Whincup set a new championship record at Phillip Island as Volvo returned with a factory team and a Sydney finale was cut short by storms.
Jamie Whincup clinched a record sixth V8 Supercars title at Phillip Island in 2014, the 16th running of the series. He had defended his crown the year before, and that season also brought Volvo back with a works-backed S60 team, while Triple Eight kept the teams' title.
Jamie Whincup won a sixth title in the 2014 V8 Supercars Championship, passing the five-title mark that three former champions had shared. It was the 16th running of the series, and Volvo came back to Australian touring car racing with a backed works team.
What was the 2014 V8 Supercars season?
The 2014 International V8 Supercars Championship was the sixteenth running of the series and the eighteenth in which V8 Supercars had contested the premier Australian touring car crown. It was an FIA-sanctioned international championship, with twenty-five full-time cars competing in the season.
That was three fewer cars than the year before, when 28 entered the full season. Whincup defended his drivers' crown, and his Triple Eight Race Engineering team kept the teams' championship.
The title was settled at Phillip Island, where Whincup's win gave him a sixth championship. He and Paul Dumbrell also claimed the Endurance Cup, having won two of the endurance rounds.
A record sixth title, a Volvo factory return and a Sydney finale that storms cut short.
Why did Volvo's return matter?
Garry Rogers Motorsport left Holden to become Volvo's works-backed squad, running the second-generation S60. Its engine was a reworked form of the 4.4-litre B8444S unit that Yamaha designed for Volvo, and the cars raced as Volvo Polestar Racing entries. The move put the Swedish marque back on the grid for the first time since 1986.
Volvo had been absent from the touring car championship since Robbie Francevic took the 1986 title in a 240T. Scott McLaughlin gave the S60 an impressive debut at the Clipsal 500, where he finished second in race two.
McLaughlin later won the Perth 400 opener, giving Volvo its first series win since 1986. Robert Dahlgren joined the team in place of Alexandre Premat, who returned for the endurance races.
Which teams and drivers changed for 2014?
Dick Johnson Racing handed back a Racing Entitlement Contract leased from Triple F Racing, which had been unable to find sponsorship for 2014. Garry Rogers Motorsport changed manufacturers, while James Rosenberg Racing ended its link with Erebus and became a customer of Walkinshaw Racing.
Erebus downsized to two cars, and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport went down to one. Tekno Autosports also ran a single car, with Shane van Gisbergen in the Racing Entitlement Contract it owned. Tony D'Alberto Racing could not find sponsors, so it sold its car and equipment to Walkinshaw and gave up its contract.
Will Davison left Ford Performance Racing for Erebus, replacing Maro Engel, while Chaz Mostert took his place at Ford. Pye arrived at Dick Johnson from Lucas Dumbrell, and Wall came from Britek. Dale Wood then took Wall's place there.
Walkinshaw did not renew Russell Ingall, who went to Lucas Dumbrell, while Tim Slade left Erebus to take his seat. Nick Percat made his full-time debut in a car run by Walkinshaw, and Jack Perkins returned full-time with Charlie Schwerkolt Racing after a gap since 2009.
Ambrose, a former series champion, returned as a wildcard for the Sydney finale. His previous appearance had come in 2005.
How did the calendar and formats change?
The calendar was released on 23 September 2013. No round was held at the Circuit of the Americas this year. Instead, the series went back to Sydney Motorsport Park, using the Gardner Circuit layout, for the first time since 2012.
The addition of the Sydney Motorsport Park round moved the Winton 400 from August to April. Super Street events, held at the Clipsal 500, Townsville and the Sydney 500, featured two 125 km Saturday races and a 250 km Sunday race.
Most other rounds ran the Super Sprint format, with two 100 km races on Saturday and a 200 km race on Sunday. The Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600 kept their endurance formats, with the Gold Coast event made up of two 300 km races.
The 60/60 format of 2013 was scrapped, and a handful of races, including the first Clipsal 500 race, ran under lights for prime-time broadcasts.
What rules changed during the season?
Practice sessions became time-certain, so they ended on the clock even if a red flag had been shown. Qualifying sessions on the same day could share a fifteen-minute extension, and extra practice sessions were added at Winton, Queensland Raceway and Sydney Motorsport Park.
Abandoned starts now brought an extra formation lap, and red-flag restarts were governed by new procedures. The safety car restart rules were also rewritten after several incidents, with the lead car keeping a speed between fifty and sixty km/h until the Acceleration Zone.
Following Bright's roll at the Clipsal 500, the restart rules were reviewed. The zone was extended and the speed band moved up to sixty to eighty km/h, although that change was reversed later in the year. Teams were also told to take a specified amount of fuel for Sunday races at every event except the endurance rounds.
How did the early rounds unfold?
Craig Lowndes left the Clipsal 500 with the championship lead. Whincup won the first race ahead of Lowndes and van Gisbergen, then Lowndes won race two ahead of McLaughlin and Whincup. James Courtney won race three after losing a door to contact with Lee Holdsworth earlier in the weekend.
