He came to Sydney hoping for a fairytale ending to his ninth season in V8 Supercars.

Instead, Mark Winterbottom will write off the final chapter to 2013 as one to forget.

The 32-year-old’s hopes of securing his first championship ended on Saturday when his already-bruised Ford ploughed into the wall at Sydney Olympic Park with 12 laps to go in the penultimate race of the season.

“Frustrating, disappointing, whatever you want to call it,” he said.

Winterbottom was third in the standings heading into the title-deciding round, 124 points behind leader Jamie Whincup and also trailing his Holden teammate Craig Lowndes.

And with a maximum 300 points up for grabs over the weekend, anything was possible.

This year’s Bathurst winner was firing on all cylinders early on, earning a spot on the front row alongside polesitter Whincup in the top-10 shootout.

He even managed to dive-bomb the series leader into the first corner. But it quickly went downhill from there.

Winterbottom slipped back to fifth in as many laps, before an early pitstop sent him to the back of the field.

There, he found himself in a tussle with Lowndes – the pair once again trading blows in a heart-stopping battle that cost them both dearly.

Lowndes’s Holden suffered severe right-rear damage and was unable to load up with as much fuel as needed to end the race. He eventually crawled home in 15th.

The incident – labelled “dumb” by Red Bull team boss Roland Dane – left Winterbottom hobbling and unable to salvage the podium finish he needed to stay in the hunt for this year’s crown.

“The car struggled a bit with pace, it copped a few knocks as well which left the steering out,” he said.

“It’s just one of those things.”