Jamie Whincup

He celebrated both his 50th V8 Supercar Championship start and his inaugural pole position at Triple Eight Race Engineering's test track, Queensland Raceway.

Whincup moved into the championship lead after a successful defence his and Lowndes' Bathurst 1000 crown, coming just weeks after teaming with Lowndes to win the last Sandown 500 until 2012.

Entering Surfers Paradise for the Indy 300 with the series lead from Garth Tander, a difficult day on Sunday with a spin in the final race saw the lead revert to Tander who won the round.

Whincup then had a disappointing weekend at Desert 400 at the Bahrain International Circuit, where poor qualifying pace for Triple Eight was compounded by a run of all three races marred by minor accidents, and he took away zero points.

Tander and Craig Lowndes both had fairly good weekends, putting Tander into the series lead over Lowndes heading into the Symmons Plains race in Tasmania.

Tander backed up his previous two round wins in Tasmania with a dominant race 1 win on Saturday, but a slow stop in race two dropped him to tenth, before disaster in race three after touching Steven Richards, he broke his steering and was out.

Whincup won both races, and headed into the Grand Finale at Phillip Island on the 1–2 December weekend with a slender seven point championship lead.

Whincup failed to keep his slender margin at Phillip Island; after Garth Tander won the first two races Whincup faced a seven-point deficit.

After the final race Whincup finished second, behind Todd Kelly and two places ahead of Tander but fell just two points short of the title.

Jamie Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship.

He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering.

He has driven the No. 88 Holden ZB Commodore, won a record seven Supercars championship titles, four Bathurst 1000 victories, and a Bathurst 12 Hour victory.

Whincup is the all-time record holder in the Supercars Championship for race wins, at 125 career wins.

He is also the first driver to win the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy twice at Pukekohe Park Raceway in Auckland, New Zealand.

Whincup was born in Melbourne, Australia to Sandra and David Whincup.

He attended Eltham College in Research, Victoria.

Whincup once lived with fellow driver Will Davison.

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 made his Supercars debut in 2002 as an endurance co-driver for Garry Rogers Motorsport.

His first event was at the 2002 Queensland 500 driving a Holden VX Commodore with Max Dumesny.

He made his Bathurst 1000 debut at the next round, driving with Mark Noske.

Whincup and Noske completed 72 laps before retiring from the race following a collision.

Whincup continued with Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2003 and completed his first full time V8 Supercars season.

Despite bad luck in the endurance races and at the Gold Coast, Whincup was able to put it all together at Sydney Olympic Park and became the first back-to-back championship winner since Marcos Ambrose in 2003–2004.

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.

In 2006, Whincup jumped from Holden to Ford and joined Triple Eight Race Engineering alongside Craig Lowndes.

Whincup had a stellar first season, taking victory in the two biggest races of the season, the Clipsal 500 and Supercheap Auto 1000, the latter as co-driver to Craig Lowndes.

After some incidents and unreliability, Whincup finished the championship in a slightly disappointing tenth position at years end.

In 2007, Whincup returned with the same team which was re-branded TeamVodafone and celebrated several victories included a second Bathurst 1000 title alongside teammate Craig Lowndes and new engineer Mark Dutton.

Whincup finished second in the driver's title by a mere two points to Garth Tander from the HSV Dealer Team.

Whincup began a mentoring role as part of TeamVodafone's Junior Development Program, and as a co-ambassador for Formula Ford Australia alongside Will Davison.

His first round win for 2007, at a water-logged Winton, was the first round win for the year by a Ford driver.

At the 2007 V8 Supercar Gala Awards Dinner at the completion of the 2007 season, Whincup was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal, deemed to be the "Best and Fairest" award for V8 Supercars.

Whincup won the 2008 Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, and won a further six rounds after that including the Bathurst 1000 for a third year running.

During a post race interview at Symmons Plains, Whincup spun the car into a ditch whilst attempting to perform something special.

He clinched his first Championship after winning the first race in the final round at Oran Park Raceway, and was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal for the second year running at the V8 Gala Awards.

In 2009, Whincup successfully defended his title in a brand new Ford FG Falcon, including wins at Adelaide, Hamilton, Tasmania, Darwin, Townsville, Oueensland, Phillip Island and Barbagallo.

In 2010, Triple Eight switched to Holden VE Commodores as Ford cut sponsorship.