"I didn't expect to be leading at this time in the year,'' he said. "I don't really want to talk about it. I found myself in this position last year where you are three rounds in and everyone is talking about the championship. So much can change so quickly.
"It's definitely encouraging. I expected the first rounds to be a little tough for us because we don't have a great handle on the car but we have dug really, really deep when it counts and we have had a fairly clean run so far. Who knows what December will bring but we will be fighting really hard.''
So will Whincup. The Red Bull Racing driver emerged from the weekend with his first win of the year and backed it up with a third in the final race but was also at the tail of the field for two races and inexplicably ran off the track in today's first race to big cheers from the crowd at Pukekohe.
Ford showed good speed all weekend but most drivers have pointed to the pace of Brad Jones Racing and Bright and Coulthard.
The BJR team, who don't have wallets as deep as many others, have made big gains in the last two race meetings and have benefited greatly from the arrival of the Car of the Future which has levelled the playing field.
Only four teams won races last year but already drivers from five teams have stood on top of the podium after only three rounds.
The championship moves to Western Australia for next month's Perth 360.
