Jamie Whincup entered the 2016 Supercars season determined to return to the top after his run of four consecutive championships had ended the previous year. Driving the #88 Red Bull Racing Australia Holden VF Commodore, he began the campaign with an impressive victory in the opening race on the streets of Adelaide. Whincup capitalised when leader Will Davison ran short of fuel late in the race, giving him the perfect start to the new season. He followed that result with second place in the next race, immediately establishing himself as one of the leading championship contenders.
Whincup remained consistently near the front throughout the opening half of the year, regularly collecting podium finishes and valuable championship points even when outright victories were difficult to secure. His second win came in the Saturday race at Queensland Raceway, where he delivered a controlled performance at Triple Eight’s home circuit. By that stage, the championship had developed into an intense contest between Whincup, his new teammate Shane van Gisbergen and Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin.
One of the defining achievements of Whincup’s season came at Sydney Motorsport Park in August. Victory in the Sunday race gave him his 100th Supercars race win, making him only the second driver after Craig Lowndes to reach the milestone. It was a major moment in Whincup’s career and further underlined the extraordinary level of success he had achieved since joining Triple Eight in 2006.
Whincup and long-time endurance co-driver Paul Dumbrell were also major contenders throughout the Pirtek Enduro Cup. At the Bathurst 1000, the #88 Commodore started from pole position and dominated much of the race, leading 133 of the 161 laps. Whincup crossed the finish line first, but a 15-second penalty for contact with Scott McLaughlin during the closing stages dropped the car to 11th in the final classification. Although the result was a major disappointment, the pace and control displayed by Whincup and Dumbrell for most of the race demonstrated the strength of their performance at Mount Panorama.
The pair responded emphatically at the following event on the Gold Coast. After finishing sixth in Saturday’s race, Whincup and Dumbrell produced one of their strongest drives of the season on Sunday. Starting from pole position, they controlled the race and defeated van Gisbergen and Alexandre Prémat by more than nine seconds. Whincup later nominated the victory as his best race of the year, particularly because it came at his home event on the Gold Coast.
Whincup remained firmly in the championship battle heading into the closing rounds, but van Gisbergen’s exceptional consistency ultimately gave the New Zealander the advantage. Whincup kept the pressure on until the penultimate race of the season at Sydney Olympic Park, where he claimed his fifth victory of the year. However, van Gisbergen finished strongly enough to secure the championship with one race remaining.
Whincup ultimately finished second in the 2016 Supercars Championship, 200 points behind van Gisbergen. His season included five race victories, the landmark achievement of his 100th career win and another sustained championship challenge. Although he narrowly missed a seventh title, 2016 reinforced Whincup’s status as one of the category’s benchmark drivers and laid the foundations for his record-breaking seventh championship the following year.
