Articles by Craig Lowndes

The more racing we do the better for us and the fans. That's the biggest thing to come out of the new ownership arrangements in V8 Supercars announced this week. Teams may get some extra money out of the new ownership, but the flipside of the extra rounds is the expensive infrastructure teams will need to be able to get cars to every one of those rounds. The organisers need to have a good look at where we go with these extra rounds, especially the international rounds. Asia is the most logical because it's closer than the Mid East where we have been racing. It's also in the same time zone which is better for Aussie fans. Circuits such as Singapore and Malaysia are where we should be focusing. China was a debacle the first time we went there but I'd love to go back. It's a great track. Apart from New Zealand it was our first real push overseas and I think it was successful on some levels, but politics got involved so we've never been back. We will also introduce the car of the future in 2013 so it will be a big year for our sport. I know there is scepticism about our chances of getting other car manufacturers to compete, but once they understand the extra exposure from the bigger season, I think they will be convinced to join. Which companies they are I don't know and couldn't guess. This weekend we head to Winton which was my training track in the old days when I first got out of karts and into Formula Ford. It was my club and home track and since then I've done a lot of racing around Winton. It's a tight and narrow track and it's quite difficult to get the car set up right because of the different nature of the corners. I won both races in 2009 when they introduced the Dunlop soft tyre and I finished second in both races last year, so I'm comfortable racing there. However, I've never qualified on the front row and this year I'm hoping to change all that and grab pole. Qualifying has been one of my weak points and it would be nice to finally get it right. You need to start on at least one of the first two rows here because the narrow track makes passing difficult. It's a place where you can easily over-drive the car. You have to be patient, hit your marks and get the best out of the soft tyres which we will be using all weekend. We're expecting very cold temperatures and possibly rain on the Sunday so the soft tyres should last much longer than they did at Perth. I'm hoping to see Karl Reindler and Steve Owen back this weekend after their fireball start-line incident in Perth. I know Steve is fit and ready, but I'm not sure about Karl. He's had to have some skin grafts on his hands. It would be great for the fans to see him come back after such a horrible accident. The starting-line crash highlighted some big problems with our cars so Triple 8, being an engineering company, has gone to great lengths to fix it. Our chief engineer Ludo Lacroix has looked at everything that sits around the driver and tried to make it more fire retardant and easier to get out. He's also looked at the fuel tank. All the changes he's made to our cars for this weekend are also available to teams that have bought cars from us. The co-drivers for the endurance races, including my partner Mark Skaife, will get a run in the first practice session. It will be vital for Mark to keep his eye in, but don't expect to see him in the development series. There are rumours around that we are going to have a fourth car so Skaifey can get more experience. I can't say we haven't looked into it, but running a four-car team is probably beyond our abilities.

