The 2009 V8 supercars season has been a year of highs and low, an emotional rollercoaster, shattering to some but rewarding to others. It was this season that led to the crowning of Jamie Whincup who secured back-to-back V8 Supercar titles.

The Clipsal 500 was launched in high fashion, and expectations were high of the newly crowned champion Jamie Whincup. However he did not disappoint. The streets of Adelaide promised to provide carnage with young gun Caruso crashing out at high speed and begging marshals to put the fire out on his car. Young Perkins also provided some entertainment slapping into the wall side on at high speed, however Whincup stayed clean of all this to grab both race wins, clean sweeping the round and stating his championship intentions.

The V8 Super Circus then headed over the Tasman for the Hamilton 400. Once again the concrete of this street circuit showed no mercy. Jamie Whincup continued his championship statement with another two wins, clean sweeping the round.

The first non street circuit race of the year promised to be a thriller, held at Winton motor raceway. The domination from Whincup switched to his teammate, Craig Lowndes as he also cleaned up the weekend with two wins.

The Falken Tasmania challenge was where the lion started to fight back with Garth Tander leading the charge for the red army in race seven.  However Whincup once again asserted his dominance in race eight to take the win.

We then headed up north to Darwin for the SKYCITY Triple Crown. Soaring temperatures and the newly introduced sprint tyre proved to be an engineering nightmare. Thirty-four laps later Whincup took the honors in race nine. At this point in the season Whincup looked to be unstoppable. The sprint tyre was introduced to mix up the racing and it certainly done its job in race ten. Young gun, Michael Caruso took the chequered flag in race 10, ticking a box for his V8 supercar career with his first race win.

Teams then directly proceeded to Townsville for the inaugural Dunlop Townsville 400.  The event looked to be a thriller with its tropical setting and the newly designed racetrack. On par with previous street circuits, Whincup took line honors and stamped his name into the history books. Race twelve and Whincup was once again hungry for round domination, but there were two men that stood in his way. Garth Tander with his Holden Racing Team VE Commodore and James Courtney with his Dick Johnson Racing FG Falcon. After seventy-two laps of grueling battles and endurance, James Courtney emerged the winner, shutting the door on another win for the championship leader.

The Norton 360 Sandown challenge was were the Holden Racing Team stepped up to the mark. From this event onwards Will Davison and Garth Tander would be classified as championship contenders as the battle heated up. Honors for race thirteen and fourteen were both shared between Will and Garth.

We then headed up to sunny Queensland for the Queensland House and Land.com 300. As predicted Jamie Whincup had the home track advantage and once again won the first race of the weekend.  But in the second race, Will Davison fought back to claimed line honors by an impressive fourteen seconds.

The V8 paddock then got into enduro mode. The L&H 500 looked almost certain to be won by the duo of Whincup and Lowndes until a last lap passing move by the car of Tander and Davison, took the lead and line honors.  It was this from Phillip Island that was carried on to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The Duo of Tander and Davison won the Bathurst 1000 which prevented the 888 boys from making history.  The race proved to be a thriller with rain, cars on fire, carnage and shear desperation to be crowned the Bathurst 1000 champions.

The V8 Supercar series then headed to the sunshine state, bright and sunny Queensland. The Nikon SuperGP proved to be a pivotal moment in the championship. The SuperGP was where championship leader Jamie Whincup became unstuck and provided the incentive and chase for Will Davison that would take the fight to the last round. The hunting ground of Surfers Paradise was a dog to Whincup but proved to be successful for Mark Winterbottom who took out two of the four races, coming away with most points. Garth Tander won the other two races/

Mid season change of plans and the Island 300 event was now replacing the overseas Bahrain round. Phillip Island was the new venue of battle despite racing there earlier in the year for the L&H 500 enduro event. Whincup once again continued his previous form and gave it his all to make up for his disastrous SuperGP performance. The Island provided some good racing, though some would bed to differ. Jason Bargwanna was in the wars with one, Craig Lowndes. Near disaster was narrowly avoided when the safety car failed to scramble forcing cars to sort them selves out whilst decelerating from speeds close to 250km/h. After the kafuffle, Whincup once again took both race wins.

The V8 field then packed up on the east coast and headed west, all the way to Barbagallo Raceway in sunny Perth, Western Australia. Whincup once again dominated, ticking off race twenty three win on his too do list. Race twenty four was taken out by none other than his team mate, Craig Lowndes. Successful for some, costly for others, Todd Kelly took a massive hit on his passenger B pillar, writing the car off.

The last event was the stage of the crowning of Jamie Whincup, The Sydney Telstra 500 Grand Finale. With a firm grip on the championship, Whincup was free to give it his all and forget about the conservative mindset he was urged to have for the year. Garth Tander and James Courtney took out the races respectively, however this made no effect on the effective champion Jamie Whincup. Will Davison finished second in the championship with his team mate, Garth Tander finishing 3rd. The Holden Racing Team got some pride by taking out the Teams Championship in a thrilling end to the 2009 V8 Supercar season.

Copyright - V8SFG 2010 | Author - Rahul