In the second half of last year Lee Holdsworth announced that the 2022 season would be his last as a full-time driver in V8 Supercars. To celebrate his contributions to motorsports I’m giving a quick rundown on his career to date. I say ‘to date’ because I believe he has not fully retired from the sport and will be adding more to his list of achievements.
Lee Holdsworth was born on the 2nd of February 1983 in Melbourne Victoria. (Happy Birthday for next month).
Lee Holdsworth started his motorsport career in go karts. He quickly progressed to racing cars in 2001 to compete in the Commodore National Series at only 17 years of age.
In 2002 he finished fifth in the Commodore Cup National Series and then in 2003 finished third.
In 2004 he moved up to compete in the Konica Series driving a Holden VX Commodore for Smith Trucks Racing. He earned some impressive results including finishing his first ever round in the top 10, winning the reverse grid race at Eastern Creek and taking third place in Queensland. It was this year that Lee Holdsworth also got his first taste of The Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
In 2005 Lee competed in the Australian Formula Ford Championship with Garry Rogers Motorsport. At the same time, he ran in a number of HPDC Development Series events.
The following year, 2006 was his big break earning a fulltime drive with Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM) in the V8 Supercars Championship. In 2007 Lee Holdsworth won his first ever V8 Supercars round at Oran Park. His consistency and good strategies had paid off.
In 2008 Lee Holdsworth started working with the John Bowe Institute of Driving helping bring performance driving safety techniques to the public.
In 2009 Lee Holdsworth scored his first career pole position at the first ever Townsville round. He also scored pole position at the first running of the Sydney Telstra 500.
In 2010 Lee Holdsworth was still at GRM and earned 2 pole positions plus a race win.
His 4 year contract with GRM ended after the 2011 season and in 2012 he replaced Shane Van Gisbergen at Stone Brothers Racing.
In 2013 when Erebus Motorsport took over Stone Brothers Racing Lee Holdsworth had Tim Slade and Mario Engel as teammates. With co-driver Craig Baird they earned 3rd place in the endurance race of the Sandown 500.
In 2014 Lee Holdsworth hit a patch of bad luck and received 2 DNFs. One DNF was at Sandown and the other was Bathurst. He made amends by taking first place at Winton.
He spent the following year at Walkinshaw Racing.
In 2016 he moved on to join Team 18. After sustaining injuries at Hidden Valley Raceway, he had to sit out a number of events and didn’t return until the Bathurst 1000.
In 2017 Lee Holdsworth resigned with Team 18 to the end of 2018.
In 2019 Lee Holdsworth moved to Tickford Racing when the Ford Mustangs debuted in the Supercars Championship. It also meant it was his first time behind the wheel of a Ford since 2012.
In 2021 Lee Holdsworth lost his fulltime seat and became co-driver to Chaz Mostert. The relationship worked and they won the coveted Bathurst 1000.
With a Bathurst win under his belt, he returned to fulltime Supercars Racing in 2022 at Grove Racing.
So, after 16 years as a fulltime driver in V8 Supercars and 510 race starts (plus a few more in other categories) the Lethal Lee Holdsworth claims his retirement. Congratulations on what has been an amazing career! Best of luck for the future.
At the end of the 2021 Supercars season Jamie Whincup retired from full time racing. This is a tribute to his amazing 20-year driving career in Supercars marked by many records and achievements.
He will continue driving in the Enduro races (which includes The Bathurst 1000) so I imagine his win tally is not complete just yet. He is also going on to be Team Principal for his team, 888 Race Engineering (taking over from founder, Roland Dane).
Jamie Whincup was born on the 6th of February 1983 in Melbourne Victoria, Australia. At the time of publishing this article that makes him 38 years old.
In 1991 when Jamie Whincup was just 7 years old he started racing in go karts. By the age of 14 he had claimed countless rookie junior titles and celebrated his 15th birthday by winning the Senior Formula A Karting title.
Jamie Whincup: Early karting days.
