He’s ready to reboot his lagging V8 Supercars title defence but Jamie Whincup is concerned a lack of tyres could spoil this weekend’s event in Darwin.
Each driver has been allocated four sets of tyres for the Darwin Triple Crown, two sets of hard tyres and two sets of softs.
It’s the first time the mixed tyre format has been used in this year’s championship.
The hard tyres can be used at any point over the weekend but with the soft tyres only allowed to be strapped onto the wheels in Sunday’s 200km race, Whincup admits tyre management is going to be key.
With the same hard tyre sets to be used for Saturday’s qualifying and pair of 100km races, Whincup believes championship officials have left drivers at least one set short.
“We’ve got five stints we’ve got to do and we’ve only got four sets,” he said.
“We’re going to be barrelling around on canvas for the middle of some race.”
Tyre problems are the last thing Whincup needs as he struggles to keep himself in this year’s championship race.
Having not finished outside the championship top two in the past six years, winning five titles in the process, Whincup goes into this weekend fourth on the standings and without a race win since March.
The 31-year-old made a solid start to the weekend by clocking the second-fastest time in practice on Friday behind Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen.
The Red Bull Racing driver posted a fastest lap of 1 minute, 09.6227 seconds, just pipped by New Zealand’s van Gisbergen (1:09.3476) but ahead of championship rivals Mark Winterbottom, Craig Lowndes and Fabian Coulthard.
Whincup admits he was struggling following the previous event in Perth but a five-week break has given him the freshness to revive his year.
“It’s been a crazy start to the year, I don’t know why in particular but (he has been feeling) pretty run-down,” he said.
“I think it was that three race meetings in four weeks … it was pretty full-on.
“I’m a little bit better with the fans this weekend than I was in Perth, a little bit happier.”
Saturday’s action begins with two 10-minute qualifying runs from 11.40am (12.10pm AEST) before the first of two 100km races starts at 2.20pm (2.50pm AEST).
