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Jamie Whincup - Source: Photosport -
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He might be getting used to winning but that hasn't stopped
Jamie Whincup from proclaiming his back-to-back wins at the
Hamilton 400 V8 Supercar event as "amazing".
The Ford star made it four wins from as many starts in this year's
championship with victory in Sunday's 59-lap race at the 3.4km
street circuit, claiming the first event win for the blue oval
since the V8 Supercars began racing in New Zealand in the
process.
It means Whincup now has 600 points from the first two events of
the season, already 102 points clear of his nearest rival, Holden
surprise packet Lee Holdsworth.
But despite being used to leading the pack, after crashing out in
qualifying at last year's Hamilton event and missing both races,
Whincup was clearly delighted by his reversal in fortunes.
"Today's race day was all about a fast car," he said.
"The car was extremely quick ... (it) was just on rails all
weekend.
"Richo (Steven Richards) was holding us up a little bit at the
start and I thought I was actually struggling a little bit as well
but as it panned out we ended up making up those three spots which
we lost in qualifying this morning and just brought it home
nicely.
"Considering last year that I didn't even start both races, to win
both is amazing."
Whereas Whincup claimed the lead on the opening lap in Saturday's
race and was never headed, Sunday's win was came through
strategy.
A near-miss because of a red flag in Sunday's 20-minute one-for-all
qualifying forced Whincup to start the race in fourth, a position
he found himself stuck in for the opening laps.
But the Team Vodafone driver pitted in the 20th lap of the race,
well before anyone else, and then leapfrogged into the lead as the
cars in front of him all spent their time in pit-lane.
The day's pole-holder, Steven Johnson, and his Ford teammate James
Courtney couldn't haul back Whincup once he was ahead and had to
settle for third and second spots respectively.
Whincup said the early pitting strategy had little to do with him
however.
"It's up to my engineer, he calls the shots and I don't know if
that was his plan or not. When he says come in, I come in," he
said.
Johnson said a slow pit stop had been the difference for him on the
day as he struggled to match Whincup's pace.
"We did have a bit of a slow stop, we've probably got to work just
a little bit harder on our fuel economy," Johnson said.
"Jamie's car was fast but had a good fuel economy too and I think
that's what beat us at the end of the day and got him out in front
of us."
While Holdsworth kept up his surprisingly good run for the
Valvoline team by claiming his fourth straight top five finish,
Whincup's win was enhanced by his other title rivals all
struggling.
Holden Racing Team pair Garth Tander and Will Davison could only
manage ninth and seventh place finishes while Ford's Mark
Winterbottom, second in Saturday's race, failed to even complete a
lap on Sunday before touching a wall and having to retire.
Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes, 24th on Saturday, clipped a tyre
bundle on the chicane down the back straight in the 50th lap to
continue his struggles in New Zealand.
Winterbottom's teammate Richards qualified in third on the grid
but had an incident-filled race to finish 12th.
