FOLLOW THE LEADER

Six months into the year and staring down the barrel of nine more races, being on top of the leader board isn’t a bad spot for Jamie Whincup and the car #88 team to be.

There is no doubting the competition has been fierce, with each race delivering a different winner nearly every time. As we travel towards the pointy end of the year with Enduro season, it’s fight or flight.

When it comes to keeping it calm and collected, our resident cool-cat David Cauchi always holds it together. That’s why together with JDub they are such a dynamic team.

We thought it best to give Cauchi a casual six monthly review to see where his head is at on JDub and the No. 88 VF Holden Commodore.

How do you feel heading into Townsville as current championship leaders?

It is always good to be leading the championship. We have a long way to go and some hard work to stay in that position and I’m confident we can do that. We are in a better position than we were last year, so that it a positive.

Reflecting on half way through the year, has the car performed as you had hoped?

We have been a little up and down with the car. We are still looking to sort out a few fundamental aspects of the car’s performance, which have made us inconsistent at times. We need to improve our qualifying speed and tyre life in races, once we do that I will be much happier.

Jamie has spoken a bit on inconsistency in the car’s performance, some days are diamonds and some are coal, why is this?

The category is seriously close, certainly the most competitive since I have been involved. This means you only have to be off by a very small amount and that can see you qualify and race outside the top 10. We seem to be on the edge of our ideal performance window, so some days we are just inside it and we perform well, other days we are just out of it and this is when we end up mid-field.

How has Jamie faired in Townsville previously, do you feel confident?

Jamie is one of the best drivers at Townsville. He has qualified well and won plenty of races there so I have the best man for the job!

In the lead up to Townsville, have you been implementing anything new to increase performance? Crew, driver or car-based?

Whether it be the car, engineer, driver or crew, we are continuously looking for tiny gains in each area, which, when all added up, will result in a better overall performance. That is what we are trying to do at the moment, not reinvent the wheel but make it spin as efficiently and as fast as possible.

during the CrownBet Darwin Triple Crown, in Darwin, Australia, June 19, 2016.

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