Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup rates the first half of the season for his championship contenders

His two drivers sit first and second in the Supercars championship standings, but Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup lowered his mid-season grade after the team’s “worst round” in Townsville.

Rebecca Williams

@BecHeraldSun

3 min read

July 18, 2024 - 4:00PM

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Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup hopes the team’s worst round of the year is behind it as he graded his title frontrunners a B+ for the first half of their campaign after “dropping the ball” in Townsville.

But the seven-time Supercars champion has backed his drivers to strike back at the Sydney SuperNight this weekend amid a growing Ford threat.

As the Blue Oval claimed back-to-back wins for the second time in three rounds when Cam Waters and Matt Payne took the honours in Townsville, the Triple Eight squad struggled in qualifying without a car starting in the top five all weekend.

Championship leader Will Brown qualified 13th and 17th in Townsville, finishing third and 24th after a lap one tangle with David Reynolds cruelled his Sunday race.

Young gun Feeney, second in the championship standings behind his teammate, finished seventh twice after starting from eighth and sixth.

Jamie Whincup hopes the team’s worst round of the season is behind them. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Whincup said the team’s performance in Townsville had taken the gloss off what had been otherwise been an impressive first half of the season for his Camaro pair.

“If it was before the (Townsville) weekend I would have said A+. I couldn’t have been happier with how the whole Red Bull Ampol Racing team had gone about their craft,” Whincup said.

“But unfortunately we dropped the ball a little bit last weekend in Townsville, we just didn’t quite have enough pace and we made a few errors during the day.

“So probably an A+ is back to a B+ unfortunately, but at halfway (mark) if you purely look at the results and our championship position, I could not be happier.

“Hopefully it was just a bit of blip on the radar at Townsville, but there is absolutely no reason why we should not be right up there at Sydney Motorsport Park.”

Triple Eight’s championship leader Will Brown driver. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Not only did Ford take the two wins in Townsville, but Mustangs also swept the podium in the second leg with Payne leading home Waters and Chaz Mostert.

But Whincup refused to play the parity card, suggesting his team’s form had opened the door to more Fords in the top-10.

“Isn’t it funny? We didn’t rock up for qualifying last weekend and all of a sudden, now the parity is good,” Whincup said.

“The cars have been very, very close. It’s just a matter of which teams perform over the race weekends and we have done a very good job over the start of the year, but we dropped the ball in Townsville and we got swamped by our opposition.

“The other side have been complaining about parity, they have been questioning it all at the start of the season.

“But, no, it hasn’t gone the other way or anything like that. We just didn’t do a good job and that’s why we were back in the pack and why there were more Fords up in the top-10 than there normally would be.”

Triple Eight young gun Broc Feeney finished last in Townsville. Picture: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Brown’s last-place finish in Townsville was the first time this season he had finished outside of the top-10 and only the second time he had missed the podium.

Whincup said the consistency in Brown’s campaign so far had been impressive.

“We knew he was good, he won races last year with Erebus, so we knew he was good,” Whincup said.

“But to be able to be consistently up there …. that has been really impressive. We’re hoping he can continue that and we’re hoping the weekend was just a little blip where he turned himself around in front of David Reynolds.

“So hopefully that’s our worst round of the year.”