In 2001 Whincup embarked on the Formula Ford Championship with the Mygale Racing Team that was run by his father David and his uncle Graeme, a former sports sedan star. He also had mechanical support from former Supercars driver Greg Ritter. For his first season he had excellent results and finished 3rd in the championship.
Then he moved to Sonic Motorsport owned by Michael Ritter, brother of Greg Ritter for the 2002 season. It was only his second season, but he went on to win the Formula Ford Championship convincingly.
Also, in 2002 he made his Supercars debut with Garry Rogers Motorsport at the Queensland 500 and The Bathurst 1000. His co-drivers for those 2 races were Max Dumesny and Mark Noske. Although Jamie Whincup hit a wall and was unable to complete The Bathurst 1000 (DNF) it did not deter Garry Rogers from seeing his potential.
For the following season, 2003 Garry Rogers offered him a fulltime drive. Jamie was only turning 20 that year.
He crashed and was unable to finish at Hidden Valley but it did not put the rookie off his game.
In the same year he also had bad luck at The Bathurst 1000 as co-driver to Garth Tander. He hit the wall at Forest Elbow. The damage was bad and he had to head back to the pits. It cost them any chance of a decent result after starting in 4th position.
In 2004 Jamie Whincup wasn’t fulltime but he did Sandown and Bathurst with Larry Perkins (Castrol Perkins Racing).
In 2005 he returned to fulltime Supercars racing with Tasman Motorsport as teammate to the late Jason Richards. They finished on the podium 3rd place in the Sandown 500 and 2nd in The Bathurst 1000. Not a bad result for someone in the game for just a couple of years.
2013 Tasmania: Me (William Hill-Smith) & Jamie Whincup behind the wheel. 2013 Jamie won his 3rd title in a row to give him his 5th championship.
When Jamie Whincup joined 888 Race Engineering back in 2006 he was teammate to the already legendary Craig Lowndes. Founder, Roland Dane desperately wanted some big wins for his team and brought Jamie in as part of a super plan.
Pairing Jamie with Craig Lowndes paid off for Roland. They didn’t fair that well at The Sandown 500 due to a mechanical problem, but struck gold at the big one, The Bathurst 1000. This was only Jamie’s 3rd year as a fulltime driver.
One of the big legends of the track, Peter Brock had passed away just a couple of months earlier. The Bathurst 1000 trophy was renamed in his honour, The Peter Brock Trophy. Lowndes and Whincup were the first to have their names inscribed on it. Brock was also mentor to Craig Lowndes so it must have meant quite a lot to Lowndes to win this race (The video embedded shows how emotional it was for both Craig and Jamie).
The other big win for Jamie that year was the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
Roland Dane’s hunch about this new young driver was right and they kept Jamie on for the following season of 2007.
Jamie was not about to let anyone down. In 2007 he earned his first career pole at Queensland Raceway and then won the round at Winton Motor Raceway.
The golden pair, Lowndes and Whincup then went on to win The Sandown 500 and The Bathurst 1000. This was the second Bathurst 1000 in a row.
Jamie followed up by then winning in Tasmania.
In the end he fell just 2 points short of Garth Tander for the 2007 Supercars Championship.
Jamie was kept on at 888 Race Engineering and had a great start to the 2008 year. He cleaned up at the first round winning both races at The Clipsal 500.
After the second round at Eastern Creek, NSW he was points leader on the championship ladder. But in the third round at Hamilton New Zealand, he missed the entire round after crashing in Qualifying.
It didn’t put his form off.
After winning races at Melbourne and Winton he was again paired with Lowndes for The Bathurst 1000. The Golden Duo performed magic once again. For the third time in a row they won the biggest race of the year, The Bathurst 1000.
That year Supercars also travelled to Bahrain for one of the rounds. No one had experience at this track. After winning at Bathurst and following up with 3 straight wins at Queensland’s Gold Coast he was in the best form ever. Once again the magic shone and he cleaned up in all three races.
Since Bahrain in 2008 Jamie Whincup has not been beaten at any Supercars event outside of Australia.
Except for Phillip Island, Jamie won at least 1 race in the 7 remaining rounds of the year.
