MOTORSPORT: Whincup stumbles
Another mistake, but this time it’s probably cost the Supercars championshipFor the second time in three Virgin Australia Supercars Championship rounds a botched passing attempt has cost Jamie Whincup dearly.
At Bathurst his move on Scott McLaughlin -- and its bedlamic aftermath -- almost certainly denied him victory in Australia’s greatest domestic motor race. On the weekend at Pukekohe near Auckland, his inability to pass Red Bull team-mate Shane van Gisbergen cleanly has probably handed the championship to the New Zealander.
For a man who has won six drivers’ championships and shown inordinate car control on the limit of adhesion time and time again, this was an unexpectedly clumsy moment.
It came in the third of four 100km sprint races – after the two of Holden Commodore VF drivers had claimed a win and a second apiece on Saturday to remain 148 points apart in the drivers’ championship.
Van Gisbergen was second and battling with understeer, Whincup was third and faster.
Instructed from pitlane not to fight for position, van Gisbergen obligingly stayed high at the hairpin only to have Whincup lock the rear brakes and slide into him. The impact spun them both. Van Gisbergen recovered to finish third, Whincup copped a pitlane drive-through penalty and finished 25th.
Yet the day before Whincup had displayed the most delicate car control as he and van Gisbergen raced side-by-side for half-a-lap through some of the fastest and most challenging portions of the circuit without touching.
Whincup fought back to win the final race of the weekend ahead of van Gisbergen, but by then the damage was done and the latter now leads the former by 191 points with just 300 left to be won at the Sydney Olympic Park finale in four week’s time.
Van Gisbergen also collected the Jason Richards Trophy as the weekend’s high point scorer. Struck in memory of the popular New Zealand driver who died of cancer in 2011, van Gisbergen was uncharacteristically and touchingly tearful in accepting the prize.
“I choked a few tears back knowing I had won the trophy,” he said.
“I am the first Kiwi to do so. I have such fond memories of JR [Jason Richards], and to do it in front of my home crowd was pretty special.
“We increased the championship lead, which is a bonus, but we have a fair bit of a break between here and Homebush, which is boring, to be honest.
“The first race today had its moments, a few mistakes made, but I made up for it and managed to grab third, the car was great. I am in a pretty special place with the car and the team at the moment, I am very lucky,” the Kiwi stated.
Van Gisbergen certainly deserved the prize after claiming three poles and a second positon on the grid, one win, two seconds and a third. Whincup’s tally was one pole, two wins, one second and 25th.
“My car was quick, and I made the mistake and took out my teammate in the first race today,” said Whincup.
“I have apologised, thankfully it didn’t affect car #97 [van Gisbergen’s car] too much and they got a podium.
“It is going to be hard work to grab the championship, but I am not scared of a bit of hard work. I am going to work hard till the very end, I owe it myself and my team,” Whincup stated.
The only other race winner on a weekend of largely processional racing was defending Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom, who made a great start from the second row and lit off into the distance in Sunday’s first race while the Red Bull’s squabbled.
Also deserving merit was Scott Pye, who finished second in race three in the DJR Team Penske Ford Falcon FG X, his highest finishing position in his Supercars career.
Volvo GRM’s Scott McLaughlin didn’t have the weekend he wanted on home soil, but still did enough to close to within 21 points of Craig Lowndes in the battle for third place in the championship.
Lowndes was adjusting to life with a new engineer after the controversial standing down of Ludo Lacroix and it did take him and John McGregor time to find the pace. Incredibly, Lowndes remains winless at Pukekohe throughout his Supercars career.
For the rest, this was not much of a weekend. The Red Bulls are the best cars on the grid, with two of the best drivers in the field piloting them, so the results were always likely to be skewed that way.
And running short races with no mandatory stops again emphasised just how tough it is to pass in these cars. Incredibly close as qualifying was, gaps blew out alarmingly in the races.
Whincups’s mistake certainly enlivened proceedings and gave us a talking point, but compared to the real drama of the last two month’s in the Pirtek Enduro Cup this event was largely devoid of highlights.
Supercars Championship points:
1. Shane van Gisbergen – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 3089
2. Jamie Whincup – Red Bull Racing Australia – Holden Commodore VF – 2898
3. Craig Lowndes – TeamVortex – Holden Commodore VF – 2596
4. Scott McLaughlin – Wilson Security Racing GRM – Volvo S60 – 2575
5. Will Davison – Team Darrell Lea Stix – Holden Commodore VF – 2403
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