Supercars 2023: Jamie Whincup says 11-year drought since last Bathurst win ‘doesn’t sit well’

An 11-year gap since his last Bathurst win ‘doesn’t sit well’ with Jamie Whincup. But after a sixth Sandown victory, he hopes a young gun can help him break the drought.

Triple Eight boss Jamie Whincup has hailed the maturity of Broc Feeney after his Sandown 500 win as the Supercars great now turns his attention to shattering his own Bathurst 1000 drought alongside the Red Bull young gun next month.

In just his second full-time season in Supercars, Feeney became the youngest winner of Sandown endurance race when he held his nerve on Sunday to hold off a surging Brodie Kostecki late in the race.

Joining forces with his Triple Eight team boss Whincup, 20-year-old Feeney handed the seven-time Supercars champion his sixth Sandown 500 win in the process.

Whincup said Feeney, who brought up his fifth win of the season, showed poise beyond his years to hold his ground late in the race.

“I don’t think you should underestimate the job that he did in the last stint there,” Whincup said.

“That was as tough as it gets with all three cars breathing down, so it was a four-way battle there at the end.

“To keep your nerve in such a huge event like the Sandown 500 is very, very difficult and he did a fantastic job.”

Jamie Whincup and Broc Feeney celebrate their win at Sandown.

Feeney stepped into Whincup’s seat at Triple Eight last year after the V8 great’s retirement from full-time racing at the end of 2021.

Sitting third in this year’s Supercars championship, Feeney has already proven himself as a rising star of the sport.

Feeney combined with Whincup for last year’s Bathurst 1000, finishing fifth, and will now head to Mount Panorama as one of the combinations to beat after their Sandown heroics.

A four-time champion in the Bathurst 1000, it has been 11 years since Whincup teamed with Paul Dumbrell to claim the last of those wins at Mount Panorama.

The Supercars gun turned team principal said he remained as hungry as ever to try and conquer the Great Race.

“It has been a while, for sure. It has been a while between drinks, over 10 years now, so that doesn’t sit well with me,” Whincup said.

“So we’ll do what we can in three weeks’ time.”

Jamie Whincup (left) with Paul Dumbrell after winning the 2012 Bathurst 1000.

But championship leader Kostecki is also hungry to go one better at Bathurst after missing out on the first endurance prize of the season.

“It’s always good to come home on the podium. It would have been cool to win this (Sandown) race, but there is a bigger one coming up,” Kostecki said.

“The cars had so much speed the last few rounds … so we will just put our heads down and go up to Bathurst and just try and minimise mistakes and go from there.”

While Triple Eight and Erebus are locked in a fierce battle for the championship, Whincup doubted Bathurst would be a two-way fight.

“I reckon the rest of the field might have something to say about that for sure,” he said.

“Of course, we are going to put our best foot forward, but so will the guys beside (Erebus).

“Everyone will be putting their best foot forward at Bathurst.

“(It was) great to see all cars reliable this weekend. We were smashing the kerbs for 500km and we all hung in there and performed very well, so it gives us a lot of confidence going into a 1000km race that the product is going to be a good thing.”

Originally published as Supercars 2023: Jamie Whincup says 11-year drought since last Bathurst win ‘doesn’t sit well’