Whinners grin
Jamie Whincup
So it’s run and won and Jamie Whincup is the 2011 V8 Supercars Champion, and not surprisingly either, but what an incredible weekend of on-track V8 Supercars action.
It had just about everything, and so very nearly could have seen Craig Lowndes score a miracle fourth V8 Supercars Championship. Instead, his team-mate joins him on three titles wins apiece and that makes the battle for the next one even more intriguing.
The TeamVodafone steamroller shows no signs of slowing down and thankfully we had a genuine intra-team battle to enjoy right to the wire of this year’s season finale on the streets of Sydney Olympic Park. Over the weekend, I sensed that Craig was the slightly more popular choice as the preferred candidate for this year’s crown, or perhaps it was just the groundswell of support for a driver who needed everything to go right in order to challenge Jamie for the championship win.
Jamie Whincup faces the press after his championship win
Which is certainly no criticism of Jamie being a popular winner of this year’s title, it’s just that Craig winning it would have been an incredible story. Such was the outcome of the strategy in both races, that we saw two of our very best doing battle, while ensconced in the mid-field war zone – and that war zone was never more intense than the frantic action we witnessed in both races last weekend.
To count the near misses of both Craig and Jamie would take some doing and some of the bullets they dodged was amazing to watch. I cannot believe for a minute that even the most casual observer was not glued to the telecast from last weekend, if only because they know the Lowndes name better than any of the current crop of V8 Supercars stars.
The pair of Sydney Olympic Park races had everything, and more … well, no rain, but it didn’t matter one bit as the races drew to a climatic close in a season, that while dominated by Holden, will go down as an absolute classic.
The V8 Supercars Gala Ball saw a few dusty heads getting about yesterday morning, yours truly included, but just as soon as I can I will be finding the time to watch the recording of last weekend’s pair of races … if only to cement what truly transpired firmly into my mind – like Monday night it all became a bit of a V8 Supercars blur, but I doubt I will be disappointed with the outcome.
V8 Supercars is alive and well and what a brilliant way to close out what has been a memorable season. If the replay comes up even half as good as last week’s live action it will be riveting stuff.
How long until Clipsal?
