An Adelaide 500 trophy is the missing piece in the retiring champion’s cabinet that includes silverware from every other major Supercars event.
The 43-year-old – who made his debut at the event at the start of his first full-time season in 2004 – now has just one more shot at the coveted prize.
“This is the best event,” Winterbottom declared in the Adelaide pitlane on Wednesday following the unveiling of a special DeWalt livery.
“I’ve finished second multiple times, I’ve never won this one. I’ve won almost every other track except for Adelaide.
“Something about this place has haunted me. I’ve led races and had engine failures. I led a race another time and broke a front rollbar.
“I’ve been close and it’s one I’ve really wanted to win. I get one more crack so I’ll have a go this weekend.
“I’ll enjoy the event for whatever comes of it result-wise, but it is one that I haven’t won and when you do finish you want to tick-off all your bucket list items and this is one of them.
“I’ll have a good crack.”
Winterbottom has twice finished second in Adelaide 500 races, both during his 13-year stint at what is now Tickford Racing.
He appeared set for victory on Saturday in 2008 before being hunted down and elbowed out of the lead by archrival Jamie Whincup in the closing stages.
Four years later the then Ford Performance Racing team broke through for a maiden Adelaide win on the Sunday, but it was Winterbottom trailing teammate Will Davison to the flag.
Winterbottom is a longshot for victory this weekend. He sits 15th in the championship with just two top five finishes all season: both second-place finishes.
A six-year tenure at Team 18 has been highlighted by victory at Hidden Valley in June of 2023 – a win that broke a drought approaching seven years.
Winterbottom has made no secret of the fact that he does not want to retire. He’s doing so because opportunities have run out and not through a lack of desire or self-belief.
While he’ll land on his feet with a co-drive back at Tickford next season, Winterbottom admits to being emotional about closing the full-time driving chapter.
“I’m probably too emotional, as Renee my wife puts it,” he said.
“She played a video [Tuesday] night that got me really emotional. She goes ‘are you crying’, and I said ‘no, I’m not’.
“The kids gave me a really beautiful message [Tuesday] night and that got me going a bit. I did the sooking early and then by [Thursday] I can be that hard arse that gets back into race mode.
“We’re all human. We try and be emotionless but at the end of the day we’ve all got a heart and it hurts sometimes.”
Winterbottom is set to be replaced by Anton De Pasquale next season.
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