Whincup's dominance delivered title

Though he only needed to score 67 points at the final round to take the title, it was no surprise that he clinched the title in the first race, and with a win.

With sixteen wins in 36 races so far (and seven each for his closest rivals), he is a deserving champion, having shown speed at both ends of the season, in the wet and in the dry, in sprint races and endurance races, and on street circuits and permanent circuits.

Along the way he has also taken five pole positions, the most for the season, and has finished every race in the top ten (apart from the three races at Hamilton, which he was unable to start).

Whincup's racing career began in karting, before moving up to Formula Ford in 2001, finishing third in the championship, taking the title the following season in 2002.

He made the step up to V8 Supercar in 2003 for Garry Rogers, but had a disastrous season finishing 27th in the championship alongside 2007 champion Garth Tander, Whincup's cause not helped by campaigning an older car.

For 2004 his only outings were drives in the endurance events for Perkins Engineering, taking a ninth place at Bathurst alongside Alex Davison. This saw a return to a full-time drive for 2005, driving for Tasman Motorsport, finishing the championship in 16th position.

Despite an improved performance compared to his first year, it still seemed that Triple Eight had taken a gamble when they signed Whincup to drive alongside Craig Lowndes for the 2006 season.

However their faith was repaid immediately when he scored his maiden race and round victory at the opening round of the season, teaming up with Lowndes to take victory at Bathurst on his way to finishing tenth in the championship.

2007 was a case of so near yet so far. A second victory in a row at Bathurst put Whincup into the championship lead, finally clawing back Garth Tander's early season dominance. But a no-point score at the Bahrain round proved crucial, Whincup failing to take the title by just two points.

However, with five wins to Tander's fifteen, and having made up most of the championship lead thanks to Tander's team's troubles at Bathurst, it was not as great a disappointment as it could have been, the title going to the driver who probably deserved it most.

After coming so close in 2007, 2008 would prove to be an interesting year. It started off perfectly at the opening round in Adelaide, but two rounds later in New Zealand Whincup's title hopes took a massive hit (literally).

Leading the championship by 108 points at the start of the weekend, Whincup failed to score a point after his car was destroyed in qualifying after being taken out by Todd Kelly, ending the weekend in fifth, 132 points off the lead.

Fluctuating fortunes for the leading drivers meant five rounds later, he was still nearly 100 points behind the lead, but now up to third. It was at this point Whincup hit a hot streak of form.

In the thirteen races from the second race at Phillip Island to the first race at Oran Park, Whincup has won eleven of them, including a streak of seven wins in a row and a third consecutive Bathurst 1000 win.

It could have been twelve out of thirteen wins (and nine in a row) were it not for a late slip-up in the closing laps of the Phillip Island 500.

Regardless, those two races he failed to win were both second place finishes, turning a 86 point deficit before Phillip Island into a 301 point lead after race one at Oran Park with only 200 points still available.

Whincup's title makes it the fourth consecutive season that a driver has taken their maiden title, following Russell Ingall in 2005, Rick Kelly in 2006 and Garth Tander in 2007, and the fifth time in six years, Marcos Ambrose winning the first of his two titles in 2003.