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V8 Supercar champion-elect Jamie Whincup says his motivation levels were at an all-time low following his Bathurst horror weekend in October.
The Holden ace left Mount Panorama trailing team-mate Craig Lowndes by 100 points after failing to finish the 1000km endurance epic.
It left the two-time champion down in the dumps but a dominant display on the streets of the Gold Coast a fortnight later put him back ahead of Lowndes.
Whincup hasn’t looked back since, going into this weekend’s season finale in Sydney with a 188-point lead over his TeamVodafone stablemate.
“Probably straight after (is) the least motivated I’ve ever been to be honest,” Whincup told AAP of his post-Bathurst blues.
“To be in the box seat and then have it taken away, I did question myself a fair bit the week after. Things like ‘what am I doing here? Why do I do all that work in the build-up when a $2 part can throw it all away?’
“I think those experiences, when the good things happen this weekend – it’s here last year, it’s Bathurst – that probably makes the winning feeling even greater.”
Whincup said after initially feeling sorry for himself on the trip home from Mount Panorama, he’d convinced himself good times were around the corner in the hunt for his third V8 title.
“I just had to keep telling myself that my day will come,” he said.
“Bathurst this year wasn’t my day but … two weeks later at the Gold Coast we won the event which was right up there.”
Lowndes, the 37-year-old three-time drivers’ champion, knows it’s unlikely he’ll emerge from the Sydney Olympic Park street circuit this weekend with his first title since 1999.
But that doesn’t mean the veteran is giving up hope.
“We definitely can (beat Jamie), but it’s just a matter of all things going well for us,” he told AAP.
“There’s always possibilities, the way the circuit is and the construction of a street circuit there’s always a high potential of carnage and crashing.
“All I can do is focus on what I need to do which is win Saturday and hopefully it all pans out well enough that we can still be in the competition come Sunday.”
One thing Lowndes is certain of though is he won’t be resorting to dirty tactics to try and eliminate Whincup from the picture.
“If we beat him fair and square and he still finishes in the top six, which he’s been able to do consistently this season, then it’s only fair he wins the championship.”
The Sydney 500 begins on Friday with four practice sessions before a 250km race on both Saturday and Sunday.
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