[ad_1]
Jamie Whincup declared Scott McLaughlin a worthy three-time Supercars champion, amid disappointment that the title fight was over before the Bathurst final.
McLaughlin put the title out of the question with second place in the final race at the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend, now with a 305-point lead with 300 available for victory at Bathurst.
Whincup had closed the margin 143 points ahead of The Bend’s double header, but a combination of the Shell Mustang’s speed and a series of setbacks made up for the deficit.
They included finishes 18 and 17 at last weekend’s Bend event, following a collision with McLaughlin and a pit stop problem, and another failed pit stop today.
With no excuses, Whincup said McLaughlin and his Shell V-Power Racing team “certainly deserve the treble”, having also won the 2018 and ’19 titles.
“I have enjoyed the season. Sport is about variabilities and the curveballs thrown at you, ”continued seven-time champion Whincup.
“He’s the one who best copes with those curves and adapts to those conditions. From a sporting point of view, this year has been great.
“We don’t know which tracks we’re going to, the formats have changed, it’s just turned upside down.
“I’ve always said that whoever wins the championship will deserve it, one way or another.
“Scotty and his team have been the cream for a couple of years and have shown this year that with all the variability, they are still on top.
“It is what it should be. Those who work the hardest, bring the best car to the track and do a good job on the track should also get the biggest award of the year. ”
The Red Bull Holden Racing Team had come off the blocks firing at the Adelaide season opener in February, where Whincup and van Gisbergen split the poles and Whincup won Saturday’s race.
Whincup and van Gisbergen then took another pole each Thursday at Albert Park, before the season was brought to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following the resumption of racing in June, Whincup and van Gisbergen have shown flashes of speed, winning three races each in 24 attempts, but lacked consistency.
“We really had quite a good pace in Adelaide and the Grand Prix,” Whincup said when asked about the apparent turning point of the season.
“We pushed hard to try and improve the pace of the car as the year went on, we made some gains, we also had some losses.
“We certainly weren’t in a position where we were going to run seconds, we did everything we could.
“That showed with a couple of bad results while we were experimenting with things.
“There is not much else I can really explain about that. We gave everything we had and we just weren’t good enough. “