By the end of the season his tally was 14 race wins out of 34 starts (this excludes Hamilton where he missed the entire round of 3 races). That is a 44.1% average win. He took the driver’s championship.
With stats like that people could see this was more than just beginner rookie enthusiasm. It was the coming of age of a race legend!
In 2009 Jamie Whincup ran the number 1 on his Team Vodafone Ford Falcon. The number 1 is honoured to the driver who wins the previous season.
He took the first 4 races in ’09 and managed to lead the championship from start to finish. This was his second championship win, earning them both in a row.
The 2010 season marked a change in cars for 888 from Ford to Holden. They started with two rounds overseas in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. Jamie Whincup won the 4 out of 4 races to start the season.
He went on to do exceedingly well earning 10 pole positions and 14 podiums for the season, 9 of which were first place.
Even with such amazing results he unfortunately lost the championship to James Courtney. Incidentally, Courtney’s tally for the year was 1 pole position and 9 podiums, 5 of which were wins. Compared to Jamie’s 9 wins for the season it was the big point races where Courtney got ahead.
Jamie wasn’t going to let that happen again. In 2011 he earned 19 podiums of 28 races(67.9%), 10 of them were wins (35.7%). Of the 1824 laps he completed he was in the lead for 659 (36.1%). I’m sorry if this sounds over the top but to be in the lead of ALL THE RACES for the year more than 1/3 of the time, THAT IS AMAZING!
He won the 2011 championship 35 points ahead of teammate, Craig Lowndes. More noticeably he was 449 points ahead of Mark Winterbottom in 3rd place. It was Jamie’s 3rd championship title.
Jamie Whincup lost his dad David to Lymphoma cancer on the eve of the 2012 Supercars championship. He won the opening race for the season The Clipsal 500, as a tribute to his father.
Jamie cleaned up that year claiming his 4th championship title. It was another back-to-back title win. He took 24 podiums of 30 races (80%), 12 of which were 1st place (40%), 339 points ahead of his nearest rival Craig Lowndes.
So dear readers, are you getting the picture of why Jamie Whincup is my favourite driver of all time?
2012 Homebush: The first time I got to meet Jamie Whincup.
Jamie went on to win the 2013 championship making it his 3rd in a row and his 5th in total.
In 2014 Jamie catapulted to legendary status by winning his 6th championship title. That was his 4th in a straight row.
In 2016 another star-to-be joined the 888 Race Engineering team, Shane Van Gisbergen. The two worked well together. Van Gisbergen took the title that year, Jamie running second and Lowndes fourth. The trio at triple 8 were an amazing team.
2016 Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) : The weekend of Jamie’s 100th career win.
2017 Jamie took back the title for his 7th time. This was won over a new upcoming star Scott McLaughlin.
2018 saw Scott McLaughlin take the title, but it was the 888 trio that filled the remaining top spots. Van Gisbergen was 2nd, Whincup 3rd and Lowndes 4th. Unfortunately, it was the final year of the trio as Lowndes retired at the end of the season.
2019, 2020 and 2021 ran much the same way where Van Gisbergen finally took his second title in 2021.
2021 was Jamie’s last fulltime season of racing in Supercars. He was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal (for being the best and fairest) for the 3rd time.
His career is highlighted by working with some of the best drivers to ever get behind the wheel, including his co-drivers:
Paul Dumbrell 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.
Jamie Whincup has competed in 552 races, earning 92 poles, 124 first place wins of 267 podiums.
Of the 30,057 laps completed he was in the lead for 6962 (that is close to being in the lead ¼ of his professional career). That ain’t bad at all!
At just 38 years of age with 7 championships, his achievements include back-to-back titles for Ford and 4 straight titles for Holden, 4 Bathurst 1000 wins and countless other record holding achievements.
Jamie Whincup, congratulations on everything you have achieved during your supercars career. Best of luck for the future. You will be missed on the grid in 2022.
2021 Mid Year VLOG from my YouTube Channel. Watch to the end .. had a bit of fun 😉
The reason why I am doing this post is because it is the end of the 2020 season and the Season Champion, Scott McLaughlin announced his departure from Australian Supercars for an opportunity in the U.S. To drive in the IndyCars series for Team Penske.
