Holden-Vodafone team’s Jamie Whincup almost sealed the 2011 V8 Supercar title after he won both the Tasmania Challenge races at Symmons Plains last weekend.
With victory in both races, Whincup heads towards the next two races at Sandown this week with a 194 points lead over Team Vodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes. There are 600 points up for grabs over the last two rounds of the 2011 series and Whincup has only Lowndes to keep at bay to ensure victory in the championship. Whincup said he was far from confident that he had amassed a winning edge with Holden’s 400th Supercar win on Sunday but said he would be disappointed if he lost the championship from his current commanding position.
In the first race last Saturday, V8 Supercar points leader Jamie Whincup — after starting from pole position — was overtaken by Ford’s Mark Winterbottom when his Vodafone Commodore got bogged down on the line. To his credit he fought back to take the lead and finish 8.7 seconds ahead of his Vodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes, with Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander third. It was Whincup’s 30th pole in the series and his 50th victory, which puts him equal third on the most number of V8 wins. Whincup capitalised on a mistake by polesitter Paul Dumbrell in Sunday’s 84 lap race to take the lead and hold on to win by 1.7 seconds from Ford driver Will Davison, Ford’s Mark Winterbottom third and Dumbrell fourth, one place in front of Lowndes.
Ford team-mates Dumbrell and Winterbottom claimed the front row after qualifying and led for the opening 20 laps when Dumbrell made a mistake running off the track after exiting from a pit stop allowing Whincup to take the lead and win the second race on Sunday. Vodafone -Holden team principal Adrian Burgess said there would be no team orders despite Whincup’s leading points position and both he and Lowndes would be allowed to race unrestricted in the next Sandown and Sydney rounds of the V8 championship.