Whincup wows crowd Ford

A dominant display by Jamie Whincup at the Hamilton 400 at the weekend destroyed two major demons.

Whincup was far and away the quickest and best driver in the New Zealand V8 Supercar stop, and his round win was the first by a Ford driver in the nine years Supercars have raced in New Zealand.

It also more than made up for Whincup's disastrous weekend in Hamilton last year when he was forced to take up commentator duties after being clipped into a wall in qualifying.

It also continues Whincup's monopoly with the 26-year-old Australian having won all four races of the season for a maximum of 600 points and an early 102-point lead.

"Today's race was all about a fast car," Whincup said last night, referring to the strength of his team.

After winning Saturday's first race, yesterday Whincup looked like he may have had the same luck as a year ago when, on easily the quickest qualifying lap, the session was red-flagged just seconds before he crossed the line making his lap void.

Brad Jones Racing's Cameron McConville had crashed at Big Pond corner in a dangerous position on the track so the session was ended about a second too early for the flying Whincup. But a clever strategy and speedy pit-stop had the series defending champion back in front where only a yellow flag could close the gap between him and the pair of Jim Beam Racing cars pilotted by James Courtney and Steven Johnson.

"We got in and out (of the pits) really fast and the car was on the rails all weekend.

"Considering I had two DNFs last year, to win both races is amazing," he said.

Courtney made up for a disappointing 13th in Saturday's race with a handy second in yesterday's 59-lapper, but said Whincup was tough to get near all weekend.

"I just saw this little red thing in the distance and went for it."

He said the only reason he finished as close as he had to Whincup was because Whincup had been managing his gap and driving conservatively toward the end of the race. Courtney's second has him up to 10th after four of the 26 races. Johnson took out third.

Fabian Coulthard was the top Kiwi over the weekend with a sixth and a fifth and he sits fifth in the championship.

Shane van Gisbergen's 17th and 15th have dropped the Aucklander to ninth while yesterday was a better day for crowd favourite Greg Murphy.

Murphy had a horror weekend a year ago and a DNF on Saturday made it look like he would never have any luck in Hamilton.

But a respectable eighth in yesterday's race restored confidence and moved him up to 21st in the series.

Jason Richards finished 10th and 22nd and falls to sixth.

- © Fairfax NZ News