Defending V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup says he cannot afford any mishaps from now until season's end if he's to retain his title.

Sunday's thrilling 300km race win on the Gold Coast reduced the margin between the Holden ace and Ford's James Courtney to 71 points with six races left in the year.

Whincup believes he should really be ahead of the Jim Beam Racing driver with nine race wins this year compared to Courtney's four but the Ford pilot has been able to pick up more consistent results when it's not been his day.

And Whincup believes he must avoid results such as at Phillip Island last month where an oil pressure issue cruelled his chances when he was leading the endurance event.

"We've got to do a good job, we can't afford any mess-ups," he told AAP.

"Generally when the car gets to the end it does well. Three general mechanical failures, including Phillip Island when we're leading, that hurts.

"The battle's there, don't be fooled. I wish I could predict the future and see what's going to happen on that first weekend in December.

"The fact is we're 71 points down, it was 125, now it's 71 but we're still behind."

Whincup says adapting quickly from the season's dual-driver endurance events to get back into sprint race mode at the upcoming rounds at Symmons Plains in Tasmania and Sandown in Victoria will be critical.

"We go into a real different format now, especially the next two," he said.

"They're back-to-back, Tasmania and Sandown, very old traditional tracks that we've all done a lot of miles around.

"We've just come off dual-driver endurance events and major, major events where now we change it up a little bit for the next two.

"It'll be interesting to see who handles those conditions the best and then Sydney's going to be a lottery like it was last year."

And Whincup has admitted he would only feel comfortable going into the season-ending round on the streets of Sydney's Olympic Park if he'd overtaken Courtney.

"We're very aware that James did win that event," he said.

"I'd hate to be neck and neck with James going into Sydney because we know he'll do a good job there."

The next round of the V8 Supercar season is at Symmons Plains from November 12-14.

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