Motorsport: Whincup continues superb start to season

Jamie Whincup drives the Team Vodafone Ford during race one of the Hamilton 400. Photo / Getty Images

Defending champion Jamie Whincup is not thinking too far ahead as the prospect looms of him breaking his own record for most victories in a V8 Supercar championship season.

The Victorian today continued his 100 per cent start to the year by claiming the first race of the Hamilton 400, having taken both chequered flags at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide last month.

Whincup holds the mark with Craig Lowndes for most race wins in a season with 16, achieving his feat last year.

But he said it would be "crazy" to think about statistics like that at such as early stage of a campaign.

"You end up bluffing yourself out of it," he said.

"Three from three sound goods, but you know it will come down to one point."

Whincup, who started today second on the grid, took the lead from polesitter and fellow Ford driver Mark Winterbottom on the first lap and stayed in front for the rest of the 200km contest.

Winterbottom ended second after 59 laps of the 3.4km street circuit, ahead of Lee Holdsworth in the first Holden home.

The result bucked the tradition of Holden dominance in the New Zealand round, with Ford having won just one of the previous 24 races staged on this side of the Tasman since the first in 2001.

It also helped Whincup, who set a new lap record of one minute 24.4701 seconds, to erase what he described as a black day in Hamilton last April, when a crash in qualifying ended his participation.

The 150 championship points he added to his tally means he will go into the second and final race tomorrow on 450 points, ahead of Holden driver Will Davison on 387.

The best of the five-strong New Zealand contingent today was Fabian Coulthard, who started 21st on the grid but piloted his Ford to sixth at the finish.

Coulthard said he had finished back in the field in qualifying because a gamble on tyre choice had backfired.

"The biggest thing for us was not dwelling on what happened and we did that quite well," he said.

"A couple of places fell my way with people taking each other out, but you have to be there to collect them."

Coulthard had returned to Hamilton with good memories, having finished fifth overall 12 months ago during his breakthrough V8 Supercar season.

"You always like a track you do well at."

New Zealand teenager Shane Van Gisbergen, also in a Ford, crossed the finish line in ninth place, but was dropped to 17th after getting a penalty for his role in a collision the Holden of Paul Dumbrell.

Van Gisbergen's demotion meant compatriot Jason Richards was elevated to 10th.

Meanwhile, local crowd favourite Greg Murphy's bad luck in Hamilton continued when he lasted just six laps before he crashed out with a puncture.

A four-time overall winner when the New Zealand round was held at Pukekohe, Murphy failed to feature last year at the inaugural Hamilton 400.

- NZPA