Reigning V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup says last year's disappointment in New Zealand spurred him to success in the opening race of the Hamilton 400.

Whincup made it three wins from three championship races in 2009 with an assured victory in the first race of the event on Saturday, opening up a 63-point lead on the championship ladder over Holden's Will Davison.

The Team Vodafone driver said the memory of crashing out during qualifying in last year's Hamilton event ensured plenty of hunger going into this weekend.

Whincup led the race virtually from start to finish, overtaking pole-holder Mark Winterbottom midway through the opening lap and never looking back.

O:


I'm impressed with Whincup's w/l ratio this year. I guess this latest win puts him on par with Craig Lowndes in terms of number of wins in a season.

The race itself was relatively free of incidents except Murphy having to retire after hitting a wall on lap five, though Marcus Marshall's big hit on a tyre bundle coming out of the chicane on the back straight was a nice one...

I'm sure Murphy must be upset. Six laps isn't much better than I could do >.<

Then again, he hasn't been on par imo since the 2005 collision with Ambrose.

Well, i'd be a little gutted if I was him, Pukekohe was his circuit, and Hamilton it seems isn't the same. At least we still have a round in NZ though.

I'm just hoping he improves his game for Bathurst. Maybe this year he'll get his fifth win.

I feel the other NZ talent is lacking this year though. Coulthard is the only one who's holding his own, although sixth is a bit of a let-down.

Wow! So many posts all within a few minutes of each other.

It's almost as if you two planned this conversation out from the beginning on Ventrilo, coordinating your posts content - much of which you obtained from Wikipedia and various web sources - purposefully so that the other could formulate a response and, thus, create a long and seemingly fruitful conversation which is really just a waste of time and a pathetic attempt to elevate your post counts.

But I'm sure that's just my imagination

Don't forget, Jason Richards, although he lives in Melbourne, Victoria, he's a NZ'er

and 5th in the Championship, although its only been 3 rounds so far

I haven't been following Richards since he left team kiwi, although his runner-up at bathurst was an allright result, I guess.

Wayne Wrote:..., although his [Richards's] runner-up at bathurst was an allright result, I guess.

Yes, that's correct! I heard this as well. In fact, I heard it in a Ventrilo comment by P4 when he asked you to post about it a few minutes ago.