WHAT MADE JAMIE WHINCUP SO GOOD
Jamie Whincup hung up his helmet at the conclusion of the 2021 Australian Supercars season. Well, sort of. In a Supercars-specific quirk he’ll probably be back as a co-driver at the Bathurst 1000, so his driving career isn’t completely over.
But the point is he’s no longer a Supercars full-timer – last year’s Great Race represented the end of the greatest driving career in Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars/Supercars history. Whincup retires with 124 race wins, 237 podiums, 92 poles and seven titles, each a category record. His Bathurst 1000 tally is seen as his greatest ‘weakness’ thanks to some high-profile failures on Australia’s biggest racing stage, but the reality is he’s still a four-time Bathurst winner. Only six drivers have won more.
Remarkably, Whincup’s record-breaking Supercars career started with a stumble. After a brilliant stint in karting and winning the hotly contested Australian Formula Ford Championship, his dream promotion to the big league in 2003 with Garry Rogers Motorsport turned into a nightmare. After a tough year spent mostly in the outdated VX Commodore, Whincup was unceremoniously dumped by GRM. It wasn’t until 2005 that he got his second chance with Tasman Motorsport, which opened the door for him the following season to join a relatively new team – Triple Eight – with its sights set firmly on the big guns.
Over the years that followed, Whincup became the category’s new benchmark, a hard worker and ruthless, uncompromising winner. How did he do it? We asked some key rivals and his title-winning
