Six-time champion Jamie Whincup on V8s and the future

After securing a record-breaking sixth title with Triple Eight Race Engineering ahead this weekend’s season finale at Sydney Olympic Park, Jamie Whincup talks to TouringCarTimes about his Triple Eight career, his international programmes, and his thoughts on the future of the V8 Supercars Championship.

Though 2014 got off to a slightly shaky start for the 31-year-old, but a strong middle of the season, in particular from Hidden Valley onwards saw the Holden Commodore driver leap past Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom for the lead of the championship, taking six wins from nine races.

Whincup and co-driver Paul Dumbrell shined during the ‘enduros’, winning at Sandown and one of the races at the Gold Coast, and was leading Bathurst at the start of the final lap before spluttering as the Commodore ran out of fuel and crossed the line fifth.

Another win followed at Phillip Island, and also his sixth championship title.

“It’s been nine years with Triple Eight,” said Whincup to TouringCarTimes. “It did stabilise for a little bit, but these last couple of years it’s been quite crazy…there have been a couple of small personnel changes, my engineer that I’ve worked with for eight years is now the team manager, so those little changes have really spiced it up, and it is now as exciting as it’s ever been.”

With Red Bull joining Triple Eight as the naming rights sponsor as of 2013, the Brisbane-based sister of the venerable British Touring Car Championship squad has established itself as perhaps the biggest player in the championship, with the rival Holden Racing Team squad which is run by Walkinshaw Performance, almost falling into the team’s shadow despite the direct manufacturer link.

On whether Whincup feels it should be his car that carries the manufacturer logos down the side, he explained:
“To be honest I don’t think it gets any better than Red Bull. Vodafone were unbelievably good, we were very proud to be associated with them and when they decided to pull out, there was a question mark on where we’d go next, but it’s been pretty awesome to be able to step up.”

Whincup is a six-time champion at the age of 31, having started racing full-time in the championship in 2003 with Garry Rogers Motorsport. After a year out of full-time racing in 2004, he raced for the Tasman Motorsport team in 2005, before he was snapped up by Triple Eight to partner Craig Lowndes in 2006, taking his first win in the first weekend of the season at the Clipsal 500, and won his first title two years later.

Whincup’s team-mate Lowndes is 40, while many drivers in European touring car series are still racing in their 50s. As to whether he sees his career lasting as long, Whincup quipped:
“Technically, I reckon I’ll be pretty well burned out by then. I started racing, like Yvan (Muller) and all those boys, when I was seven years old and I’ll probably be racing when I’m 70 years old, if I make it that long. I love Australia, I feel very lucky that I’ve been able to make it to the pinnacle of motorsport here in Australia and drive for the best team, so I couldn’t be happier.”

Whincup has raced both Holdens and Fords in the V8 Supercars Championship, with Holdens used at GRM and Tasman, while Ford was the weapon of choice at Triple Eight where he won his first three titles as TeamVodafone, before Triple Eight made the switch to Holden from 2010.

Although Triple Eight’s drivers very much flying the flag for the Holden brand in Australia, Whincup feels very much a part of Triple Eight in his ninth season with the team.

“I feel like I’m family here. Eight years with the same people I feel like I belong here, and any decisions we make, we make as a group. My allegiance is to Triple Eight, and I’ll respect any decisions on where they want to go and hope they get me involved in all of that. We moved from Ford to Holden, and we’re very proud with what we’ve achieved with Holden, they’re by far the best manufacturer here in Australia, they’re a great Aussie icon, and it’s the perfect fit.”

New regulations are set to come in from 2017, with the prospect of V8 engines being dropped in favour of smaller engines, in-line with the direction of other international motorsports and indeed the global automotive market. However, Whincup doesn’t feel that the loss of the V8 engine itself will necessarily harm the series.

“In my personal opinion, the sport’s got a long future. Whatever mum and dad drive the kids to school in, we’ll hot it up and race it to showcase how good that vehicle is…cars are turning to smaller capacity engines and not necessarily naturally aspirated as well, and if that’s the way the car market goes, as long as these cars are good to drive and have got good power, whether that’s a turbocharged four-cylinder or a V8, it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to me. As long as the car’s good to drive, and the racing’s awesome, that’s what it’s all about.”

With the long calendar, with V8 Supercars starting in February and finishing in December, there’s little room for other racing away from Australia. Whincup’s team-mate Craig Lowndes was able to squeeze in a driver at the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in July, while Whincup himself will again take part in the Race Of Champions the week after this weekend’s season finale in Sydney.

“(The Race Of Champions) is something I’m really looking forward to. It’s pretty serious, it’s a good mix of both, you get to drive some good cars, get to compete against some pretty high profile people, and it’s a challenge as well.

The championship in recent years has featured a number of non-Australasian rounds in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and the USA, but as of this year and next the V8 Supercars travel no farther from home than New Zealand. Something Whincup admits is a shame but hopes that will change soon.

“I’d love to do more international events,” he said. “Obviously with the financial crisis, we’re all a little bit strapped for cash at the moment, so we can’t be travelling all over the world, so it’s dried up a little bit. We’ve kept fairly local, but I know the plan is to do a few more international events and I’ve love to take our cars all over the world and showcase how good they are.”