Jamie Whincup has been revealed as the mastermind behind TeamVodafone’s historic one-two formation finish at Mount Panorama last weekend.
With a lap of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 remaining, the dual reigning V8 Supercars Champion told his crew via radio that “it’s Craig’s race” and offered to cross the line behind and beside the #888 entry of Craig Lowndes.
Whincup finished the race 0.173 seconds behind Lowndes, landing TeamVodafone a crushing one-two victory.
It is only the third time in the history of The Great Race that a formation one-two finish has been executed.
TeamVodafone principal Roland Dane told Speedcafe.com.au that Whincup can be credited for the side-by-side Vodafone quinella.
“I had discussions about it with Jamie two weeks before,” Dane explained to Speedcafe.com.au.
“I said that for a team, it would be ultimate ‘look’ to achieve, but I never really thought that we’d be able to achieve it.
“During the last lap, Jamie took it upon himself to come on the radio. He said “look, this is Craig’s race, he’s outqualified me, he has outraced me, it’s his race and tell him that I’ll pull up on his outside and we’ll go for the formation.
“Literally, with a couple of corners to go, Jeremy (Moore, Lowndes’s engineer) told Craig the plan. Craig said “OK” and he pulled over to make space.”
Dane says that the image of his two cars crossing the finish line in such dominating fashion will be etched into the minds of all Australian sports fans for years to come.
“I said to the boys from the very beginning of this endurance driver rule that it gives us the chance to do this,” he said.
“We should have done this type of result at Phillip Island, so it was very satisfying to achieve it at Bathurst. To be able to create the image – imagery is everything.
“The reason why people don’t automatically think of 1984 HDT 1-2 because there’s no great imagery of it, and the fact that one car was two laps ahead of the other.
“For the 1977 Ford 1-2, it’s special because of the imagery. That has helped to make our result into an even better day and one that really will be remembered for a long time to come.”
Bathurst’s first formation finish – the 1977 Allan Moffat/Colin Bond one-two – will be replicated at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 next weekend, with both Moffat and Bond driving the exact cars that they secured their win 33 years ago.
