V8 Supercars Championship Series News

Not such a pig of a start for Whincup

Sunday 22/03/2009 19:15

Author: Briar Gunther | Source: BigPond Sport - copyright

Whincup trophy

BigPond Sport - copyright

TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup has had a stellar start to the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship, picking up maximum points during the first event, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

The Reigning Champion picked up the maximum of 150 points for both Race One and Two, crossing the finish line of the latter ahead of Holden Racing Team’s Will Davison and Garth Tander this afternoon (Sunday).

Whincup also won Race One yesterday (Saturday) in his new FG Falcon, which his team has branded a ‘Hogster’.

Davison, who debuted with HRT this weekend and was once a housemate of Whincup, is sitting second in the Championship with 129 points.

Whincup described the start of the race as “crazy” with oil and dust covering the track and drivers setting a “massive” pace.

“We were doing mid to low 22s which is fairly crazy pace,” he said.

“(It was) much cooler today; I feel much better and at the end of the race it was a great battle with Will.

“A little bit of me wanted to give him a win on debut but I quickly snapped out of that.”

Davison was satisfied with second, attributing his “dream debut” to the team.

“It’s been a great month leading up to here and it has probably exceeded my expectations,” he confessed.

“I’m absolutely thrilled, I could not be happier with how this weekend has gone.”

Tander had scooped the lead off Whincup on lap one of the race, but succumbed to the reigning champion on lap 14.

Davison also got passed his teammate soon after Tander returned to the track after a pitstop on cold tyres.

Tander said he was far from concerned that he would be racing in the tried-and-tested VE Commodore this year while Whincup’s team still had a way to go before it had fully got a handle of its new FG Falcons.

“I think our team proved we are the benchmark Holden team today and there were no Fords ahead of us, just a couple of pigs,” he laughed.

Whincup’s teammate Craig Lowndes shared the first row of the grid this afternoon, but bogged his car down at the race start to fall back to 10th place.

Lowndes clawed his way back to finish fourth, but not before breaking Whincup’s 2008 lap record around the Adelaide street circuit on laps 47 and 48.

There were three Safety Car periods during the 78-lap race, including one on lap two following an incident involving the Dodo Racing Commodore of Jack Perkins and the Team IntaRacing Falcon of Marcus Marshall.

Perkins appeared to get tapped from behind before he clashed with Marshall and then stopped his heavily damaged car after Turn Eight.

Whincup now leads former V8 Supercar Champ Marcos Ambrose in terms of Clipsal 500 event wins.

“Marcos Ambrose, I regard as one of the best drivers we’ve seen, so to get one step better than him is a proud moment,” Whincup said.

Race Two Top 10

Jamie Whincup, FG Falcon
Will Davison, VE Commodore
Garth Tander, VE Commodore
Craig Lowndes, FG Falcon
Lee Holdsworth, VE Commodore
Steven Johnson, FG Falcon
Jason Richards, VE Commodore
Greg Murphy, VE Commodore
Steven Richards, FG Falcon
Rick Kelly, VE Commodore

Championship Points Top 10

Jamie Whincup, FG Falcon, 300
Will Davison, VE Commodore, 267
Lee Holdsworth, VE Commodore, 249
Steven Johnson, FG Falcon, 222
Jason Richards, VE Commodore, 207
Craig Lowndes, FG Falcon, 168
Shane Van Gisbergen, FG Falcon, 168
Rick Kelly, VE Commodore, 156
Jason Bright, BF Falcon, 141
Fabian Coulthard, FG Falcon, 141

Share this article