Seven-time Supercars series champion Jamie Whincup says the season’s coronavirus shutdown may yet extend his career.
The Holden star made the surprise announcement in February that he had re-signed for another season until the end of 2021, ending months of speculation about his future.
However, Whincup only got to contest two races – winning one of them – at Adelaide’s opening round before the Supercars season was postponed until at least June due to the pandemic.
The 37-year-old said the long wait to return to the track had only made him hungrier than ever to get behind the wheel and he may keep racing beyond 2021.
“Having such a big, long break, it may revive me, I may want to go on further than 2021, but I’ll reassess that come next year,” Whincup told Fox Sports’ Supercars Sidetracked.
“But, I think once we do get going, and hopefully it’s sooner rather than later, it’s going to be unbelievably hectic and I can see us going all the way into the Christmas holiday period.
“To be honest, I’m looking forward to getting behind the wheel. We’ll see how I go through in this championship and then reassess probably at the start of next year on what to do for 2022.”
Whincup appeared to be winding down his career before announcing he would keep racing in February.
In 2018 he had grabbed a 15 per cent stake in his Supercars outfit Triple Eight – the team he had been with since 2006, winning all of his record seven titles plus four Bathurst 1000 crowns.
And he gave his strongest indication yet that he was about to hang up the drivers’ helmet when he joined the Supercars Commission late last season.
But Whincup said he had no regrets about making the call to remain behind the wheel.
“I’m so grateful that I made the call to run on for 2021,” Whincup said.
“Imagine this was my last year. It would be a little bit of a disaster, so thankfully (I am) going on for 2021.”
Whincup is second in the Supercars championship, just 27 points behind two-time defending champion Scott McLaughlin.
He will join the rest of the Supercars field for the virtual racing Eseries third round on Wednesday night.