Jamie Whincup
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Template:Infobox V8 Supercar driver
Jamie Whincup (born 6 February 1983 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian auto racing driver who competes in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, driving for TeamVodafone. He is a three-time V8 Supercars champion and four-time Bathurst 1000 winner.
Early career
Whincup's interest in motor racing commenced at the age of 7 when his father purchased him a go-kart.[1] From 1991 through to 1997, he won numerous Rookie and Junior titles at a state level.[2] He was crowned KartOz Magazine's Karter of the Year and won the FMK Senior Intercontinental A Karting Series in 1998 and the Formula A Series in 1999 before progressing to Formula Ford in 2000.
In 2001 Whincup embarked on the Australian Formula Ford Championship with a team run by his father and Uncle Graeme (a former Sports Sedan star) with mechanical support from fellow V8 Supercar driver Greg Ritter, racing with the Mygale Formula Ford team.[3] After finishing third in his debut year, he moved to Sonic Motorsport for the 2002 season and went on to win the championship convincingly, which secured him his first ever V8 Supercar drive with Garry Rogers Motorsport.[4]
V8 Supercar
After completing a full year of V8 Supercar racing with Garry Rogers Motorsport, he was replaced by the more experienced Cameron McConville and was left without a full-time drive for 2004. He was later contracted by Castrol Perkins Racing to drive in the two endurance events.
Whincup landed himself a full-time drive in 2005 with the Melbourne based Tasman Motorsport. He had many solid results throughout the season, including a fourth at the one-off Chinese round at the Shanghai International Circuit, a third at the Sandown 500 and most notably, second at the Bathurst 1000 endurance events with team-mate Jason Richards after leading late in the race.
Triple Eight Race Engineering
In 2006, Whincup jumped from Holden to Ford and joined Triple Eight Race Engineering alongside Craig Lowndes. Whincup had a stellar first season, taking victory in the two biggest races of the season, the Clipsal 500 and Supercheap Auto 1000, the latter as co-driver to Craig Lowndes. After some incidents and unreliability, Whincup finished the championship in a slightly disappointing tenth position at years end.
In 2007, Whincup returned with same the team which was re-branded Team Vodafone and celebrated several victories included a second Bathurst 1000 title along-side team-mate Craig Lowndes. Whincup finished second in the driver's title by a mere two points to Garth Tander from the HSV Dealer Team.
In 2007, Whincup began a mentoring role as part of Team Vodafone's Junior Development Program, and as a co-ambassador for Formula Ford Australia alongside Will Davison. His first round win for 2007, at a water-logged Winton, was the first round win for the year by a Ford driver. He celebrated both his 50th V8 Supercar Championship start and his inaugural pole position at Triple Eight Race Engineering's test track, Queensland Raceway. Whincup moved into the championship lead after a successful defence his and Lowndes' Bathurst 1000 crown, coming just weeks after teaming with Lowndes to win the last Sandown 500.
Entering Surfers Paradise for the Indy 300 with the series lead from Garth Tander, a difficult day on Sunday with a spin in the final race saw the lead revert to Tander who won the round. Whincup then had a disappointing weekend at Desert 400 at the Bahrain International Circuit, where poor qualifying pace for Triple Eight was compounded by a run of all three races marred by minor accidents, and he took away zero points. Tander and Craig Lowndes both had fairly good weekends, putting Tander into the series lead over Lowndes heading into the Symmons Plains race in Tasmania. Tander backed up his previous two round wins in Tasmania with a dominant race 1 win on Saturday, but a slow stop in race two dropped him to tenth, before disaster in race three after touching Steven Richards, he broke his steering and was out. Whincup won both races, and headed into the Grand Finale at Phillip Island on the 1–2 December weekend with a slender seven point championship lead.
Whincup failed to keep his slender margin at Phillip Island; after Garth Tander won the first two races Whincup faced a seven point deficit. After the final race Whincup finished second, behind Todd Kelly and two places ahead of Tander but fell just two points short of the title. At the 2007 V8 Supercar Gala Awards Dinner at the completion of the 2007 season, Whincup was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal, deemed to be the "Best and Fairest" award for V8 Supercars.
Whincup won the 2008 Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, and won a further six rounds after that including the Bathurst 1000 for a third year running. He clinched his first Championship after winning the first race in the final round at Oran Park Raceway, and was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal for the second year running at the V8 Gala Awards.
In 2009, Whincup successfully defended his title in a brand new Ford FG Falcon, including wins at Adelaide, Hamilton, Tasmania, Darwin, Townsville, Oueensland, Phillip Island and Barbagallo. Despite bad luck in the endurance races and at the Gold Coast, Whincup was able to put it all together at Sydney Olympic Park And became the first back-to-back championship winner since Marcos Ambrose in 2003–2004.[5]
In 2010, following the team's switch to Holden VE Commodores, Whincup won the first four races of the season[6] and Hamilton but a run of bad luck at Queensland raceway and Winton saw him relinquish the championship lead for the first time in two years, and sits second in the points table, just ahead of teammate Craig Lowndes in third. He became close to becoming a 3 time champion, the next triple champion in a row after Mark Skaife from 2000–2002 and the second man to win the driver's championship in both a Ford and a Holden after Norm Beechey, but due to a multi car crash in the 25th race of the season at the Sydney Telstra 500 in wet weather his car was badly damaged and couldn't continue. In the 26th and final race of the season he was out of reach to score enough points to take back the lead from James Courtney and finished 2nd in the season.
In 2011, Whincup regained the championship from James Courtney becoming the first International V8 Supercar Champion. Whincup won races in Abu Dhabi, Adelaide, Perth, Winton, Townsville, Gold Coast, Tasmania and Sandown. The title that went down to the final race in Sydney where Whincup beat fellow team-mate Craig Lowndes by 35 points.[7] Triple Eight Race Engineering's stellar season earned them 1st in the Teams Championship, their second Teams Championship with Holden.[8]
Career results
Bathurst 1000 Results
| Year | Number | Team | Car | Co-driver | Position | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 35 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Holden VX Commodore | Mark Noske | DNF | 72 |
| 2003 | 34 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Holden VY Commodore | Garth Tander | 19th | 146 |
| 2004 | 7 | Castrol Perkins Racing | Holden VX Commodore | Alex Davison | 9th | 160 |
| 2005 | 3 | Tasman Motorsport | Holden VZ Commodore | Jason Richards | 2nd | 161 |
| 2006 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford BA Falcon | Craig Lowndes | 1st | 161 |
| 2007 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford BF Falcon | Craig Lowndes | 1st | 161 |
| 2008 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford BF Falcon | Craig Lowndes | 1st | 161 |
| 2009 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford FG Falcon | Craig Lowndes | 5th | 161 |
| 2010 | 1 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Holden VE Commodore | Steve Owen | 2nd | 161 |
| 2011 | 88 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Holden VE Commodore | Andrew Thompson | 21st | 160 |
| 2012 | 1 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Holden VE Commodore | Paul Dumbrell | 1st | 161 |
References
- ^ On the Fast Track to A Dream Career
- ^ Sixty Minutes "Young Guns"
- ^ MyGale Formula Ford Racing History
- ^ Jamie Whincup V8supercars Profile
- ^ "Motorsport: Whincup clinches back-to-back titles". The New Zealand Herald. 6 December 2009. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
- ^ Tander breaks Whincup's winning streak
- ^ Barnett, Josh (4 December 2011). "TeamVodafone driver Jamie Whincup wins 2011 V8 Supercars title over Craig Lowndes by 35 points". SPEED. Fox Sports. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ^ "Teams' Championship Secured". Bigpond Sport. V8 Supercars. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.