Jamie Whincup on safety car incident: “I made a crucial error”

Jamie Whincup lost out on scoring a potentially strong double result for Triple Eight Race Engineering at the 2015 Bathurst 1000, after he continued around the track and ignored the team’s call for him to pit during the final safety car period, but unlike last year’s drama which saw him run out of fuel after overlooking instructions to slow his pace, today’s error was down to a misreading of the situation, with the temperature somewhat cooler between Whincup and team principal Roland Dane.

The six-time champion had aborted the team’s call for him to pit during the safety car period, which was called when DJR Team Penske’s driver Scott Pye’s Ford Falcon crashed out at McPhillamy Park, but explains it wasn’t a blatant disregard of the call but a misunderstanding of the fast developing situation.

“I’m obviously rapt for the team and the job Lowndesy (Craig Lowndes) and Richo (Steven Richards) have done, so I don’t want to walk around disappointed, as it’s a massive moment for everyone,” said Whincup to TouringCarTimes.

“But for me personally, yeah, I made a crucial error. My intentions were good, I was just trying to do the right thing. I didn’t know the safety car was out, so when they called me in I thought the team had made an error and had called us both in on the same lap, but it was just a mistake by me. I should have stacked and we’d have maybe come out in seventh and made a few more spots and potentially got on the podium.”

With Whincup opting to go around the circuit, under normal circumstances he’d have been caught for a lap behind the safety car and lost track position as his competitors pitted, but Whincup then drove around the safety car and took his stop, rejoining just behind team-mate Lowndes, explaining he believed the safety car had given him the signal to pass.

“I was planning on just queuing up behind the safety car at the top of Mountain Straight but it green lighted me, so I thought here we go, get out of jail,” he added. “He was slow to react so I thought it was an opportunity, but obviously that wasn’t the case.”

Reigning champion Whincup went on to finish 18th, picking up just 51 points from the weekend while team-mate Lowndes scored 300 and is now 399 behind championship leader Mark Winterbottom heading to the final four meetings of the season.

Although there are still 1,200 points up for grabs, Whincup accepts that a seventh title this season is no longer a possibility, and that full effort will be behind team-mate Lowndes’ campaign.

“(We’ll be) 100% (behind Lowndes), although Frosty has got a great lead and I think he’s going to be untouchable, but we’ll try to represent as best as we can for the rest of the season,” said Whincup.