Whincup surges ahead in the points

Twin race wins by Jamie Whincup has solidified his quest to win consecutive V8 Supercar titles after a blitzkrieg in the Island 300 at Phillip Island today (Sunday).

Whincup recalibrated his attack with stunning effect resulting in a commanding win in the 44-lap race after starting from pole position.

At the end of a race laced with several spiteful and aggressive moves mid-pack and a dangerously confusing safety car debacle, Whincup had 5.2sec to spare over Rick Kelly with Garth Tander third.

Whincup extended his lead in the series to 122 points over Will Davison, who struggled throughout, eventually crossing the line in 11th place.

It was the ultimate response to his drama-filled SuperGP weekend two weeks ago however Whincup remains single-minded in his focus on the job at hand.

“The car was very quick and we were able to hold a gap and I was just trying to hold my concentration because it’s very easy to spear off here,”
Whincup summarised.

Whincup described the mess-up with the safety car, which was held stationary close to the merge lane to the pit exit, as a dangerous situation.

The defending series champion had just pitted with Rick Kelly when the safety car was called near the halfway point of the race.

“I was aware that cars were coming down the straight at 250km/h and I was doing about 20km/h waiting for the safety car to pick me up,” Whincup said.

“But I just thought about common sense and went passed it and kept going hoping to sort it out another time.”

“It was a massively dangerous situation and its all a bit messy at the moment.”

The speed the TeamVodafone car sustained over the race put the No 1 Falcon in a league of its own on a track which changed dramatically in the 24 hours from Whincup’s win in the shorter 22-lap race on Saturday.

From the start Whincup shot clear to a comfortable lead over Paul Dumbrell (Team Autobarn) but the advantage was neutralised when the yellow Audi safety car was called after Mark Winterbottom stopped on the pit straight.

There was more confusion when Winterbottom alighted from his stricken Falcon after being punted off the track by Shane Van Gisbergen on lap two.

He was ordered to remain with the vehicle before it was removed from the circuit.

After the restart Whincup was able to extend his lead by sizeable chunks in the ensuing laps.

While Whincup was commanding the race, Davison was struggling to break into the top 10 but Tander was applying pressure in fourth position.

The race included a monumental battle between Jason Bargwanna and Craig Lowndes who traded blows for a lap mid-race - with all of the fury aimed at 13th position.

On lap 23 Bargwanna eventually came unstuck after his Sprint Gas Commodore was unloaded onto the grass going into Siberia.

It was one of several incidents stewards were preparing to sift through following a race filled with aggressive driving.

Rick Kelly was clearly chuffed at his double podium effort across the weekend after protecting his tyres.

“It might have looked like we were going slow but we were a little bit conservative because if I did have a couple of slides the guys behind would have caught me pretty quick,” Ricko said.

Whincup has now scored 10 wins from 22 races with another four remaining at the Perth and  Sydney rounds.

RACE 22 Top Ten
Jamie Whincup Falcon
Rick Kelly Commodore
Garth Tander Commodore
James Courtney Falcon
Jason Bright Falcon
Shane van Gisbergen Falcon
Craig Lowndes Falcon
Paul Dumbrell Commodore
Fabian Coulthard Falcon
Michael Caruso Commodore

POINTS after 22 of 26 races (top 5)
Jamie Whincup 2905
Will Davison 2783
Garth Tander 2565
Craig Lowndes 2292
Mark Winterbottom 1964