Jamie Whincup says he was lucky to escape an early spin on his way to victory in Race 4 of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains.
Whincup won the race despite looping his TeamVodafone Holden while trying to take third from Will Davison on Lap 9 of 84.
The defending champion managed to lose just two places in the incident by immediately performing a spin turn.
Fortuitously, a gap had been created in the field thanks to an incident between Garth Tander and David Reynolds on the previous lap.
CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s full race report, results and championship points
Whincup later blamed overheating front brakes for the spin.
“I was going to have a go at Will into the hairpin so I braked pretty late,” he explained.
“Following a car around here heats the front brakes up, therefore the efficiency (at the front) is 10 percent less, but you’ve still got good rears. That means you’ve got an imbalance in the brakes.
“I hit the brakes hard, the fronts didn’t really want to stop and the rears were locked up. The last thing I wanted to do was take Will out and cause myself a drive-through penalty as well.
“I tried to go down the inside but I knew that wouldn’t happen, so I just had to spin and as I spun I nailed the gas.
“I was very lucky that I had just enough revs onboard to get the wheels spinning and get around otherwise I would have been parked stationary waiting for someone to clean me up.”
Whincup also endured off-track excursions in today’s practice and qualifying sessions as he struggled to extract the maximum speed out of what he described as an inconsistent car.
“It’s been a struggle street all weekend, and practice and qualifying were the same thing,” he said.
“But we had a good race car that we kept improving, kept our eye on the prize and got there today.
“I’m certainly surprised to be up here again with the inconsistencies we’ve had this weekend, but I’ll certainly take the points away with me.”
Whincup now trails series leader Davison by just 18 points following the first four races of the season.
