The championship went down to the final race with Jamie and Norton-sponsored team mate Craig Lowndes the only drivers left in contention.

Jamie merely needed to keep out of trouble and finish in the top five on Saturday to clinch the title, however fate was to deal another hand.

The brutal Homebush ripple strips struck when the front right-side damper broke, sending him into the turn five wall at around 200km/h.

Able to limp back to the pits, the team repaired the car and Jamie eventually finished 20th, six laps down.

“It’s like someone writes a script and we’re all just puppets playing it out!” said Jamie after his eventful race.

“I’ve been saying it all week – motorsport is a crazy thing. You can be so fast, but you can have a little incident go wrong, which is what happened to me today. We’ll keep our heads up and fight back tomorrow.”

After a disastrous qualifying result saw him start 10th off the grid, Craig had a stellar race – which many pundits are calling his best-ever drive – racing through the field to win the race and take the championship decision to Sunday’s final.

Triple Eight gambled on Craig’s fuel strategy, with only two stops for fuel. It worked, but could have ended very badly – there was less than half a litre of fuel left in the tank at the end of the race!

“We always said coming into this weekend that anything was possible, and the possible has happened,” said Craig after his race one win.

“I needed Jamie to make a mistake or have something go wrong, which it did today, for me to have a chance of getting back into the competition.

“But I know that tomorrow will be a vastly different day to today.”

Sunday’s proceedings looked a little traditional, aside from some heavy downpours across the day creating havoc for car set-ups.

Jamie qualified second on the grid, and Craig fourth – both at the pointy end of the field where they needed to be.

Partially wet conditions saw a bizarre start, with half of the field electing to pit on the warm-up lap for slick tyres.

Jamie and Craig both started on the grooved wet rubber, but pitted within a dozen laps for slick tyres as the track dried out.

This put them both out of sequence, and down the order – Lowndes 10th and Whincup 18th – from where they had to fight for the rest of the day.

After the final stops Craig was eighth and Jamie 18th – due to T8 stacking the cars in the pits – and they both moved through the field to finish second and eighth respectively.

Jamie only needed to finish in the top 12 to end the title race, while Craig needed to win to stand any chance.

The result saw Jamie take out the championship on 3168 points, with Craig only 35 points behind on 3133.

The championship is Jamie’s third, putting him on par with Craig and Touring Car legend Peter Brock.

“The whole year swings on one moment, and it’s such a big thing. At the end of the day it’s a team effort, and we’re one and two,” said Jamie on Sunday.

“I feel bad for Lowndesy, but he’s a part of the bigger team and we share each others’ results. We’re 1-2 this year, and hopefully we can both celebrate that,” Jamie concluded.

“We gave it our best shot but it just wasn’t to be … it’s been a great season, we’ve won lots of races and had some fantastic drives. I’ve got to thank everyone at Team Vodafone for a great year,” Craig said.

“Congratulations to Jamie, he’s done a terrific job all year, and has just been too consistent for me.

“And congratulations to Team Vodafone for a 1-2; it’s an awesome performance. We’ll be back to try again next year.”