Articles by Craig Lowndes

Peter was my mentor and he and Bev took me under their wing in my early days of racing. So it was a no-brainer to give my race car a Brock livery for the 50th anniversary of Bathurst this weekend.Our team chose the red, white and black livery of the 1979 Torana A9X in which Peter won by a record six laps. I don't think that record will ever be broken, but I'm hoping the livery inspires us to a win in Peter's honour. My car was choppered into Skyline from the Bathurst airport and I was just praying they didn't drop it.I met up with Bev and we drove down the Mountain together rekindling our memories of the great race and the King of the Mountain. Most of the teams have entered the spirit of the anniversary with special paint jobs, although Jamie Whincup's car will remain in its standard livery.While no one could win by six laps because of the safety cars used these days, I'm sure Sunday's race will be fast if the weather and the Sandown 500 race are any indication. The forecast is for clear conditions in the low 20s, which means good tyre life, fast lap times and comfortable driving conditions. They are ideal for a very fast race like the pace in the Sandown 500.I'm a farmer so I'm always up early, but with daylight saving starting on Sunday in NSW, it will be an hour earlier than I'm used to. I sleep in a caravan next to the transporter, so I virtually roll out of bed and straight into a race car.Every morning, except the Sunday, we walk the track from 5.30 as we have for the past four or five years. It takes about an hour. Then I have my normal breakfast of cereal, fruit and yoghurt. I try not to change my routine for this weekend or any race weekend.I'm not superstitious and don't have lucky jocks or anything like that for the race, but I do think pole position can have a bit of voodoo about it. While it's a great honour to get pole, not too many seem to win from grid position one.By Sunday morning we will know where we are with car speed, fuel economy and grid position, and have a race strategy set in our minds. My co-driver Warren Luff knows this place as well as I do, so we will evenly split the practice sessions.Hopefully, a bit more common sense will prevail here among the drivers than we had in the 500. It's a long race and over the 161 laps you are bound to encounter lapped traffic, crashed cars, wildlife and all sorts of surprises. 

But my co-driver Warren Luff and I aren't getting too carried away with it. You need a good car, good drivers and a good team, and we have all that, but you also need a little bit of luck at Bathurst because it's such a long race and anything can go wrong. This time next week we'll be at the mountain and the butterflies will be in the stomach and the adrenalin will be starting to pump. But I think they will be even greater this year because it's the 50th anniversary and so important to our sport. Bathurst is a place that drivers have a love-hate relationship with. One minute it can be rewarding and the next crushing. Here are 10 things I love and hate about the place:  The thing I love most about the Bathurst race: The challenge, the layout of the track, the distance, the combination of having two drivers and the changeable weather all make this the ultimate test of man and machine.  The thing I hate about Bathurst: That it's only once a year. My favourite moment before I raced there: A couple of times as a teenager I remember watching Peter Brock and Glenn Seton driving around a wet circuit on slick tyres. Their car control was amazing.  My favourite moment at Bathurst: The barbecue we do early in the week, mingling with the fans, soaking up their enthusiasm while we cook sausages for them. Best part of the track: Going across the top of the mountain. It's the most technical and challenging part to get right. When you do it's very satisfying. I also love the cheers of the fans there. You can hear them because it's a natural amphitheatre.  Worst part of track: I don't have one. I love the whole circuit. But it is a pain getting in and out of the place. That's why we camp there and stay on track all weekend. Best race ever: My 2006 win. It was the first year of Brock's passing and it was the most emotional victory.  Worst race ever: Not being able to get a victory with Glenn, finishing second a couple of times. He's the best driver never to have won there, which is just heartbreaking. My favourite Bathurst icon: Brock, of course. He helped me enormously when I first drove there in '94. He truly was king of the mountain.  Favourite guest on the mountain: Probably Casey Stoner. He is bound to be there again as it doesn't clash with a MotoGP. We can't seem to keep him away from the garage.  

