CRAIG’S LIST
LOWNDES: 10 BIGGEST MOMENTS OF MY CAREER
“I was really out of my depth,” Lowndes recalled.
“I was probably two seconds a lap off the pace … I’m sure Brad (Jones, co-driver) was questioning the team, thinking ‘why have you got this rookie into this car with me?’
“It wasn’t until (Peter) Brock sat me down and explained me the whole lap of Bathurst … that for me was really a pivotal point.
“For me to finish the race and to lead the biggest race of my career at the time for a lap and a half over John Bowe was what really set me up.”
Lowndes and Jones ultimately finished second but it was the race that got the nation excited about the new kid on the block. After racing in the endurance rounds the previous two years, Lowndes stepped up to full-time status and made one heck of an impression, winning the three biggest trophies on offer: Bathurst, Sandown and the championship.
“To have a clean sweep, it had only been done once before, with Brock,” Lowndes said.
“That whole year was really special for me, knowing we capped off the year with the biggest race, which is Bathurst.” Lowndes headed abroad in 1997 to test the waters in the Formula 3000 Championship but by his own admission, it turned out to be a “disaster year”.
He returned Down Under in ’98 with a bang.
“It was nice to bounce back,” he said.
“Obviously the overseas program at that point ceased to exist, which was a shame, because anyone who does anything in motorsport, you really need a two or three-year program to settle in and hopefully deliver but I never got that second year.
“That was disappointing but we fitted back into here extremely well.” “That was the biggest crash of my career,” Lowndes said.
A tangle between Garth Tander, Russell Ingall and Steven Richards quickly involved Lowndes, catapulting him on to his roof. Lowndes’ windscreen shattered and he slid on his roof at a terrifying 160km/h, bracing for impact.
“Once the car started to barrel roll, that’s when I became nervous,” he said.
“I was very lucky that the last roll bounced it up on top of the concrete wall. My left knee was throbbing.
“My left knee got rebuilt, only ligaments, no bone. It took me six weeks in rehab. I only missed one round and we went on to win the championship.” Lowndes’ move from the Holden Racing Team to Ford’s Gibson Motor Sport swept the sport.
“I spent months during 2000 trying to negotiate a change and to stay with Holden. It didn’t happen and then of course Ford put out a help line,” he said.
“It was a big thing. At the time no driver really swapped codes.
“We talk about it now that we had death threats and other things that went on because of the passion in the sport.
“There was a very tall gentleman who helped me get around in 2001 – Darryl Reid, who I am still very good friends with – he was appointed to basically be my minder because of these threats that I didn’t know about at the time.”
TRIPLE EIGHT’S FIRST WIN, 2005
With his Ford Performance Racing team struggling through 2004 and Lowndes eager to team up with an operation located in Queensland where he is based, he headed to the relatively new Triple Eight Race Engineering outfit.
They tasted victory by the fourth event of the year at Eastern Creek and he has raced for the same team ever since.
“You see the emotions within a team because you go from a hopeful believer to a believer,” Lowndes said.
“That for me was the start of great things at Triple Eight. They changed their mindset to believing they can win races. From that point on, there was no looking back.”
WIN IN HONOUR OF BROCK, 2006
This without doubt is the No.1 moment Lowndes cherishes most dearly, coming a month after his mentor and nine-time Bathurst champion Brock died in a rally car accident.
“To start the race the way we did with the emotions of what was going on was really special,” he said. “To have that battle at the end with Rick (Kelly) was probably what I needed to keep my concentration. That for me will always be the No.1.
“It was also special for Triple Eight; (team boss Roland Dane) has never been shy about saying the biggest reason he came to Australia was to win Bathurst.”
Lowndes and Whincup would go on to win the Great Race on three consecutive occasions.
RETURN TO HOLDEN FOLD, 2010
LOWNDES made an unexpected return to Holden when his allconquering team switched from Ford.
“I remember at the time, we were actually heading to Darwin when Roland told us,” he said.
“Ford were trying to save money left, right and centre and they pulled the funding off us – I think the same with Dick Johnson – so it was really a decision that was thrust upon us.
“But when Roland came out to Australia, he came to buy HRT at the time but obviously couldn’t … when it went back to Holden, I think he was happy and again we haven’t looked back since.”
QUADRUPLE STINT AT BATHURST, 2010
TRIPLE stints at Bathurst are considered taxing enough … try a quadruple stint, as Lowndes endured in a race-winning drive.
“I had to do almost 80 laps consecutively because (Mark) Skaife had popped a rib out. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t do anything,” he said.
“To win the race in those circumstances was incredible.
“Also to have a 1-2 finish with Jamie (Whincup), that was always one of the memorable ones that I will think back in time and go, ‘yeah we had our issues but we got around it’.”
MAGIC ON THE MOUNTAIN, 2018
THIS month’s Bathurst 1000 went perfectly to script, with Lowndes winning in his last start as a lead driver at the Great Race and in the last 1000km classic shared by he and Steve Richards.
What followed was emotive chants of “Lowndesy” as fans delighted in his triumph.
“It was amazing,” he reflected.
“Richo and I, we could hear it when we were behind the podium before we walked out.
“That was really special to have that support and the amount of people who swarmed underneath the podium was really incredible. It was just a sea of people.”