V8 Supercars Review 2013 – Whincup Wins 5th in a row

After 36 races this year in the V8 Supercars Championship Red Bull Racing Team’s Jamie Whincup has won his 5th championship and made it 3 years in a row which hasn’t been done since Mark Skaife did three in a row during 2000-2002.

To do this, Whincup broke his Sydney 500 hoodoo on the Saturday with his first win and podium on Saturday which helped secure his 5^th championship as his championship rival and teammate Craig Lowndes had an awful weekend.

Lowndes went in the round 20 points behind Whincup, however a poor performance in qualifying and an under-performing car made Lowndes attempt to win his 1^st V8 title a whole lot harder. During race 35 Lowndes was making his way back up the field after qualifying 10^th put a pass on Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom but after Lowndes went wide and had to get of the gas early to make the corner Winterbottom hit Lowndes and went sideways into the wall but got away from the accident with a damage to the cars petrol insert which in his pit stop not all the petrol went in so he had to come in to get more to be able to get to the end of the race.

The round had plenty of memorable incidents none more so than Winterbottom getting hit by his team mate David Reynolds who got hit and when up in the air for a few seconds. However, all cars were able to continue but Winterbottom in the last few laps was the innocent person in someone else battle and got spun in to the wall and it was race over.

On the last lap on the Saturday race Shane van Gisbergen put a pass on Fabian Coulthard at turn 8 for 3rd place but Coulthard got turned in to the wall and ended up finishing done in the pack there were no penalties for all the crashes.

Just to recap – Here are the results for the final round of the season and the champ

For further results from this race or any races through the year, click http://www.v8supercars.com.au/events/2013-calendar

For further details and information on the championship, click on: http://www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/2013-v8-supercars-championship/points

Overall views and opinions of the season:

There has been the normal stand out drivers Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes mark Winterbottom will Davison but there has been a few new stand out drivers and a few drivers that have come back to the front.  Here are our Top 3 Moments of year

• Rookie Driver of the year: This is a tie; two young guys have stood up and are guys to watch out for next year. Scott McLaughlin in his first year diving in the main game won two races in his first year and so too did Chaz Mostert winning his first year in the main game and for a driver who got put in the main game a few rounds in at DJR. Both drivers are capable of winning the championship within the next few years.
• HRT Back in the winning circle: Garth Tander and James Courtney have return the Holden racing team back on to the winning list with both drivers winning races including a 1-2 at Townsville.
• The stand out moment of the year: It would have to be at Bathurst in those final laps with mark Winterbottom holding of Jamie whincup who gave it everything he had to hold him of to win his first Bathurst crown.

Notable mentions:

• Sad to see Russell Ingall  finally retiring from driving full time (Rumours suggest that he is going to be driving for another team next year full time, however I would expect him back in a co-driving role next year)
• Greg Murphy and James Courtney had terrible luck in the endures this year, especially crashing out of Bathurst, when they had a car that was in contention to win the great race
• Great to see Craig Lowndes breaking the record for the most race wins in V8 Supercar history, he has 94 wins to his name

Was the 60/60 a good format to have: NO, it was a total waste of time. The format was all wrong, the races were longer and harder to follow as there were no pit stops. For me if you have pit stops (either for tyres or for fuel) you have different strategies on show. Do the drivers stop halfway? Do they stop early or late? That tactic that makes races interesting and exciting to watch. Hopefully fuel stops are back for next year.