First up is our win at Sandown at the weekend. We did have some minor issues, but nothing that troubled us too much and we've now sorted them out, so that's a big lift in confidence.The other confidence booster is the performance of our team's co-drivers. That's the part of the equation that is out of your hands in the enduros, but I think most of the co-drivers in the field showed that the standard has lifted.In fact, they were a lot more level-headed and mature in their qualifying sprint race than the main drivers were in theirs. Perhaps Mark Webber is right about drivers being too aggressive because of the false sense of security from the high safety standards of today's race cars and circuits.My co-driver, Warren Luff, didn't put a foot wrong all weekend, even in a wet practice session. He drove to the pace of the car and made no mistakes. The biggest thing for me is his laidback attitude which is just like mine. He's simply the easiest enduro driver I've had to deal with and that includes people like Mark Skaife.He's also a closer match to me than Skaifey in pace and in size which means we haven't had to change the seat, pedal or steering wheels so our driver changes are particularly slick and smooth. It's a big confidence builder knowing your co-driver and team are up to it.Bathurst is all about confidence and I'm approaching this event with more confidence than I've had in a long time. In my first year on the mountain in 1994 as a rookie I attracted a fair bit of attention when I passed John Bowe around the outside at Griffins Bend. I then led the race for several laps before he passed me back again when I was balked by a back marker turning in front of me at Murray's Corner.People say that pass was a mistake and that I missed my braking marker, but it's my belief that Bowey broke too early. The corner is cambered quite well so you can pass on the outside there although you have to be careful as it gets slippery late in the race from all the rubber on the road. I've also passed around the outside at the kink before the Chase. However, you have to swallow a few bravery pills and have commitment to stay alongside someone there. It can be heart-in-the-mouth stuff as we are reaching maximum speeds approaching 300km/h flat out in sixth gear. You really have to have your wits about you because it can go completely wrong. 

Over the past four years the 500km race has been staged at Phillip Island which is historically significant because it was the original 500-mile endurance round before they moved it to Bathurst in 1963. But I grew up with the Sandown 500 as the dress rehearsal for Bathurst, so it just feels right that we return to Melbourne this weekend for the first of the enduro events. Don't get me wrong. I love the Island. It's an amazing driver's track with fast and flowing corners. But Sandown is an amazing spectator track stuck right in the middle of the suburbs with plenty of great vantage points and a massive grandstand that runs along most of the main straight. It's a hard race for drivers and cars; hard on brakes and hard on the suspension because we hit every kerb. Basically it turns into a hard-charging sprint from start to finish which makes it a fantastic race for the fans. Apart from its history, I'm happy to be returning to Sandown because we've had a lot of success there in the longer format. In 2005 I qualified second with French driver Yvan Muller and we won, in 2006 I qualified second and Jamie Whincup and I came third and in 2007 Jamie qualified us third and we won again. I think it's just the fact that I enjoy the longer distance races because of the strategy and team work involved. We didn't do as well at Sandown over the past four years in the sprint races although we were only once out of the top 10 and won a race in 2008. Most of those races were on soft tyres, not hard tyres like we'll be using all weekend and the last time we raced there in an endurance event was in a Ford, so we come into this event with very little useful data. I think the qualifying format on Saturday will cause a few upsets. The past few years at the Island we had sprint races for the two drivers with combined results determining the grid positions for the main race. But they've mixed up the format yet again. The main drivers will do a 20-minute qualifying session to determine the grid for the first sprint race on the Saturday for the co-drivers only. The finishing position for that race will then determine the grid for the next sprint race which is for main drivers. The result of that race sets the grid for the 500km race on Sunday. I think there are going to be some huge upsets with some teams and drivers further back in the grid than they potentially deserve to be and some lucky teams further up than they normally would expect. If you get turned around or have a slight problem in a sprint race you'll quickly go backwards through the field. Not that grid position is quite as important as it is at Bathurst where you really have to be on one of the first four rows. Starting further back in the pack at Sandown isn't good as you have more potential for incidents and being caught up in someone's problem. But it isn't the end of the world on this short track in a long race.  

