Two wins for four-time champ in opening two Austin 400 races
Red Bull Racing Australia's Jamie Whincup (bottom right) obviously likes using his passport. The four-time series champion continued his amazing international record at Circuit of The Americas today by winning the opening two races of this weekend's Austin 400.
Whincup led home teammate Craig Lowndes and Lockwood Racing's Fabian Coulthard in both of today's spectacular 27 lap races to extend his lead in the championship chase.
"I'm sorry that the podium was the same for both races, we would have liked to have spiced it up but that's the way it goes," Whincup said.
"We had a good run in Perth two weeks ago. We found a gain there and were going to see if it carried through until now, which it has. That wasn't the case earlier in the season but now we feel like we can have a crack.
"But like last year and the year before we are not going to slow down; we will keep our heads down and keep improving the cars. It always tightens up.
"They are stock cars. They are pretty much all the same, we pretty much run the same componentry and the same tire.
"We are just able to fine tune the balance ... all the other guys will no doubt make a step up. For sure it will be more competitive, we just hope we are at the next step when they get there.
"All sport all over the world is swings and roundabouts. Every team at the top plummets to the bottom at some point and then makes their way up again."
Whincup's success offshore has been unmatched, the Red Bull Racing Australia driver winning 18 of the last 26 V8 Supercar races held outside Australia from Bahrain 2008 onwards.
He's also taken 10 of the 22 pole positions in that time, with a total of eight drivers sharing the 13 other pole positions on offer between them, including Fabian Coulthard's in Texas in race one.
Austin fans are set for more V8 Supercar action tomorrow with an additional two qualifying sessions and another pair of 27 lap events - races 15 and 16 of the 2013 championship.
Photo courtesy of V8 Supercars