The more racing we do the better for us and the fans. That's the biggest thing to come out of the new ownership arrangements in V8 Supercars announced this week. Teams may get some extra money out of the new ownership, but the flipside of the extra rounds is the expensive infrastructure teams will need to be able to get cars to every one of those rounds. The organisers need to have a good look at where we go with these extra rounds, especially the international rounds. Asia is the most logical because it's closer than the Mid East where we have been racing. It's also in the same time zone which is better for Aussie fans. Circuits such as Singapore and Malaysia are where we should be focusing. China was a debacle the first time we went there but I'd love to go back. It's a great track. Apart from New Zealand it was our first real push overseas and I think it was successful on some levels, but politics got involved so we've never been back. We will also introduce the car of the future in 2013 so it will be a big year for our sport. I know there is scepticism about our chances of getting other car manufacturers to compete, but once they understand the extra exposure from the bigger season, I think they will be convinced to join. Which companies they are I don't know and couldn't guess. This weekend we head to Winton which was my training track in the old days when I first got out of karts and into Formula Ford. It was my club and home track and since then I've done a lot of racing around Winton. It's a tight and narrow track and it's quite difficult to get the car set up right because of the different nature of the corners. I won both races in 2009 when they introduced the Dunlop soft tyre and I finished second in both races last year, so I'm comfortable racing there. However, I've never qualified on the front row and this year I'm hoping to change all that and grab pole. Qualifying has been one of my weak points and it would be nice to finally get it right. You need to start on at least one of the first two rows here because the narrow track makes passing difficult. It's a place where you can easily over-drive the car. You have to be patient, hit your marks and get the best out of the soft tyres which we will be using all weekend. We're expecting very cold temperatures and possibly rain on the Sunday so the soft tyres should last much longer than they did at Perth. I'm hoping to see Karl Reindler and Steve Owen back this weekend after their fireball start-line incident in Perth. I know Steve is fit and ready, but I'm not sure about Karl. He's had to have some skin grafts on his hands. It would be great for the fans to see him come back after such a horrible accident. The starting-line crash highlighted some big problems with our cars so Triple 8, being an engineering company, has gone to great lengths to fix it. Our chief engineer Ludo Lacroix has looked at everything that sits around the driver and tried to make it more fire retardant and easier to get out. He's also looked at the fuel tank. All the changes he's made to our cars for this weekend are also available to teams that have bought cars from us. The co-drivers for the endurance races, including my partner Mark Skaife, will get a run in the first practice session. It will be vital for Mark to keep his eye in, but don't expect to see him in the development series. There are rumours around that we are going to have a fourth car so Skaifey can get more experience. I can't say we haven't looked into it, but running a four-car team is probably beyond our abilities.

I must say I was disappointed the officials decided on Saturday to ban burnouts as post-race celebrations. It's a tradition in all motorsport and it's part of what makes it a spectacle for the fans. The ludicrous situation is that the V8 drivers were banned, but the superbike riders who shared the event with us weren't, so we had BMW rider Glenn Allerton doing a burnout after his event win, but Jamie couldn't after he won the main event of the program. It comes back to the burnout display by Shane Van Gisbergen at the previous round. It's got nothing to do with setting a bad example. In fact, it shows the driver's skill level to be able to control the vehicle. Instead, it's got everything to do with getting back to the grid for post-race TV interviews. Maybe Shane's display was a bit over the top, but it was his first race win and it was on home soil, so I think it was an exceptional case. The other burning issue is the massive fire in the starting grid crash in the first race on Sunday. I haven't spoken with Steve Owen or Karl Reindler but I spoke with Steve's crew and they said he's ok and I hear Karl is too although he might need some time for his hands to heal. The burns to his hands are what's got me. His suit withstood the fire, but somehow his hands got burnt. I'm also concerned about the window net melting. While the marshals did a great job, I think we need a thorough investigation of the cars, the starting grid procedure, flag marshals, fire marshals and everything. It's a very rare situation. Usually the drivers can see a stalled car and avoid a straight-on hit at high speed, but Steve was totally unsighted until the last second when David Reynolds deviated. The last big starting grid shunt I can remember involved Mark Larkham and Paul Morris at Oran Park in the late 1990s. It might be rare, but it's worth a thorough investigation to prevent it happening gain. I was happy with the weekend results, even though we could have done better on tyre wear. We'll sit down and analyse it when we get back on Friday. The last time we were in Perth in 2009 I was able to conserve my tyres, even the soft tyres. This time they just melted. However, it's the first time we've been here with a Holden. The car set up seemed to be working really well, so I'm not sure if it's my style or the car set up that's to blame.