Expect people like Russell Ingall and Greg Murphy to suddenly show up in the results.Expect teams to throw caution to the wind in a desperate bid to snatch a victory. But with the points so tight for the top four cars, there is nothing unexpected about the battle between Triple 8 and FPR.We'll be fighting door handle to door handle all the way to the end of the “grand final” in Sydney in December. I don't think I've ever seen the points so close at this time of the season going into the enduro rounds.It's now a two-team and four-horse race, whereas it's usually just two or maybe three drivers in with a chance of a championship. It's going to be an exciting stage of the series as the long-distance races always throw in a mix of results.Teams that haven't figured too high in the season so far will push hard with nothing lose. Russell Ingall has been on the verge of a podium over the past few rounds and he always does well at Bathurst so there's no doubt the Enforcer will be charging through the pack.He had a fantastic race at Eastern Creek in the last round and I'm sure that's given him a lot of confidence. Greg Murphy is also back after surgery and he's always a threat at Bathurst where he's held the qualifying lap record since 2003.There are a lot of other guys who come alive at this time of year and have no reason to hang up their helmets just yet. But make no mistake; FPR and our team will keep pushing hard. I don't usually look at the record books, but I've been told I'm on the verge of a couple of milestones.One that is personally important is that I've got 99 podiums, which is just one off my mentor and hero, the late Peter Brock. In his honour I hope I can equal that record at Sandown next weekend (SEPT 14-16) and then go one better at Bathurst. I am also on the verge of equalling the record of 90 category wins by my old Bathurst teammate Mark Skaife. If it happen, it happens. Every record is there to be broken but I don't go out at every race thinking of those stats. I love this sport and hope to go on racing as long as I can. Then I'll sit back and reflect on what records I've achieved. In the meantime, the championship is so competitive these days even finishing second or third is a huge achievement.As far as I know we will be racing on the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in May next year and I'm not surprised to hear they are trying to include some American drivers. It would be great to have Nascar racers participate as they have an enormous following in the States and it would cultivate some interest in our sport.I think they'd be a bit disappointed with the horsepower in our cars, but they'd be pretty excited about the aero and the turning capabilities. It would be great to get them out of their comfort zones and prove they can actually turn right. 

I had predicted before the event at Sydney Motorsport Park that they would last only 10 laps, as the (formerly Eastern Creek) circuit is notoriously hard on tyres, just like Phillip Island.Ten laps is pretty much how long they lasted when we did a race run at the official test day in January 2011. But I suppose there were lots of factors that contributed to the longevity of the tyres last weekend. For a start, track temperatures were lower than in January and the newly resurfaced track has smoother tarmac and fewer sharp stones which means less ripping of the soft tyre.We have also improved the car to look after the tyres since then and I've improved my knowledge of the limits of the tyre and how to budget wear. The car was exceptional on Saturday and did everything I needed it to do to look after the soft tyre. We ended up getting 23 laps out of it which was actually more than we had expected.In the second Saturday practice session we did a race run to see where the tyre was at and how hard I could push it before it burred up. We only had an eight-lap run before an oil spill shortened the session, but it gave us a good insight into how much pace we could get out of it. We thought it would be good for about 20 laps. I talked with JJ (race engineer Jeromy Moore) and we believed we could get better life than nearly everyone else so we gambled on pitting early. Then it was a matter of how I nursed it to the end.The Creek has some really fast long-loading corners and you need to preserve the tyre in those sections. Also, like Phillip Island, the front right-hand tyre cops all the punishment, so you have to be mindful of not scrubbing the tyre going into corners just for the sake of a millisecond of pace. It was an amazing result to come from sixth to the top step of the podium.Of course, we handed over all our data to the other side of the garage at the end of the day and on the Sunday my teammate Jamie Whincup basically ran our Saturday race to win. We also had a faulty rattlegun in the first pit stop which lost us a couple of seconds which we never got back. We were running at exactly the same pace as Jamie, but we just couldn't make inroads and still preserve our tyres.In the end I was happy with the weekend and pulling about 100 points out of the gap to first. There's now only 154 points between first and fourth and I'm breathing down Will Davison's neck for third. I was also pretty happy with the crowd of 24,000-odd for the return to Eastern Creek.It's a proper permanent racing circuit and there are precious few of them left in the country, so we need to keep it on the calendar. The Creek has never pulled huge crowds, but they are always the V8 diehards and it was very hectic with the fans in the pits. Everyone I spoke to was talking about how great it was to have the circuit back on the calendar. 

