Jamie Whincup puts one hand on V8 championship

JAMIE Whincup is on the cusp of V8 Supercar greatness and a fourth championship after winning at Winton today.

Whincup moves towards title

JAMIE Whincup is on the cusp of V8 Supercar greatness and a fourth championship after winning at Winton while disaster struck his only title rival Mark Winterbottom.

Holden driver Whincup has taken his lead to near-unassailable margins over Ford rival Winterbottom.

He looks almost certain to wrap up the championship in tomorrow’s race two at Winton, with Winterbottom needing to finish several places ahead of Whincup to have any hope of keeping the title battle alive until the final round in Sydney in a fortnight.

Winterbottom started today's race from pole position.

But a first-lap safety car after Jason Bright crashed out led Winterbottom's Ford Performance Racing team to immediately call him into the pits to change to soft tyres.

While the tyres are faster, Winterbottom lost several positions with the pit stop and struggled to get out of the mid-pack.

Whincup's Team Vodafone kept him on a hard compound tyre.

While he lost the lead to Ford driver James Moffat on lap six, he stayed in touch with the frontrunners throughout, switched to soft tyres late in the race and eventually regained the lead.

Team-mate Craig Lowndes finished second, with Winterbottom's day getting even worse when he ran out of fuel on the final lap and Lee Holdsworth passed him on the final corner to pinch third place.

Winterbottom only just managed to cross the line in fourth to secure points - and that was only because the 47-lap race was shortened by one lap because of time constraints.

Whincup admitted surprise that Winterbottom ducked straight into the pits to switch tyres so early.

“I got off the line well but it was a pretty crazy race with strategy and what tyres to run,” Whincup said.

“I was pretty surprised to see car 5 (Winterbottom) go into the pits on lap one, and it was on from there.

“Tomorrow's going to be a huge day. It's all going to come down to the next 24 hours.”

Winterbottom lamented “a wrong fuel number” costing him dearly, and leaving him a mountain to climb to keep his hopes of a maiden championship alive.

Whincup leads Winterbottom by 326 points, and will secure the championship if he leads by more than 300 points after tomorrow’s race.

The 29-year-old will join exalted company with a fourth title.

Only Dick Johnson, Ian Geoghegan and Mark Skaife have been five-time Australian Touring Car Championship winners, and Whincup would join Allan Moffat, Jim Richards and Bob Jane with a fourth title.

AAP