I must say I was disappointed the officials decided on Saturday to ban burnouts as post-race celebrations. It's a tradition in all motorsport and it's part of what makes it a spectacle for the fans. The ludicrous situation is that the V8 drivers were banned, but the superbike riders who shared the event with us weren't, so we had BMW rider Glenn Allerton doing a burnout after his event win, but Jamie couldn't after he won the main event of the program. It comes back to the burnout display by Shane Van Gisbergen at the previous round. It's got nothing to do with setting a bad example. In fact, it shows the driver's skill level to be able to control the vehicle. Instead, it's got everything to do with getting back to the grid for post-race TV interviews. Maybe Shane's display was a bit over the top, but it was his first race win and it was on home soil, so I think it was an exceptional case. The other burning issue is the massive fire in the starting grid crash in the first race on Sunday. I haven't spoken with Steve Owen or Karl Reindler but I spoke with Steve's crew and they said he's ok and I hear Karl is too although he might need some time for his hands to heal. The burns to his hands are what's got me. His suit withstood the fire, but somehow his hands got burnt. I'm also concerned about the window net melting. While the marshals did a great job, I think we need a thorough investigation of the cars, the starting grid procedure, flag marshals, fire marshals and everything. It's a very rare situation. Usually the drivers can see a stalled car and avoid a straight-on hit at high speed, but Steve was totally unsighted until the last second when David Reynolds deviated. The last big starting grid shunt I can remember involved Mark Larkham and Paul Morris at Oran Park in the late 1990s. It might be rare, but it's worth a thorough investigation to prevent it happening gain. I was happy with the weekend results, even though we could have done better on tyre wear. We'll sit down and analyse it when we get back on Friday. The last time we were in Perth in 2009 I was able to conserve my tyres, even the soft tyres. This time they just melted. However, it's the first time we've been here with a Holden. The car set up seemed to be working really well, so I'm not sure if it's my style or the car set up that's to blame.

Instead of two races at Barbagallo, we are going back to a three-race format that we haven't had since 2008.What makes it more interesting is that practice on Friday and the Saturday qualifying and race will be on hard tyres, but Sunday's qualifying and two races will be on soft tyres.But probably the most interest of the whole weekend will be the Sunday qualifying where our fastest time gives us the starting position for the first race and our second-fastest time gives us the grid position in the second race. It's going to be one of the most hectic 20-minute qualifying sessions you've ever seen. Instead of just posting one good time, which most people wind themselves up for, you have to do it twice.We should squeeze about three good laps out of a soft tyre, if we're lucky. Plus it's a very short track which means we'll be encountering slow traffic while we're trying to set a time so we'll have to try to find some space. We'll also have to drive more consistently and look after the tyres a bit. You may find some drivers qualify well but race very average because they've taken the life out of the soft tyres that they will have to be use somewhere in one of the races.I love the Wanneroo track and have run well there, but it is low grip and highly abrasive and should destroy soft tyres very quickly.However, the soft tyres lasted longer than we expected in New Zealand, so it's still an unknown.Wanneroo is Garth Tander's home track and he always goes well there, but so do the Garry Rogers cars.I'd also be looking out for the Kelly Bros who stepped up in New Zealand and you can never discount Mark Winterbottom or Will Davison. But they all need to look out for my teammate Jamie Whincup. He had a shocker in New Zealand and every time he has a bad weekend he bounces back. Whether he wins or not, he will be on the podium.I'm expecting a huge crowd this weekend for two reasons. First they missed out last year because their facilities weren't up to scratch. Hopefully that's all sorted out now and over the next couple of years we expect it to turn into an A grade facility.Second is the Australian Superbikes will be racing there this weekend and that always brings in some extras who may not be all that interested in the V8s. Hopefully we can put on a good show for them and win some fans.About 60 per cent of the drivers and team members in the V8s are bike nuts, so they'll be showing a keen interest in the bike races too. 

