RIVAL Supercars team bosses Jamie Whincup and Ryan Walkinshaw have engaged in a war of words, making for a spicy start to the first day of track action at the Melbourne SuperSprint.

Comments by Whincup via Apex Hunters United questioning the legitimacy of Walkinshaw TWG Racing’s two Supra chassis have been firmly rejected by the Toyota homologation team.

“We think Jamie might be a bit confused here,” Ryan Walkinshaw told V8 Sleuth.

“Because we think he’s referring to the TIG versus MIG debate that we had at the start of Gen3, where we initially TIG’d our first chassis we built because welding requirements were yet to be confirmed.

“Supercars allowed us to do it and then they changed the rules after the first chassis was built, and the fix was to MIG over those welds in order to come up with a solution that didn’t require us to build a whole new chassis at huge cost.

“Contrary to what Jamie says, this is actually a disadvantage, not an advantage, because it actually added a lot of weight to the chassis which obviously we didn’t want and we couldn’t pull any weight out of another part of the car because they are controlled chassis everywhere else.

“Our initial Gen3 chassis to which we think Jamie is referring to are now retired.

“Our two new chassis we currently have are completely approved and certified by Supercars, including our spare chassis, all of which have been at the technical centre where they all passed all their twist tests, et cetera, and have been signed off by Supercars and approved.

“We aren’t here to throw mud at other teams.

“If Jamie wants to do that, that’s his choice, but we’re going to do our talking on the track.”

The Walkinshaw TWG Racing Supras of Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood in Sydney. Pic: Supplied/Jack Martin

V8 Sleuth has today verified that Whincup’s claims indeed are about the 2026 Walkinshaw cars, not those built for the start of Gen3.

It’s understood a memo was distributed by Supercars last December in order to eliminate some grey areas that had remained regarding chassis welds.

Chassis stiffness is considered to have an impact on performance.

“Walkinshaw have built two chassis at the start of the year and the rules clearly state you cannot TIG weld the chassis,” said Whincup. “So Walkinshaw have TIG welded both their chassis up.

“Supercars go ‘gee okay, what are we going to do here? If you just MIG over the top, it’s going to be okay’.

“I said ‘hey guys, that’s not on. They need to throw them in the bin and start again’.

Jamie Whincup. Pic: Mark Walker

“I said ‘I can’t tell them to do that, all I can do is appeal the result; so after the first race I’ll say I think that car’s not legit and go from there’.

“So then Supercars issued a letter to say we’re going to allow these two cars indefinitely but nobody else can do what they did, so from here on in you’ve all got to MIG weld.

“It’s out of control. So if you’re a Kai Allen fan or a Rylan Gray fan or a Broc Feeney fan and you get beaten by a Walkinshaw car this weekend, you’ve got every right to be pissed off because they’re not running the same chassis as what we are.

“It needs to be addressed. It can’t continue like that. They can’t be running these, what I regard as an illegal car. They’re legal because Supercars say they are, but I don’t accept that. We need to get that changed as soon as we can.”

Whincup added he thinks the alleged error was strategically made: “They’re probably laughing all the way to the bank.”

All this adds depth to the bubbling angst between the two teams, whose young gun drivers Broc Feeney and Ryan Wood continue to be at loggerheads following a controversial clash in last year’s Adelaide decider.