Four drivers in title hunt, says Jamie Whincup

HOLDEN stars Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes have warned that Ford Performance Racing will bounce back from its disappointing Bathurst 1000.

HOLDEN stars Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes have warned that rival Ford Performance Racing will bounce back from its disappointing Bathurst 1000.

Whincup looks a strong chance to retain the V8 Supercars championship drivers' title after winning Sunday's 1000km endurance race at Mount Panorama, opening up a 161-point lead with four events left.

Lowndes's third at Bathurst allowed him to leapfrog FPR's Mark Winterbottom, who finished 11th, to be second on the points table. Winterbottom's teammate Will Davison is 470 points behind Whincup after finishing 24th. With 300 points the maximum a driver can earn at one round, Davison's bid appears finished but Whincup is not ruling him out.

"It's still definitely a four-horse race, without doubt," three-time champion Whincup said.

"Don't count out Frosty and Davo. They'll regroup and I'm sure they'll come out crazy strong by Gold Coast."

Three-time series winner Lowndes was also certain Ford's factory team would be spurred to improve after a Bathurst hiccup.

"No doubt FPR would be disappointed. They had two strong cars and one on pole and they didn't get a result," Lowndes said.

"If TeamVodafone were in that position, it'd really annoy us.

"The championship's far from a foregone conclusion and both Will and Frosty will bounce back very strong."

Winterbottom was positive about his championship chances but Davison acknowledged he'll need a "miracle" in the next round, the Gold Coast 600 on October 19-21, to stay in the hunt.

The 2009 championship runner-up will partner former Formula One driver Mika Salo at Surfers Paradise and is hopeful the pairing with the Finn would deliver a turnaround.

"I'll need a miracle now to feature in the title fight but we head to the Gold Coast in a week, so we don't have time to be down on ourselves," Davison said. "Mika and I went well there last year and we both want the win."

AAP