The third race was the most eventful. Will Davison hit the wall heavily after contact with James Moffat, and Jason Bright rolled at the Senna Chicane. Several penalties followed, and Whincup was penalised after his car controller was found to have been worked on during a pit stop.
At the second round, Whincup took pole and Lowndes qualified second for all three races. Whincup won the first two races, and Lowndes, who had come through from the rear to fifth in race two, won the third. Lowndes kept the championship lead, with Whincup up to second.
The Winton 400 produced three winners in three races. Fabian Coulthard took pole for both Saturday races and won the first, Lee Holdsworth won the second for Erebus and Mercedes-Benz, and Mark Winterbottom won the third for Ford. Winterbottom moved up to second in the points, 28 behind Lowndes.
Winterbottom then took the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy by dominating the New Zealand round, and he finished it with a 107-point cushion. Whincup had steering trouble in the opener, but the weekend belonged to the Ford driver.
| Event | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Clipsal 500 (opening round) | Whincup, Lowndes, Courtney | Lowndes led the points after round one |
| Second round | Whincup, Whincup, Lowndes | Whincup took pole for all three races |
| Winton 400 | Coulthard, Holdsworth, Winterbottom | Three manufacturers won the three races |
| New Zealand | Winterbottom | Jason Richards Memorial Trophy; 107-point lead |
| Perth 400 | McLaughlin, Lowndes, Mostert | Volvo's first win since 1986 |
| Skycity Triple Crown | Whincup, Whincup, Winterbottom | Winterbottom extended his lead to 161 points |
| Townsville | Whincup, Tander, Whincup | Lowndes spun out of race one |
| Ipswich 400 | Whincup, Whincup, Courtney | Whincup retook the lead |
| Sydney Motorsport Park 400 | van Gisbergen, van Gisbergen, McLaughlin | Whincup's 58th pole |
| Sandown 500 | Whincup and Dumbrell | Holden Racing Team filled the podium |
| Bathurst 1000 | Mostert and Morris | Won from last on the grid |
| Gold Coast 600 | Lowndes and Luff; Whincup and Dumbrell | Endurance Cup to Whincup and Dumbrell |
| Phillip Island | McLaughlin; Whincup; McLaughlin | Whincup's sixth title |
| Sydney Olympic Park | Whincup (race one); van Gisbergen (final race) | Storms stopped two races at about half distance |
How did the title race swing?
The Ipswich 400 changed the title lead. Whincup won both Saturday races ahead of Lowndes, and Courtney won the Sunday race after starting from second. Moffat took his first career pole there, the first for Nissan since its comeback. That was the round in which the championship lead changed hands.
Whincup was ahead on points after Ipswich. Winterbottom's car was punctured in the Sunday race and dropped to twenty-second, which gave Whincup the lead after he finished sixth.
At the Sydney Motorsport Park round, Whincup set a new career pole record with his fifty-eighth, eclipsing the 57 Peter Brock had managed. Both Saturday races were wet, something the series had not seen in close to three years, and van Gisbergen won them. Whincup finished fifth on Sunday and led Winterbottom by 135 points.
Lowndes' season was damaged at Townsville, where he lost ground after contact with Garth Tander and James Courtney on the opening lap of race one. Points penalties followed, and a poor Sunday dropped him to twenty-third in the closing race.
How did the endurance rounds play out?
At the Sandown 500, Whincup and Dumbrell secured pole and led 150 of the 161 laps on their way to victory, and the result added to their points total. Two Holden Racing Team entries completed the podium, Courtney and Murphy ahead of Tander and Luff.
The Bathurst 1000 went to Ford Performance Racing for the second year running, with Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris winning from last place on the grid. Whincup, sharing the car with Dumbrell, was out front for most of the final lap, but his tank ran dry at Forrest's Elbow and he fell to fifth.
The race ran for seven hours and fifty-eight minutes, the longest in the event's history, and it included a one-hour red flag to repair the track. Van Gisbergen had been in contention until he stalled during his final pit stop.
The Gold Coast 600 gave Whincup and Dumbrell the Sunday win, and they secured the Endurance Cup. Tony D'Alberto, Alexandre Premat and Dean Fiore each took their first V8 Supercars podium finish during that weekend.
How did the championship end?
Whincup won his sixth title at Phillip Island. A third-place finish and a race victory on Saturday gave him an unassailable lead with four races still to run, and Winterbottom had a bad day, going off the circuit and finishing well down.
On Sunday, Tander looked set for victory, but his car ran dry on the way out of the last corner and handed the win to McLaughlin. Tander crossed the line second, with Winterbottom and Whincup behind him.
The final round at Sydney Olympic Park was disrupted by storms. Davison set Erebus's first pole, and Whincup won the first race in the dry, while the second race was halted after 19 of 37 laps. The Sunday race was stopped after 44 of 74 laps and abandoned, leaving van Gisbergen as the declared winner ahead of Tander and Courtney.
Van Gisbergen ended the year second in the standings, with Winterbottom and Lowndes behind him.
