Asian Motor Sports

Ford ace Jamie Whincup hopes an Oran Park track that is falling apart doesn’t send his V8 Supercar championship hopes crumbling as he goes into the final round of the series in a near-unbeatable position.

Drivers were critical of the surface of the western Sydney track, which is hosting its final V8 round before the complex is turned into a housing estate, following a difficult practice session on Friday.

Whincup, who holds a commanding championship lead and could seal the title with a sixth place finish in Saturday’s first of three races, topped the timesheets in practice.

But he admitted the condition of a track which appears to be crumbling in parts was a concern - his comments echoed by several other drivers.

“I was a bit worried during that session - the track’s so slippery and so bumpy,” Whincup said.

“There’s cracks and dirt all over the place.”

Holden veteran Russell Ingall, who was second fastest, said this weekend’s races were likely to cause the track to deteriorate further.

“You can tell it’s the last round here because there haven’t been too many bucks spent on the place in a while,” Ingall said.

“It’s pretty rugged on certain parts and I’m tipping it’s going to get worse during the race too.

“It looks like there’s bits of bitumen being dug up from where cars are dropping off and they’re dragging it (the loose bitumen) on to the track.”

That means a front-end qualifying position will be vital to avoid any potential problems, especially for Whincup as he attempts to convert a virtually unassailable 233-point series lead over Ford rival Mark Winterbottom into his first V8 title.

Only disaster in race one could seriously stop the Team Vodafone driver from taking the championship, given he has three races to secure the 68 points he needs to secure the title.

Even with the question marks over the track surface, the 25-year-old showed he was quite capable of managing that feat early in the weekend with his quick time on Friday.

Whincup’s 1min 9.5125sec fastest lap edged out Ingall (1:09.5920), with Whincup’s Team Vodafone teammate Craig Lowndes (1:09.6215) third fastest.

Winterbottom was ninth fastest, while retiring Holden legend Mark Skaife was 13th.

Skaife will retire from fulltime driving following this weekend’s round, which heats up when qualifying is held on Saturday.

Oran Park will also mark the final fulltime V8 drive for another veteran - Holden’s Paul Morris - who has signalled he will compete only in the endurance rounds for his Supercheap Auto team in 2009.