Tassie. You were nothing short of amazing.
After two long years without visiting the Apple Isle, the Supercars circus rolled into the plains of Symmons, and for #88 pilot Jamie ‘JDub’ Whincup, it was Tassie that delivered the seven-time Champion his maiden Supercars race and round win for season 2021.
“We managed to continuously progress all weekend which was nice,” JDub said.
“The car was at its best in the last race, however we were a victim of not qualifying well enough to really attack for the podium. You’ve got to walk away happy when you’ve claimed more points than anyone else from the weekend.
“SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) did a fantastic job to get the quickest lap time ever around Symmons Plains, and two race wins on top of that. A couple of one-two finishes is also a great end to the weekend for the team, but not getting the results we wanted in the last race just motivates us to well in the next one.
JDub’s race win on Sunday was also the first win for Triple Eight’s newest race engineer, Wes McDougall.
“It was awesome to share my first race win with Wes,” JDub said.
“He’s been working bloody hard, and you want any newcomer to the team to feel the success of winning, because once you feel that success, you want more. Hopefully, after this weekend he feels that we can continue to win races if we do a good job. It will motivate us to challenge the other side of the garage.
“I couldn’t be happier with this weekend, and it’s great to leave Tassie with the round win.”
Season 2021 has been red-hot for SVG, however Tassie delivered an end to his record-equalling winning streak.
Reflecting on Sunday’s efforts at Symmons Plains, SVG explained how critical tyre preservation was for the sprint round.
“For the first qualifying session today, we couldn’t quite nail the session compared to yesterday which was a shame, and that made it more difficult for today’s races,” he said.
“We used the remainder of our tyres in the first race, which was pretty good because we managed to get a team one-two finish, although it compromised us for the second race today. We had no tyres, and we pit early, which meant the other teams covered us, and after that there is not much you can do.
“Even though we didn’t have the greatest tyres, you always want to be up the front challenging for the race win. At the end of the day, one of our championship challengers has won the race, so we need to perform a bit better there. Getting sixth in the last race is a good points booster, and second for the round is awesome. Overall, it was a really good weekend for the team.”
Thanks for having us, Tassie. Next stop: The Bend Motorsport Park!
