Winterbottom's season has slowly picked up after a horror start. Source: Ian Hitchcock / Getty Images
MARK Winterbottom has declared he is back in the championship hunt with the Ford top-gun claiming he has rescued his title dream and can now resume his war with Jamie Whincup.
On the even of the Ipswich 360, Winterbottom said he thought his season was over just four rounds ago after bad-pitstops, crashes and blown tyres had him languishing at the bottom of the top-ten.
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But after going on a "nothing to lose" charge, Winterbottom has roared back into contention with a string of solid results seeing him climb to fourth in the championship with only Will Davison, Craig Lowndes and Whincup in front.
Winterbottom is hoping to continue his charge up the leader board this weekend and turn up the heat on his old sparing partner Whincup with three race wins up for grabs at the track known as the "paperclip".
"We are definitely back in it," Winterbottom said.
"I have been catching points and all those things that were costing us points now at the start are going right. We are not too far off it at all coming into the endurance rounds. We will certainly be in it if we can keep this type of form up.
"We have three races this weekend and it is very important to continue making gains and improving. Each race is becoming vital and we need to continue the push."
Winterbottom said he had given up on his season following a string of failures, the only thing keeping him going the prospect of endurance glory.
"I thought I was gone," Winterbottom said.
"I really thought we were no chance. We had good car speed but all the other things were going wrong. The pitstops, the gearbox, the tyres, it was all happening and we weren't expecting to catch points on the front guys but it has happened. We still haven't had the cleanest run but we are bagging the points. It has definitely changed because three months ago I thought it was over. It is a tight championship and I am sure it will come down to December."
Winterbottom was locked in a heated battle with Whincup at the beginning of the year - the pair taking each other out in a war in Auckland - and is now hoping to jump Davison and Lowndes so he can resume the fight.
"I am not that far away now," Winterbottom said.
"If I plug a couple more positions I am on him. It is going to be a fight and Red Bull (Racing Australia) are having there own battles now. They had there worst ever round in Townsville last month and really need to bounce back here to cement themselves in the championship.
"They are lucky they have lots of points and a buffer because there is a lot of pressure on them now and we need to keep it on. Hopefully we can pass those two guys and who knows? Maybe it will be our two cars fighting it out for the championship."
Winterbottom said he would not change his new found aggressive driving style.
"I will keep on pushing," Winterbottom said.
"I am not going to change anything. My job is still to put pressure on the others, that is it. I will keep on attacking."
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