Supercars legend Mark Winterbottom more focused on next win than celebrating milestone 600th race

Mark Winterbottom does not remember his previous milestone races, but he can tell you where his last win was, and he is always on the hunt for the next one.

The popular Team 18 driver’s pedometer will tick over 600 career starts on Saturday when the Supercars arrive in Wanneroo for the Perth round of the 2023 championship.

The man they call ‘Frosty’ will join a select club when he lines up on the grid this weekend, following in the footsteps of Craig Lowndes and WA native Garth Tander to become the third driver to clock 600 Supercars starts.

Not that Winterbottom has been counting the races in head, nor is he focusing too much on this weekend’s milestone - he is far more concerned with winning his first race since 2016.

“When you’re racing, you’re looking forward; you’re not necessarily looking at the numbers, but to know there’s only two other people that have 600 starts is a pretty cool achievement to be part of that club,” he told The West Australian.

“If it wasn’t for stat guys at the team and stuff like that, you don’t keep track of what number your race is.

“I could tell you where my last race win was, not where my 500th race was.”

The 41 year-old spent a decade as a regular on the podium - between 2006 and 2015, he never finished below fifth in the driver’s standings, finishing third on five separate occasions, and his 10-year run culminated in the 2015 driver’s championship.

It may have been a long time between post-race champagne for Winterbottom - his last top three finish was 2017 - but he said an unquenchable thirst for winning drove him to return to the grid year after year.

“I hate losing, I hate getting beat so I don’t have days off in the gym, I work hard and I’d be fitter than 95 per cent of the field,“ he said.

“I don’t want to finish third, I want to win. You get trophies and it’s cool, but I don’t want to fill a cabinet full of third place trophies.

“Having 600 on the car and having it cross the line first would be definitely a photo you’d be blowing up - that’s the plan but no one cares it’s my 600th, no one’s going to pull over and let me through.”

While Winterbottom said he would not sit down and reflect on the milestone until after the race, it was a nice feather in his cap to have survived in the cut-throat sport for so long.

“Everyone looks at trophies and stuff like that, but the long career is really tough because you don’t get given anything in sport,” he said.

“It’s not a charity employment, you have to earn everything you get; one bad year, you’re out, you have a bad race, you’ve got to bounce back.”

And even though Winterbottom said his competitive nature kept him coming back, he knew where and when to flick the off-switch.

“I’ve never doubted - without sounding arrogant - my ability. I always know that at the right place right time I can win a race and that’s always good to know,” he said.

“I’m lucky I come home to my family and don’t drag a bad weekend home, I can switch off very quickly and then bounce back to the next one.”