I want to highlight Scott McLaughlin’s amazing career in Australian Supercars. He is an amazing talent the likes of which we won’t see again for a long time.
Scott McLaughlin was born on the 10th of June, 1993 in New Zealand.
Scott McLaughlin started driving karts when he was 6 years old and started racing when he was 7 years old. Soon he was representing New Zealand in competitions overseas.
At the age of 9 he and his family moved to Australia.
In 2010 at the tender age of 16 years old he became the youngest driver ever in V8 Supercars, racing for Stone Brothers Racing in the Dunlop Super2 Series.
His hard work soon paid off. Early in 2011 he hit another high point at the age of 17 becoming the youngest driver ever to win a race in the NZ Touring Car Series championship.
In 2012 it all came together. He became the NZ Super Tourers Series champion. He also competed in the Dunlop V8 Supercars series and took the title for that as well.
Scott McLaughlin also made his debut at Sandown and Bathurst as co-driver to Jonathon Webb.
After he won that he got called up from Garry Rogers to replace Alex Premat in the Sydney 500. Alex Premat was unable to race due to heat exhaustion from racing the day before.
In 2013 Scott McLaughlin became full time driver in the V8 Supercars Championship Series.
In that same year he won 2 races at Pukekohe Park Raceway, New Zealand (race 6) and the again at Queensland Raceway (race 22).
From 2014 to 2016 Scott McLaughlin continued to drive in the Garry Rogers team, now going by the name ‘Volvo Polestar Racing.
In 2017 he switched to Dick Jonson Racing (DJR) and was teamed up with another excellent driver, Fabian Coulthard. It was a good match. McLaughlin in his Falcon proved to be fast. So fast he earned 16 pole positions for the season (now that is a lot – something like 50% of the races).
He even proved to be stiff competition to legend Jamie Whincup. Whincup had won the series championship in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
In the last race of the season the Newcastle 500, Whincup was leading the championship going in. In the first race Whincup crashed out and Scott McLaughlin won. McLaughlin was now leading the point score for the championship. Things were very tense. It all came down to the last race.
McLaughlin made quite a few mistakes in that race probably due to nerves and was penalised. Whincup’s experience kept him cool and steady throughout. He won the race but had only beaten McLaughlin by 21 points.
In 2018 he won his first championship. 2019 he took his 2nd championship as well as his first Bathurst 1000 trophy.
2020 he again dominated the series and took his 3rd championship. Driving a Mustang, he earned 15 Pole positions out of 27 races. He had 21 Podium finishes. 13 of them were wins. Now that is crazy!
Now he has moved to the U.S. to compete in the 2021 Indycars series as a full time driver for Team Penske. The contract has him locked in for 1 ½ years.
He has achieved so much and is still only 27 years old!!!!
From me and I am sure a great many others, we wish you the best of luck for the future Scott McLaughlin. You will be missed by everyone in the Supercars community.
Below I have some further stats on Scott McLaughlin’s career and other drivers he has been associated with.
His co-drivers were:
2013 Jack Perkins car 33.
2014 – 2015 Alex Premat, car 33.
2016 David Wall, car 33.
2017 – 2019 Alex Premat, car 17.
2020 Tim Slade, car 17.
Scott McLaughlin has been in the Supercars for 9 years:
·222 Races ·1 win ·2 podium finishes ·1 Pole position
Bathurst Career Results:
·2010 Ford Performance Racing FG Falcon finished 11th lap 161 ·2011 Dick Johnson Racing finished 25th got to lap 146. ·2012 Dick Johnson Racing finished 10th lap 161 ·2013 Nissan Motorsport finished 18th lap 161 ·2014 Nissan Motorsport finished 2nd lap 161 ·2015 Nissan Motorsport finished 10th lap 161 ·2016 Garry Rogers Motorsport DNF Lap 108 ·2017 Garry Rogers Motorsport DNF Lap 141
I am sorry to see James Moffat leaving his full-time driving position but I am sure we haven’t heard the last from him.
