford driver Lee Holdsworth in the 47-lap event.
By finishing ahead of his only championship rival Mark Winterbottom, who had a horror day, Whincup leads the season standings by 326 points.
Whincup will wrap up this year’s title if he leads by more than 300 points after today’s race two.
Winterbottom slid from third to fourth as Holdsworth passed him on the final corner — Winterbottom’s car running out of fuel late and only just managing to cross the finish line.
He had started on pole position, but lost out to Whincup at the start.
Winterbottom’s Ford Performance Racing team had called him into the pits to change to soft tyres.
While the tyres were faster, Winterbottom lost several positions with the pit stop and struggled to get out of the mid-pack.
Meanwhile, Whincup’s Team Vodafone kept him on a hard compound tyre and, while he lost the lead to Ford driver James Moffat on lap six, he stayed in touch with the frontrunners. He pitted on lap 26 for his change to soft tyres, and the strategy proved a winning move.
Whincup took the lead from Moffat with 11 laps remaining.