Winterbottom can expect to feel every bump and clutch movement around the unrelenting Adelaide street circuit more than his V8 Supercar rivals, as he nurses his healing off-season waterskiing injury through qualifying on Friday and gruelling 250km races on Saturday and Sunday.

The 30-year-old Ford Performance Racing driver admitted he had considered the prospect of missing Adelaide.

But with a good start essential if Winterbottom wants to finally win a maiden V8 championship in a team which hit top form towards the tail-end of 2011, the Ford spear-carrier decided the risk needed to be taken.

An injury like Winterbottom’s normally takes 12 weeks to heal.

It’s been eight since his accident, and the healing process has been swifter than expected so far.

“In the car, in the race, the adrenalin really gets you through … it’ll swell up during the race but you deal with it,” Winterbottom said.

“Saturday night, ice bath, get the swelling down again, get the movement back. The pain’s okay, it’s the movement. And it’s the clutch foot too, not the brake foot.” Winterbottom has testing his theory after limping around his busy round of pre-Clipsal 500 corporate engagements in Adelaide this week – immediately returning to his hotel to ice down the resulting swelling.

But he’s confident it would be much harder to deal with the pain of not getting off to the best possible start than any discomfort he’ll face on race day.

“I’ve trained with a moon boot on, I’ve trained with plaster on. There’s no challenge that I’ve been thrown (while injured) that I couldn’t do and that makes you mentally strong,” he said.

“I want to win this year. We’ve come close. If we come third again, we’ve failed. A win is all we’ve got to do that we haven’t, I think.

“You’ve got to be good all year, and that’s been our weakness in the past – been good for eight months, not 12.” Winterbottom has just extended his deal to remain with Ford and FPR until the end of 2014.

In a revised Clipsal 500 schedule, qualifying and the top 10 shootout will be held on Friday ahead of races on Saturday and Sunday.

More than 270,000 fans are expected for the four-day event, which starts on Thursday with a full day of support category races.