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Whincup flags virtual retirement

Jamie Whincup has flagged a premature exit from the Supercars All Stars Eseries, as preparations for a resumption of real-world racing ramp up.

Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Edge Photographics

The seven-time Supercars champion has been on a steep learning curve in the sim racing world, having started the virtual season as a genuine novice.

While there has been progress along the way, including a reverse-grid win at Watkins Glen, Whincup looks set to bow out of the Eseries with three rounds to run.

He's citing his spot on the Supercars Commission for the virtual retirement, as the sport looks to lock down formats ahead of the resumption of the real-world season at the end of June.

"Now we’ve announced the revised calendar, my role within the Supercars Commission has been extremely busy, so I’m not going to have a huge amount of time to e-race in the coming weeks," said Whincup.

"I might call around and lean on one of the other lads to fill my spot for car #88, but we’ll no doubt make a decision in the coming days.”

The Red Bull Holden squad is not short on potential replacements, having run a number of wildcard entries over the course of the Eseries.

They've included Formula 1 megastar Max Verstappen, enduro cup co-drivers Garth Tander and Craig Lowndes and Formula 3 driver Jack Doohan.

Should Whincup not return to the Eseries, his exit would follow perhaps his best performance so far during last night's Charlotte Motor Speedway race. He qualified a season-best sixth, and was in contention for victory until a late-race collision with Jack Le Brocq.

According to Whincup there's a reason his best results have come on fast, open circuits with no hard stops.

"The biggest issue I had with my sim last night was braking again," he said.

"Usually I would lean on the engineers to help resolve this problem, but they’ve been too busy getting the real race cars ready back at the workshop, so we just haven’t had time to fix those slight problems.

"At places like Watkins Glen and Charlotte, there’s no braking so I’m actually reasonably competitive."

Whincup currently sits 19th in the Eseries points, while teammate Shane van Gisbergen took over the series lead with a clean sweep of last night's three races.

Supercars All Stars Eseries is streamed live and free through Motorsport.com and Motorsport.tv.

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