KEY POINTS:
Everything had been coming together so nicely. Jamie Whincup was enjoying the view from the top of the V8s points table after two rounds, had been quickest in Friday's practice session and had set the fastest time in the first qualifying session.
All of that changed in a
split second, however, after the 25-year-old Australian tangled with Todd Kelly in the Jack Daniels Holden V8. Talk about a burn in the throat and a bad after-taste.
Kelly had run wide on turn five, moved onto the green-and-white ripple strip and clipped the back of Whincup's Ford causing him to slam into the wall.
The qualifying session came to an abrupt end, not to mention Whincup's participation in the weekend's racing. V8 mechanics are highly-skilled but even they can't work miracles.
You might have expected the 2007 Bathurst winner to be frothing at the mouth after being taken out. After all, it's not uncommon for drivers to come to blows and spout off a few choice words at their fellow competitors.
Not Whincup. At least not a couple of hours after the incident.
"You can't cry over spilt milk," he said as the mechanics took the pullbars to the mangled car. "I've seen this before and, unfortunately, I will probably see it again in my career.
"Hey, these things happen. I wish they didn't. Everyone goes through this and it's my turn today. Todd didn't deliberately put me into the wall. That's motorsport."
The accident meant Whincup's lead in the championship, which stood at 108 points coming into the meeting, was reduced to 20 points after Rick Kelly finished second yesterday and Kelly will go into the lead today if he can keep out of trouble in today's two races.
While Whincup was disappointed to see his lead reduced, he was more upset about missing the weekend's racing on the new Hamilton street circuit.
"I am feeling bad for the guys because they have to fix this car but I love the circuit," he said. "I'm going to miss out on the fun of driving around."
It wrapped up a terrible day for Team Vodafone. Team-mate Craig Lowndes started 21st on the grid after being caught with the wrong tyres on for the first qualifying sessions.
He was then caught up in the multi-car pile-up on the first lap, spun out after messing with Greg Murphy and then copped a pit lane penalty before finishing well down in 19th.
It meant he slipped from sixth in the overall standings to seventh.
But, unlike Whincup, at least he finished.
