Adelaide 500 Race 1 | 22 Feb 20 | |||||
Jamie Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He currently drives the No. 88 Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. Whincup is a seven-time Supercars champion, a four-time Bathurst 1000 winner and in 2017 also won the Bathurst 12 Hour. As of the 26th August 2018, Whincup is the all-time record holder in the Supercars Championship for race wins, at 113 career wins. He is also the first driver to win the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy twice at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Auckland, New Zealand.
Early career
In 2001 Whincup embarked on the Australian Formula Ford Championship with a team run by his father and Uncle Graeme (a former Sports Sedan star) with mechanical support from fellow V8 Supercar driver Greg Ritter, racing with the Mygale Formula Ford team. After finishing third in his debut year, he moved to Sonic Motorsport(owner Michael Ritter, Brother of Greg Ritter ) for the 2002 season and went on to win the championship convincingly, which secured him his first ever V8 Supercar drive with Garry Rogers Motorsport.
Whincup landed himself a full-time drive in 2005 with the Melbourne-based Tasman Motorsport. He had many solid results throughout the season, including a fourth at the one-off Chinese round at the Shanghai International Circuit, a third at the Sandown 500 and most notably, second at the Bathurst 1000 endurance events with teammate Jason Richards after leading late in the race.