With Triple Eight’s first championship podium lockout in the bag, we got reminiscing about some pretty impressive stats that we’ve clocked up over the years (even if we do say so ourselves).
Who can believe it’s been over three years since our Red Bull family joined the team? They say time flies when you’re having fun and, although we’ve had our highs and lows, the 49 wins we’ve claimed since debuting at Clipsal in 2013 have certainly made these some of the best years. Just one more win and Red Bull Racing Australia will hit the half-century.
In that time RBRA has clocked up 110 podiums with 39 pole positions across three drivers – Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes (not to mention some assistance from the enduro co-drivers Paul Dumbrell and Steven Richards.) Spread those across two Drivers’ Championship wins and three Teams’ Championships, that’s a pretty darn good ratio!
Speaking of nearing a century, we all know JDub is only two wins away from hitting that golden 100 wins. He has achieved his 98 race victories across 19 different tracks. Will Winton prove to be the winning circuit? Despite taking three poles and four race wins there since his debut at the track in 2003, recent form would suggest not. But in this year’s championship, anything can happen!
We really don’t want to jinx anything (let’s hope our superstitious boss isn’t reading this…) but Jamie hasn’t had a DNF since race one on the Gold Coast in 2013. That gives him an all-time championship record of 89 consecutive race finishes.
Triple Eight most recently clocked over their 400th race start at Phillip Island and claimed their
96th race win with manufacturer Holden at Barbagallo Raceway. Red Bull Racing Australia’s newest recruit SVG brought home the 500th win for the manufacturer at Symmons Plains earlier in the year, clocking his 12th race win in the category while he was at it.
Our Kiwi brother has generally been on fine form since joining the team. Impressively, all his results this year bar one have been inside the top 10. The only one to have slipped (quite literally) through his fingers was Sunday’s Tassie race when he skidded on oil, hit the gravel from the lead and suffered a DNF. Yep, still hurts.
On a brighter note though, Perth, which has been a bit of bogey track for SVG the last few years, yielded his 50th career podium when he finished third on Saturday. Hopefully there are many more to come.
RD’s always been a stickler for the stats and there are still many more records to be broken, races to be won and champagne bottles to be popped. Next stop – 888 wins*!
*Disclaimer – Triple Eight is currently on 147 wins, so please don’t hold your breath because you might suffocate.