Eastern Creek is always tough on tyres and I reckon the softs will last only 10 laps. That means a totally different strategy approach to previous events where we started on hards, pitted early and hung on with the softs to the end.We haven't raced at the Creek since 2008, but I've had five race wins there, including Triple Eight's first V8 Supercar race win in 2005, and I've done pretty well with qualifying.We were last there in early the 2011 tour the pre-season launch and test day and we were fastest on the soft tyre, so I should reasonably expect I can get the car on the first two rows off the grid.If that's the case, we'll start on the soft tyre and try to gap the field before having to pit and change to the hard tyre for the rest of the race. Tyre wear will be a real unknown for everyone as we've never raced on the soft tyre there before. Also, it has usually been in hotter conditions which tend to shred tyres a lot quicker.So with the tyre wear uncertainty and less probability of safety cars at the Creek because of the vast run-off areas that encourages starting on softs which is totally opposite to the trend this year. However, there could be several different strategies in the field, so it points to some interesting racing this weekend.It has often been difficult getting fans out to the Creek because of a lack of public transport, but I hope we get a good crowd. I think we're returning to the Creek as part of a deal with the NSW government which would only support the Homebush finale if we raced at the newly upgraded circuit.They've spent something like $16m on the upgrades with some track changes and resurfacing that will encourage more passing and better facilities for the fans. I got a chance to drive on it recently and I suspect we'll break Mark Skaife's long-standing lap and race record times this weekend. This is the first two-day event with practice, qualifying and racing all on the same day. So any engine dramas like we had in practice at Queensland Raceway can be very damaging to your championship chances. However, it should be good for the punters as they will see more each day than just one qualifying and one race.While my focus is on this weekend and I always only focus on the next round, I attended the launch of the Gold Coast 600 this week and it got me thinking about the coming enduro events with co-drivers who can have a big effect on your championship.I've got Warren Luff for the Sandown and Bathurst enduros who has vast experience in V8 Supercars and who I've partnered in the Audi R8. At the Gold Coast I'll be with Richard Lyons who drove with us a couple of years ago in Bathurst. He's Irish and has spent a lot of years in GT racing in Japan, so I think he'll go fine. I'm confident he knows the cars and will be fast, solid and won't take any risks. My co-driver from last year, Andy Priaulx, has a clashing event in Europe and I'll miss him. In his absence, the best of the internationals will be Sebastian Bourdais who is co-driving again with my teammate Jamie Whincup. He was very quick last year and has driven there a number of years in the Indy race. 

Our team was the first to complete a COTF project and test it on a track, so we're basically test dummies for the rest of the field.Jamie (Whincup) and I took it out on Queensland Raceway after the last round and I'm happy to say the first test went really well. It's an interesting car with a different makeup and a lot of potential. We still haven't got to fine tuning the car yet. It will take some time to understand the differences such as fuel economy, grip, handling and tyre wear.But a big positive is in the larger 18-inch wheels and brakes which make the car more sensitive and provides more feedback and feel. The gearbox is now a transaxle and on the upshifts it is very nice and precise. However, the downshifts are a little bit different to what we currently run. At the moment it takes longer to select gears downshifting which we will have to work on.The rear end has made the car much nicer over bumps and kerbs especially into turn one at QR. That means we will be able to attack the kerbs harder and save a bit of precious lap time. We'll get to test the car again in October when we head to Eastern Creek for our second test. We'll see what it's like on a high-speed fast-flowing track which is where I believe it will be even better.Even in the very first track test we managed to record almost identical times to what we get on the hard tyre, so there is a lot of potential in the car to destroy some V8 Supercar lap records right around the country. At Ipswich we have the potential to take another second off my new qualifying record with a soft tyre and good track conditions.The only problem is the newly surfaced track might disintegrate a bit by the time we get back there, but I still think the new race cars for next season will be record breakers. I'm quite excited about Red Bull becoming our new major sponsor as they are one of the biggest sports sponsors in the world.Obviously the rumour mill has gone into overdrive about Casey Stoner joining V8 Supercars next year after he's retired from MotoGP. We now have the same sponsor as he does, so it's only natural people would put two and two together.However, I'm not sure it's going to add up to four. It comes down to what he wants to do and I understand he wants to spend some time with his family. There is no given path for him to come straight into V8s, although we do have enough bays for an extra car at our Brisbane workshops. 

