JAMIE Whincup admitted he was disappointed not to have been able to hoist the Supercars drivers’ championship trophy for an eighth time on Sunday, but come February there will be another prize for him to chase.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Bathurst 12 Hour trophy.
Whincup, who has won seven of the last 11 Supercars titles, will join his Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mates Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen for a tilt in the prestigious enduro at Mount Panorama.
It will mark Whincup’s third start in an event in which he already boasts two podiums, having placed first outright in 2017 and second earlier this year.
While he shared a seat with Lowndes in his 12 Hour debut when winning in a Ferrari 488 and previously tackled the Bathurst 1000 with him too, Whincup has never before been part of an entry which included van Gisbergen.
READ MORE: The rat pack unites for the Bathurst 12 Hour
READ MORE: Mies smashes Mount Panorama track record
The prospect of doing that in a Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 in February excites him.
“To team up with Scotty Taylor again, combine that with Triple Eight Race Engineering, then to have both my team-mates there as well ... it’s fantastic, I’m really looking forward to next year’s event,” Whincup said.
“It’s good to bring it all back together, get the band back together so to speak, I’m looking forward to teaming up with Lowndesy again.
“Both years Shane’s been the competition, so it’s good to be in the same team for an all out assault.”
The combination of Whincup, van Gisbergen and Lowndes is a formidable one given the trio have not only proved themselves in endurance races, but at Mount Panorama as well.
But with the Bathurst 12 Hour attracting big-name teams and drivers from across the globe given its status as a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Whincup knows earning a third consecutive podium will be no easy task.
“I’ve had a great run up there in the past, but as I always say, that doesn’t guarantee anything [next] year,” he said.
“The Bathurst 12 Hour has just been growing and growing each year and it’s a fantastic event, one I’ve had a heap of fun at the last couple of years.
Keep up to date with the latest sports news by clicking here
“It’s challenging ... we’re not going up there with too high expectations. We’re going up there realising there’s a lot of work to be done, we’ve really got to make sure we bring our A game to compete against the best teams from all over Europe.
“Any race with any sort of distance is difficult, it’s so much harder to win and so much easier to lose.
“We’ll do the best we can, we’ll prepare as well as we can and do what we do, and go racing. All the elements are there for a good show.”
The 2019 edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour runs from January 31 to February 3.
