MOTORSPORT: Winterbottom heads for home

What a difference a year makes! Mark Winterbottom arrived at Sydney Motorsport Park for the 2014 V8 Supercars championship down in the dumps and a title contender in theory only.

The performance of his Ford Falcon FG had fallen off a cliff and he exited the event even further behind perennial champion Jamie Whincup and being blamed by all and sundry for a crash that had badly damaged a couple of cars.

Move on to 2015 and the 34-year is revitalised – and so is his Prodrive Racing Australia team. He has won four of the last five races in his Pepsi-Max Falcon FG X and leads the drivers’ championship by 256 points from Red Bull Holden Commodore VF driver Craig Lowndes.

This is Winterbottom’s ‘home’ track because he grew up in nearby Doonside. One more win takes him to nine for the year, equalling the legendary Allan Moffat in race wins and joining him as seventh on the all-time championship race wins list.

And with the long, fast turns of the Eastern Creek circuit expected to suit the aerodynamically efficient and tyre friendly Falcon, there is every chance ‘Frosty’ won’t only equal Moffat but pass him this weekend.

Most likely to stand in his way will be young teammate Chaz Mostert, who is third in the championship and judging by his eight poles so far this year, is actually the fastest driver out there, if not the most consistent.

Then there is David Reynolds in the PRA-fettled The Bottle-O Falcon. The 30-year old from Albury finds himself in the curious position of being in title contention for a team from which there is every chance he will depart at the end of the year.

Peruse further down the field looking for someone to challenge Winterbottom and few stand out. Fabian Coulthard in the Brad Jones Racing Freightliner Commodore has been creating headlines both for his results this season and his potential move to DJR Team Penske next year, but he had a poor outing at Ipswich. He did qualify on the front row and podium at SMP last year, so he could bounce back quickly.

Or fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen? He was  a spectacular double winner here last year in the rain to kick-start a points drive that saw him finish second in the championship and go agonisingly close to winning Bathurst with Tekno Autosports team owner Jonathon Webb. But if a turnaround is coming, then it’s going to be dramatic because Tekno has lost any semblance of consistency.

The factory Holden Racing Team Commodores haven’t been able to qualify close enough to the front to make it count, but have raced forward impressively on longer runs.

Changes to the aerodynamic set-up of the Commodore for 2015 seems to be an issue for all the Holden teams, with Walkinshaw Racing chief Adrian Burgess admitting his team was struggling to get a handle on it.

“Our balance has changed from 2014 to 2015, but that’s what we’ve got, we’re not complaining about that,” he told V8supercars.com.au. “There’s benefits that will come from that package that will show up at different circuits and different conditions, so we probably are a little quicker in a straight line than we used to be so there’s no point us complaining about it.

Then there’s wonderkid Scott McLaughlin in the Wilson Security Volvo S60. He won here last year in the Sunday 200km race, just pipping another young star Nick Percat. Both have had difficult years from differing reasons, so expecting them to challenge the Falcons looks too difficult.

Which leaves Lowndes and his teammate Whincup. Their roles are reversed this year, with the veteran holding up team honour while the six-time champion is chasing.

Lowndes won his first ever V8 race here in 1996 and Triple Eight’s first ever V8 race here in 2005, so the omens are good. Whincup has won once here, but the championship has visited the Creek rarely during his era of dominance. He is in a rare funk at the moment, unable to win for 14 races.

Lowndes with former PRA engineer Grant ‘Shippy’ MacPherson in his corner has made the best fist of taking on the Fords. At Ipswich on Saturday afternoon in the second 60km race he chased Winterbottom hard for the win, only to make an error late, run off and relieve the pressure.

With Winterbottom so far ahead on points, Lowndes not only needs to avoid errors and win races, but hope some other drivers start getting ahead of the Ford driver too. It’s a tough ask.

But this is the last single driver event before the three-round Pirtek Enduro Cup comprising the Wilson Security Sandown 500, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and the Castrol Gold Coast 600. With the first two races each worth 300 points (the GC races are 150 points each), Winterbottom’s rivals are hoping he bombs out and opens up the championship chase.

Here's what to look out for on-track this weekend: