Inaugural win delivers Whincup V8 Supercar Championship lead

Team Betta Electrical’s new recruit, Jamie Whincup proved last weekend that age is no barrier, with a convincing win in one of the biggest races on the V8 Supercar calendar, the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

Starting third, directly behind his seasoned team mate Craig Lowndes, 23 year old Whincup produced consistently fast laps and managed to avoid incidents on the tumultuous 250km street circuit.

Showing maturity beyond his years, he withstood the onslaught from experienced campaigners Todd and Rick Kelly, eventually driving away in the concluding stages of the race to win by a comfortable margin of almost two seconds.

Following his third placing yesterday in Saturdays opening 250km leg, Sunday’s result offered the young Ford driver, his first ever V8 Supercar race victory and also positions him as the current Championship leader.

“I really have to congratulate the team on providing me with a competitive car and terrific support both on and off the track,” Whincup said.

“Today’s crew work was outstanding and Ludo’s strategic use of pit stops, clearly gave me an advantage.”

“Racing from the front in V8 Supercars, was something I had only dreamed about before today and when I actually experienced it from lap 47, I had to call on what I used to do in my Formula Ford and Karting days.”

“It’s great to enjoy an early success and I’m confident that the Team will be very competitive for the remainder of this season. I’m just so happy that I am going to be part of it!” Whincup concluded.

“Jamie’s race today showed maturity and confidence that was particularly pleasing,” Dane said.

“His practice/testing sessions showed that he had the pace to match the best in the Championship, but today showed that he could also race with the best and I’m very happy that he kept his cool and focused on the end result”

“The future augers well for Triple Eight, with skillful drivers and well engineered race cars,” Dane added.

Craig Lowndes did not have the best of races, damaging his front splitter whilst overtaking for the lead early in the race only to then getting caught in a multi car pile up, causing him to finish the race on lap 39.

“Overall it was a fantastic weekend for the team,” Lowndes said. “Racing has its highs and lows and yesterday was a great result for me but today things didn’t quite go to plan.

“It was probably a little ambitious to try and pass Cameron (McConville) and we paid price, ending up two laps down.

“Once we were that far back in the pack, we became susceptible to incident which unfortunately ended our race.

“I am really happy for Jamie, he drove a great race today and I look forward to partnering him as we take on the rest of the competition in 2006,” Lowndes commented.

There is no time to celebrate for Triple Eight Race Engineering crew who will spend the next two days preparing car #888 and #88 for the 2006 Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park next weekend.

Australian motor racing star Marcos Ambrose will make his American debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia this weekend – and there are plenty talking it up.

After missing the first three rounds because of concerns about his lack of experience on the fast super speedways at Daytona, Atlanta and California, Ambrose is now ready to go.

A two-time V8 Supercar Champion in Australia, Wood Brothers/JTG Racing are hoping to transform his previous success into a successful NASCAR career.

"I don't know if this sport is ready for Marcos Ambrose," said Eddie Wood, co-owner of Ambrose's Ford F150 in Saturday's Kroger 250 at the Martinsville Speedway.

"He's something else. He's the biggest racing star the country's (Australia) has known. We believe he's going to be all of that, if not more, here in America."

Ambrose will make his NASCAR debut this Saturday. NASCAR wanted him to skip the first three races until they were convinced his success in Australia would translate to its brand of racing.

"I got here in January and I've been ready to race since the day I got here," Ambrose said.

"I've been eager to get behind the wheel and race. The one good thing about waiting for NASCAR is it gave me a chance to watch from the sidelines.

“I spent time in the shop to get a perspective of how these trucks are built, I spent time at the racetrack watching how Jon Wood worked as the driver. I learned a lot about how the truck changes during the race and how a driver and crew chief have to work to make it better.

"More important, I learned no matter what side of the ocean you're from, success always comes back to one thing - people. It's people that build these trucks, people that perform pit stops and people that drive these trucks. I believe I'm surrounded by the best people in the business. I just want to do my part."