/ Whincup powers towards title

On Thursday Jamie Whincup declared he wanted to win the V8 Supercar Championship more than any driver in the field.



At Bahrain on the weekend he backed that statement up with three imposing victories, stretching his series lead to 187 points.



Challenged in the final race by Russell Ingall, who showed enormous pluck until his tyres ran out of grip, Whincup confidently re-took the race lead and slowly edged away on his way to clean sweep at the Bahrain International Circuit.



Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes added to Team Vodafone's joy, finishing second overall for the round with third place in race three after an admirable job of keeping potential challengers at bay. In the end, enigmatic Stone Brothers Racing driver James Courtney managed to pass Lowndes on lap 26 of race three but, by then, Whincup had cleared off into the distance.



Mark Winterbottom finished fourth to keep his slender championship hopes alive, ahead of Ingall.



Despite the victory, Whincup refused to declare the 2008 title race over. He even refused to count out the unfortunate Garth Tander, who endured a miserable round, despite stretching his series lead over the reigning champion to 292 points with just two rounds remaining.



“It was a great way to finish an awesome weekend. I couldn't be happier,” he said.



“All we need to do is make sure we are one point ahead of the season.



“You can never count Garth out because he is last year's champion and such a strong competitor. I won't count him out until he is a mathematically out of the question.”



Ingall actually had the better of Whincup at the start of the third race, leading the pack into turn one with his Super Cheap Auto Commodore. The Ford driver was undeterred by Ingall's lightning start and reclaimed the lead shortly after.



It was a similar tale during a subsequent re-start after the safety car was brought out on lap 21 when Todd Kelly's engine failed, stranding the Jack Daniel's Commodore.



In contrast to Whincup, Garth Tander's nightmare round continued, the champ's race effectively over when his car was heavily damaged when it struck the car of his teammate Mark Skaife in an incident that was neither's fault.



Tander and Skaife were the unfortunate bystanders in a clash involving Todd Kelly and Jim Beam teammates Will Davison and Steven Johnson.



The best Tander could manage for the remainder of the race was to limp around and stay out his opponents' way.



While bad luck dogged the Holden drivers, particularly HRT and the Kelly brothers, the small Glenfords team had a promising weekend, Fabian Coulthard finishing seventh in race three, while Bahraini driver Fahad Al Musalam safely brought home the Team Kiwi Falcon in 24th place.



Desert 400, Bahrain

Race 3 - top 10



1. Jamie Whincup (Team Vodafone Falcon) 51min 07.507 sec

2. James Courtney (Jeld-Wen Falcon)

3. Craig Lowndes (Team Vodafone Falcon)

4. Mark Winterbottom (FPR Falcon)

5. Russell Ingall (Super Cheap Auto Commodore)

6. Will Davison (Jim Beam Falcon)

7. Fabian Coulthard (Glenfords Falcon)

8. Lee Holdsworth (Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodore)

9. Steven Richards (FPR Falcon)

10. Shane Gisbergen (SP Tools Falcon)



Author:Gavin McGrath

Source:BigPond Sport - copyright