Dutton: Triple Eight 'wants to win Bathurst so bad'

While Whincup is a four-time Bathurst 1000 winner, his recent run at Mount Panorama has been littered with near misses and well-publicised mistakes that have cost him and co-driver Paul Dumbrell victory.

That includes in 2014, when Whincup ran out of fuel, while leading, with half a lap to go.

A year later, Whincup was again in contention to win before electing to ignore the team’s instruction for him to pit when the Safety Car came out. He was then pinged for passing the Safety Car when he shouldn’t have, ruining any chance of winning The Great Race.

Then, in 2016 Whincup actually crossed the line first – only to be slapped with a 15-second penalty for his role in the chain reaction crash that took out Scott McLaughlin and Garth Tander.

Despite the streak of poor runs at the biggest race of the Australians season for Whincup, Dutton says the team won’t be carrying any extra pressure when it heads to Mount Panorama next week.

In fact, he says Triple Eight’s remarkable Bathurst form over the last 13 years – including two wins from the last five Bathurst 1000s – is the focus.

“No, no pressure. No mind games,” said Dutton when asked by Motorsport.com if the crew was feeling the pinch.

“We just want to win it so bad.

“You always look at it in a positive light, because you could have won it. It’s one thing to could have won it but didn’t, and that hurts… but trust me, if you couldn’t have won it, that feels so much worse.

“Then you don’t have the right people and you don’t have all the stuff, but we’ve got all of that.

“Yeah, we’ve made some mistakes as a team. But since 2005 we’ve had enough pace to win Bathurst every year – and I think if you asked other people they’d say that, it’s not just us trying to pump up our own tyres.

“I don’t know if many teams can say that…”

Triple Eight will also be looking to bounce back from a tough Sandown 500, where both of its Red Bull-backed cars were hit with tyre issues after being in contention for victory.

The Bathurst 1000 kicks off next Thursday.