V8 Supercar Championship pace-setter Jamie Whincup is confident of getting the job done in Bahrain this weekend, as the tin-top series races towards its 2007 conclusion.
Holding a slender nine-point advantage over last year's Bahrain pole-sitter Garth Tander, the Caltex-backed TeamVodafone star was once again a contender for victory in his Ford Falcon at Surfers Paradise last time out. Having triumphed in both the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 in company with team-mate Craig Lowndes in recent weeks, the 24-year-old travels to the Middle East in high spirits and optimistic of maintaining his lead in the drivers' standings.
“Both myself and the team are very confident heading into this weekend,” Whincup asserted. “We were quite good here last year until my engine gave way in the final race, and the Bahrain circuit is one of the best in the world – fast, free-flowing and made up of a very durable and coarse surface to cope with the extreme heat in summer, which actually makes the surface quite slippery.
“My engineer and I worked really well together at Indy, and I know if we are on top of our game we can get the job done.”
Three-time V8 champion and triple Bathurst winner Lowndes, meanwhile, currently lies 28 points adrift of Whincup in the chase for the crown, and is one of four drivers still in with a shout of the end-of-season laurels with four meetings remaining. TeamVodafone sits 65 points in arrears of the Toll HSV Dealer Team in the teams' championship.
“This is the second year of going to Bahrain,” the 33-year-old explained, “so the teams are much more organised and we have the added benefit of data from last year.
“It took us a while to get our head around the race track last year, but by the third race we had finally found a set-up we were happy with which puts us at a really good starting point when we hit the track on Thursday.
“The heat will play a much bigger role this year, as it is tipped to be around ten degrees hotter which will affect brakes, tyres and the drivers' comfort.”