AT one point on Sunday in Hamilton our team was looking at a one-two in the championship. But motor racing can be a fickle thing and I ended up copping a drive-through penalty for crossing the bleed line going out of the pits.I had come in for a regulation pit stop and we put on a new set of slicks. I admit I went out of the pit exit a little bit too excited and understeered over the yellow line, copping the penalty. It was a fair cop, but quite disappointing.Our team could have been one-two in the championship if I hadn't got that penalty and had continued running strong. However, I'm still really happy that I leapfrogged from fifth to third in the championship and Team Vodafone is now one-three.The weekend was also a great result for V8 Supercars. On the one hand you now have a leader board where you could throw a blanket over the top five runners. It's a shame that Jamie had such a bad weekend, but I suppose no one wants to see a runaway leader early on. It was also a great result for the winners of both races.Saturday's victory for Rick Kelly was the first for his team after three years. And you could only describe Shane Van Gisbergen's win on Sunday as a fairytale. Your first win is always your best and to do it in front of his home crowd was pretty damn good. All the burn-outs he did after the win showed how happy and proud he was. I saw team boss Ross Stone at dinner on Sunday night and you could just tell the monkey has come off their back as a team.Saturday's wet race was one of the most treacherous I have ever driven. Toward the end of the race when the rain came down really heavily I was on the radio trying to get the guys to alert the officials to how dangerous it was. At one point I couldn't see where I was going and I had to look out the side windows to get a reference off the walls.I don't think the race should have been stopped as the whole circuit wasn't monsoon wet, just the back sections around turns five and six. But the safety car should have come out for a few laps to assess the situation.Our second place was great for me on Saturday. I've had such bad results in Hamilton in the past three years. Now I'm only 21 points behind Rick and 10 in front of Frosty and Garth. It really is game on in this championship now.

But I can't get my mind off New Zealand this weekend (16-17 April 2011) as it's going to be a whole new ball game.Even though we've raced in Hamilton the past two years, this will be like the first time because it's an all-soft tyre weekend. That's practice, qualifying and races on nothing but soft tyres. So all our set-ups from previous years are out the window and we have to start with a clean slate. That should help some teams and should it should hinder others.Luck will play some part, but it will also hinge on the hard work of the engineers who set the cars up in practice and qualifying.The Hamilton circuit is a tight track with a lot of bitumen surface changes so it will be interesting to see how that affects set-up and tyre wear. Hamilton is also notorious for track position. It's like the Winton track; if you have good position you can hold it. Therefore qualifying becomes all important. Start up the front and you have a good chance of holding your position.Passing is usually difficult there, but maybe the soft tyre will change that. The back chicane is a car killer. It's a much tighter chicane than it looks on TV, especially at speed. There is always a high percentage of cars that come through there with panel damage.My scorecard at Hamilton isn't too good. I've qualified in the mid-top 10 and the best race result is a fourth last year. We've had our share of bad luck there. Last year we had a brake caliper come loose and the year before I crashed into everything that I could. Jamie's had great results n Hamilton, but I haven't.This year I'm hoping to come away with some valuable points.

It's frustrating because we've had good car speed and been up on the front of the grid, but we've had such horrible luck with flat tyres, being turned around in pit lane and race-ending altercations.At least some of the bad luck was used up at the Australian GP where there were no championship points at stake.  Unfortunately, the teams with good car speed and race craft aren't always the winners these days.That's because racing has largely become all about fuel economy.  Each meeting this year there has been a race won by people gambling they can save enough fuel to the end of the race and driving to a fuel number.Some teams have been quite aggressive or lucky with their strategy.  The whole industry has now turned a corner because of the smaller fuel tanks.Drivers have to learn how to drive more economically while maintaining speed and lap times.  We're not driving with the proverbial Hans Tholstrup egg under the throttle pedal, but we are always mindful of our fuel strategy which has become a lot less flexible.Consequently, it's not necessarily the drivers with the most speed and race craft, but the teams that roll the dice and have a gamble on fuel, weather and safety cars that win.I suppose it's good for the punters because the same teams aren't winning all the time and it gives some of the other teams a chance to shine.Punters don't want to see the same person win. It's actually spiced up the racing.  Talk about spicy racing, how about that MotoGP inSpain at the weekend.I sat up late and watched qualifying and the race. Our Casey Stoner did a fantastic job in qualifying.  It was unfortunate that Valentino Rossi took him out in the race. I thought his pass was way too ambitious.I didn't hear Stoner's comments to Rossi in the pits after the race, but apparently he said much the same thing.  You'd think there would be a penalty for that.It's early in season and probably not a championship decider, but if Stoner loses by a few points, he'll look back at that incident with some raw emotion.It was also interesting to see the marshals help Rossi get restarted after the crash but not Stoner. There will be a lot of discussion about that.

