Motorsport: Whincup cleans up at Clipsal

Jamie Whincup proved untouchable in the opening V8 Supercar round in Adelaide. Photo / Getty Images

ADELAIDE - Those aiming for Jamie Whincup's V8 Supercar championship fired blanks at Adelaide this weekend as the Ford driver started his defence with a dominant display at the Clipsal 500.

Whincup's main rivals barely laid a glove on the Team Vodafone driver in the V8 season opener in Adelaide.

Whincup added victory in Sunday's race two to pole position and a race one win on Saturday to complete a clean sweep of all that mattered on the first weekend of the season.

Those rated as his biggest championship rivals - Garth Tander, Craig Lowndes, Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney - were left playing catch-up after various problems plagued their weekends.

Whincup emerged with 300 points and holds a handy championship lead over Holden Racing Team new boy Will Davison (267), who had an excellent debut.

Davison was second in race two after a third placing in race one to send hopes soaring he can fill the huge shoes of five-time champion Mark Skaife at the sport's highest-profile team.

But while Davison signalled promise, Whincup is delivering now as he continued on stylishly from his late 2008 dominance.

It was doubly satisfying for the 26-year-old who was debuting the new FG Falcon - and perhaps left a little egg on the face of Ford, which has controversially withdrawn the bulk of its funding from Team Vodafone for 2009.

"It's been a long three months since Oran Park (the last race last year), you come in with the No.1 on the car, a lot of expectation, a lot of pressure, and there's a lot of question marks over things," Whincup admitted.

"I didn't know if I was going to run 25th or up the front. To have pole and two wins here this weekend means more than it looks from the outside."

With a huge target on his back, the best Whincup's rivals could manage was to pepper him with suction cup-tipped arrows.

Tander managed to pass Whincup on the opening lap of race two, but the Team Vodafone driver had his lead back on lap 14 of the 78-lapper and never relinquished his advantage.

After a disappointing race one, Ford Performance Racing's Winterbottom had more problems in race two.

He spun early and spent the rest of his Sunday in and out of the pits before finishing 24th.

New Jim Beam Racing recruit Courtney was also in the wars.

First he was docked 10 championship points by stewards, blamed for a race one incident on Saturday which caused Holden driver Paul Dumbrell to crash.

Then Courtney crashed his Ford in the Sunday morning warm-up, forcing his team into a frantic rebuild which finished so close to race time he had to start from pit lane and the rear of the 30-car field.

He eventually finished 26th.

Helping Whincup's cause further was Tander's failure to pick up any points in race one on Saturday after his car was black-flagged.

But the 2007 champion recovered to finish third in race two behind Whincup and Davison.

Lowndes finished fourth in race two, but spun late in race one to throw away valuable points.

The V8s take part in an exhibition round at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix next weekend, before the next round of the championship in New Zealand from April 17 to 19.

- AAP