I didn't think we could do any better than our clean sweep last year at Queensland Raceway, but we proved me wrong. That’s now my fifth win on the trot for 11 wins in total on the Ipswich track, but my mechanic actually has seven wins on the trot because he was with James Courtney a couple of years ago when he won. It just goes to show the wins are a credit to the whole team. I didn’t think things would turn out so well when the engine blew on the Saturday. It was a strange feeling with Jamie (Whincup) still out on the track and my side of the garage frantically swapping engines. I gave as much of a hand as I could and just had to have faith that the team would be thorough enough with the refit. The rest of the weekend went pretty smoothly with two great starts. We didn’t maximise our qualifying position on the Sunday but my race engineer JJ (Jeromy Moore) and I discussed the options. We chose to follow the same strategy we used in Darwin of saving a fresh set of tyres for the race. It paid dividends there and we gambled it would do the same at Ipswich. We still believe it’s best to have a red-hot go at qualifying and then park it to have a fresh set of tyres left for the race. It’s more beneficial than burning up tyres in qualifying. You don’t get any points for qualifying. Our fourth position on the grid was actually pretty good because it put us on the race line off the start and we were able to follow Frosty into the first corner. We got past Will Davison down the back straight and had good speed on the hard tyre and were able to chase and then pass Frosty. Ipswich was the start of my charge on the championship lead last year and I’m hoping it will be the same this year.  I know the points gap was about half as much last year, but mathematically it’s still do-able. I know it’s a long shot, but I won’t give up. I only pulled back 40-odd points on Jamie at the weekend and I’m still over 200 away, so I’ve got to keep winning races and hope all three in front me have a problem along the line. Unfortunately, they’ve all been pretty reliable this year, but who’s to say they don’t make a driver or judgment error?  

It clashes with the Olympics. I have friends who didn’t even realise we were racing this weekend and can’t believe they would schedule a round during the Olympic Games.  No doubt we should have moved our recent mid-year break back to now and returned with the endurance races. Hopefully the weather stays fine and the crowds still come out. While on the subject of the Olympics, I feel really sorry for James Magnussen, Emily Seebohm and Leisel Jones and the pressure they have been under to perform.  The immense weight of expectation must be very distracting and you can’t help but forgive them if they are disappointed and break down emotionally. Having won the three races at Ipswich last year and holding the record of nine wins at Queensland Raceway creates some pressure on me, but it’s nothing compared with the pressure on the Olympians. If we get it wrong, we come back a few weeks later for another go. Olympians train for three-and-a-half years for the one event and they don’t get a second chance. The pressure doesn’t really worry me. I view it as a compliment on our form. We have some momentum from the past couple of rounds and this round last year started my charge so I’m confident it can do the same for our championship campaign this year. Our team is also confident after two recent tests at QR. We have the car balance right for the soft tyre and have a better insight into how hard to push it and how soon to start looking after it. What will be critical this weekend is the change in track temperature. They are expecting zero degrees in the morning, but it will warm up to about 24 in the middle of the day for qualifying then cool down when we race in the late afternoon.  We simulated those temperature changes on our test day last Friday and have a good understanding of how the temperature affects what you do to the car. However home ground knowledge hasn’t helped at this track in the past few years. Maybe that’s because the home teams think they know what to do and relax a bit too much whereas the interstate teams seem to chase car set-up more aggressively and end up with the better package. The ones to watch this weekend will be Stone Brothers and FPR who will come out punching, Tim Slade who was fast here last year, my teammate Jamie Whincup who is always quick at Ipswich and Garth Tander who has always done extremely well at QR. So there will be a number of teams and drivers we will have to keep our eyes on. A few weeks ago I tipped the lap record to fall because the track has been resurfaced and is now much smoother. However, they had a supertruck meeting here a few weeks back and already some of the bumps are returning in turns one and two. Thankfully turn three is still smooth. That’s a shame as you would think we would get a couple of years out of a freshly resurfaced track before it started to disintegrate. However, I still think someone will break John Bowe’s 1999 record this weekend - the longest-held qualifying record in V8 Supercar racing.