Having claimed the crown in 2007, all eyes were on Garth Tander in 2008 after his move from the HSV Dealer Team to the iconic red VE Commodore of HRT. But the reigning champ was quickly upstaged by Jamie Whincup in his BF Falcon, whose two wins at Adelaide on the opening weekend of the season signalled that the Triple Eight driver was ready to graduate from pretender to contender. Tander soon fired back with three wins across the ditch in Hamilton after Whincup crashed out in practice and was forced to sit out the weekend with an irreparable car. Mark Winterbottom then emerged from the pack with strong performances at Barbagallo, Hidden Valley and Ipswich, but Whincup found his groove again at Winton as he dominated the back-end of the season, winning an incredible seven races in a row at Bathurst, Surfers Paradise and Bahrain, and then a further three rounds at Symmons Plain and Oran Park to claim his first V8 Supercars Championship.