In one of the tightest V8 Supercars championship battles seen, the quartet of Paul Dumbrell, Warren Luff, John McIntyre and Steven Richards go into Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 with everything to gain but plenty to lose as well.
The co-drivers of championship contenders Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison, all four have to balance their own personal desire for Bathurst glory with the title ambitions of the men they’re teaming up with this weekend.
Every driver in the 29-car field is gunning for a Bathurst title but for the four top co-drivers pushing too hard could have potentially catastrophic consequences for their partner’s championship ambitions.
Luff is probably the man in the hottest seat, with Lowndes the clear favourite for a sixth Bathurst crown in what is the 50th year of the endurance race at Mount Panorama.
The pairing won last month’s Sandown 500 – Luff’s first victory behind the wheel of a V8 Supercar – and are many fans’ hopes to make it an endurance double on Sunday.
The 36-year-old has gone from zero to potential hero after ending a full-time stint with strugglers Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport last year to join the leading team in the paddock in TeamVodafone.
And Luff feels moving to a top team actually makes his job easier rather than piling on any pressure.
“It’s such a contrast coming here with a team like TeamVodafone where you’ve got the resources, you’ve got the equipment, you’ve got everything in place to do the job,” Luff told AAP.
“The cars these guys make for Craig and Jamie at every round of the championship, as a driver they make your job so much easier, because you’re not having to over-drive to make up for having a bad car.
“I have complete faith in these guys that they will again give us a great car and they’ll give us a car that’s capable of winning come Sunday afternoon.”
Joining Luff at TeamVodafone is Paul Dumbrell, who retired from the main game at the end of last season and now finds himself pitted against his former Ford Performance Racing (FPR) teammates as championship leader Whincup’s partner.
FPR’s Winterbottom is Whincup’s nearest championship rival and Dumbrell is fully aware of the responsibility to keep his teammate’s best interests in mind despite this year’s race being his own best opportunity to win Bathurst.
“From a personal side of things, I’d love to win Bathurst, but for Jamie to win the championship and for me to play a small part in him doing that would also be quite special as well,” Dumbrell told AAP.
“Coming out of a nine-year full-time career, it’s clearly got to be an advantage over a guy who has only ever done the endurance races or a guy who retired three or four years ago. They might be racing other categories but it’s not racing V8s.”
Winterbottom’s co-pilot is former teammate Steven Richards, the son of seven-time winner Jim, and the only one of the four co-drivers to have tasted victory at Mount Panorama himself.
Richards said his winning experience wouldn’t give him an edge but he does have a plan to ensure he can add to his 1998 and 1999 crowns.
“It’s the old thing, you’ve got to know when to hold, when to fold, when to go and when to slow,” Richards told AAP.
“If you let your ego take over that’s when you make mistakes but if the opportunity’s there and the guys say ‘go for it’ we’ll be trying to do that.
“I’m here to win the race, not to stroke my ego on lap 45.”
The final one of the four co-drivers is New Zealander McIntyre, who is making his seventh Bathurst start alongside 2009 winner Davison.
In some ways McIntyre will shoulder as much pressure as Luff on Sunday, with Davison’s title challenge flagging following a barnstorming start to the year.
Davison himself admits he needs to win to keep his title hopes alive and McIntyre says there’s no reason the No.6 Falcon can’t come home ahead of the pack.
“Will’s pace, the fact that he’s won it before, the team’s form … all those things, we couldn’t ask for better so now it’s just up to us,” he said.
