V8SC: Whincup five-star and not yet 30

It will take a miracle for Craig Lowndes rather than Jamie Whincup to be V8 Supercar champion.

Whincup poised to become the new Norm Beechey

?It’s hard to imagine Jamie Whincup won’t be the 2011 V8 Supercar champion on Sunday. Perhaps by late Saturday afternoon.

Even if Triple Eight teammate Craig Lowndes wins Saturday’s 250km race at Sydney’s Homebush street circuit a fourth place for Whincup in Sunday’s equal distance event will clinch the title if Lowndes wins again that day.

That Whincup was dumped by Garry Rogers Motorsport at the end of the 2003 V8 Supercar Championship season is well known. Renowned talent spotter Rogers has long since admitted that he let one get away.

What perhaps is not appreciated is that Whincup’s phenomenal success the past five years with Triple Eight/Team Vodafone (51 wins and in the top two in the championship each year, including two titles and now more than likely a third) has come before he’s even reached 30 years of age.

Indeed he’s still only 28. And won’t turn 29 until shortly before next season starts.

He’s already third on the list of race wins in Australian touring car/V8 Supercar racing with 52 – behind only Mark Skaife on 90 and Lowndes on 81. Next best is Garth Tander on 50, while the late Peter Brock won 48 – but there were a lot less races each year in his days.

In the two seasons Whincup hasn’t won the championship he came mighty close, missing out to Tander by two points in 2007 and last year winning more races than James Courtney. This year Whincup has won 10 races in the championship to Lowndes’ four.

The Triple Eight teammates are the only two who can become champion at this weekend’s season grand final, but the gap between them is 188 points. The most any driver can score this weekend is 300.

Whincup is in the box seat and deserves a third crown. It will be his by late Saturday if he emerges from the first race – the 27th of the championship – 150 points or more clear. Put another way, 112 points for the weekend will suffice for Whincup – and two 16th places would give him that many.

Lowndes already is a three-time champion, but his last title was 12 years ago. His championship years were 1996, ’98 and ’99. A fourth Lowndes title would be hugely popular with the sport’s fans, but it’s a long shot.

Team boss Roland Dane has declared there won’t be any team orders.

As welcome as Lowndes’ challenge has been this year, Whincup’s performances for five years now have marked him as five-star, worthy of a place among the greats of Australian motor racing.

As dominant as Team Vodafone has been in recent seasons neither of its drivers has been on the podium in the four races at the previous two Sydney 500s.

Ten different drivers have filled the 12 podium placings so far.

Whincup has said that he is feeling “pretty fresh” this week after having been “massively physically and mentally drained” at Homebush in the past. He is set to become the only driver other than the legendary Norm Beechey to win Australia’s premier national sedan racing title in both a Ford and a Holden. 'Stormin' Norman did that in 1965 and 1970.

Whincup has kept telling himself and everyone listening that this season’s tussle for the title is “far from over”.

“We’re on track, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself,” he said.

Lowndes has acknowledged that he’s “up against it” to prevent his teammate regaining the title. He has kept trying to convince himself and his army of supporters that he “definitely can” overhaul the teammate nine years younger than him.

“There’s always possibilities,” he said.

“I just need to win races and Jamie needs to have some problems to help me out,” he said.

Homebush has proved unpredictable, and last year’s stormy weather made it even more so, but Whincup would need to have a lot of problems. Having won four of the past five races he’s the form man in the series.

Away from Triple Eight, Lee Holdsworth (having his last outing in his Fujitsu Racing/Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden Commodore before moving to Stone Brothers Racing and a Ford Falcon next year), has the Homebush form. He snatched victory on the last lap of last year’s Sunday race when Stone Brothers’ Shane van Gisbergen ran out of fuel, has never qualified off the front row at the 3.4km circuit and has had the last three pole positions there.

Only four drivers have finished all four Homebush races: James Courtney, Russell Ingall, Fabian Coulthard and Michael Caruso.

Even odder is that none of the 28 regular drivers in the series lives in Sydney, although Courtney, Mark Winterbottom, Jason Bargwanna, Warren Luff, Caruso, Jonathon Webb and Tim Slade hailed from the harbour city.

James Moffat and Steve Owen are the only drivers in this weekend’s field not to have competed in the main V8 Supercar races at Homebush before, although they have experience at the track in the Fujitsu development series.

Courtney, 12th this season with Toll Holden Racing Team after switching from Jim Beam/Dick Johnson Racing, is facing the ignominy of the worst championship finish in history the year after winning the title. The previous worst was Russell Ingall’s eighth in 2006.

Of far greater ignominy, Ian Macdonald, the former NSW Labor government minister who steered through the creation of the Homebush event after years of campaigning by V8 Supercar supremo Tony Cochrane for a Sydney street race, has been prominent in headlines again in recent days from an Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing.

Today, before practice gets underway for the season’s final round, Homebush will host the launch of the Car of the Future prototypes we previewed earlier this week.

New V8 boss announced?Ahead of Homerbush, V8 Supercars Australia has announced former pay television senior executive David Malone as its new chief executive – its third in a short time.

Malone headed Premier Media Group, including the Fox Sports channels, for more than a decade until June. He was previously with the MultiChannel Network and the late Kerry Packer’s Nine Network and Australian Consolidated Press.

Malone’s appointment could be very timely with V8SA stepping up negotiations for its next TV deal beyond the end of next year.

Chairman Cochrane said Malone’s “background and relationships will be invaluable as V8 Supercars advances its strategic development plan”.

And Malone, seen in the Homebush paddock yesterday, said: “I am excited to be joining the highly successful V8 Supercars organisation.

"The team have built an extraordinary sporting franchise over the past 15 years and I am committed to delivering on the numerous growth opportunities that the business now has.”

An article in The Australian newspaper today said industry observers were speculating that one of Malone’s roles when he takes the reins in the new year would be “to get the sport in shape for a public float”.

“However, Mr Cochrane said while it could not be ruled out completely, he saw [60 per cent owner] Archer Capital moving to an eventual float as highly unlikely,” it said.

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V8SC: Whincup five-star and not yet 30

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