By Ed Jackson
October 25th 2009 @ 1:04am
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Title battle will go down to wire, says Whincup
After seeing his V8 Supercar championship lead whittled down to just 41 points following a dramatic day on the Gold Coast, Ford star Jamie Whincup admits this year’s series will go down to the last race.
Whincup nearly saw his championship hopes suffer a massive blow early in Saturday’s first 150km race at the Surfers Paradise street circuit when contact between he and Jason Bright punctured his right rear tyre.
The TeamVodafone ace fell to the back of the pack but managed to limp his car to the pits before battling through for a 13th place finish in the race.
He followed that up with a credible eighth in the day’s second 150km event, but could only watch as Holden rival Will Davison claimed third in both races to gain 52 points on Whincup.
It means the massive series lead Whincup held after winning the first four races of this year has been steadily whittled down by Davison, and the Ford driver concedes this year’s championship won’t be decided until the very last race of the season.
“What do you do? We fought hard in qualifying, the car was quick, car’s been quick all day, (just) caught up in an incident, there’s nothing you can do about it,” he told AAP.
“I just put it down to motorsport and that’s just the way it goes.
“Without doubt it’s going to be a full-on battle. Adelaide I said it. I said it at Hamilton where everyone just thought I was going to nick off but that’s definitely not going to happen.
“You have peaks and low patches, and whoever wins is going to be best overall.”
Whincup knows he can barely afford another horror day on Sunday when the Super GP continues with two more 150km events.
Before that will be a 20-minute all-in qualifying session to determine the grid for the day’s first race, and having been stuck at the back of the pack most of day one, Whincup said there’s little chance of making up ground on the tight Surfers track if he can’t bounce back in that qualifier.
“I did the best I could with what I had (today),” he said.
“It’s good, I get another opportunity. If I can qualify well I can get up the front. Who knows? Tomorrow’s another day, I don’t know what it’s going to bring but hopefully a bit more luck comes my way.”
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