... but so far things are looking pretty good for the Triple Eight team in 2011.We've had Abu Dhabi, the Clipsal 500 and now the Melbourne Grand Prix run to gauge where we're at.Jamie and I are both extremely happy with the cars and the team. We've definitely gelled with the new people including Adrian Burgess, John Russell and the two new lead mechanics. So we're on top of our game I'd say.Now it's up to me to get to some results, the car speed is there but I just haven't been able to finish with the results we're looking for.I'm fit and healthy and that's a big part of where we're at. The other thing is that, as a team, we haven't had to build cars over Christmas. We've been able to focus on the current cars, finesse them, make them a better car, and I think it's paying dividends now.The Vodafone team's been able to hit the ground running compared with the last three years and the team's a lot stronger than where it was last year at this stage.But there are a couple of others, such as HRT and Stone Brothers, showing promise. Then others like Gary Rogers and Ford Performance Racing are not too far behind, if they are behind.Everyone will get stronger, wiser and smarter as the year goes on. Most rounds to date have been fuel consumption races, most will have that element this year and teams have to get their head around how to get the most efficiencies out of these V8 Supercars.In Melbourne my car was great all weekend, unfortunately I didn't get to show it too much, although I was able to get pole in the shoot-out which was fantastic.On the Friday we had a problem with the front suspension after contact with Shane Van Gisbergen and then Saturday I came from the back of the grid in 27th to sixth which wasn't bad.I love Albert Park as a race track and being a non-championship weekend allows teams to experiment and have a bit of fun in car set-ups and trialling things.  We were the same and gave some components some race miles as well.Albert Park's classified as a street circuit but it's more like a Townsville, there's part of a street element to it but we race around a parkland and it's a very flat, smooth and flowing circuit, which you need for Formula One, so V8 Supercars generally put on some good racing there because of the nature and the flwo of the track.It's got some width to it and it's got some narrow sections where Rick Kelly and I unfortunately had contact and ultimately ended up in the wall on Sunday.As soon as that race was over we packed the truck, Jamie and I did all our corporate visits and then sat in the Vodafone box, mingling and watching the grand prix.It was fantastic to see Lewis Hamilton get up there for second, at the moment I think the Red Bull cars are the ones to beat, especially Sebastian Vettel, he's right on top of his game and last weekend was in a league of his own.

... from Clipsal 500 dramas to taking McLaren's amazing Formula One machine for a run up and over Mount Panorama.In Adelaide we had good car speed with the Commodore, the car was strong and I was comfortable. But on Saturday we didn't qualify where we should have and I got bumped out of the ten, that was disappointing. So we had a bit of a battle on our hands but through strategy and everything else it worked out. We moved through the pack and got a great result _ third from eleventh. I was delighted with that, a great result and I couldn't have wished for anything more.Then Sunday was full of ups and downs. We qualified ninth, probably didn't put a lap together as good as we should have, but we were maintaining position in the race. Then we got a flat tyre from debris off turn two, I think it came from Brighty's car.I just didn't see it, I'll need to have a look at the replay and see what it was all about. I felt it on the previous lap but by the time I'd radioed in, and the guys checked as I went past and said 'come in', it was completely flat.And then there was that pit exit. It was exciting to have contact with Murph, get turned around and then look at everyone coming out of pit lane _ quite amazing.Sunday was all about recovery. We recovered from a poor qualifying, then got a flat. Recovered from that, then had problems on the pit exit. Then we just ran out of laps.But the car speed was good all weekend and we managed to get back to 12th, so we still got good points. Jamie did a great job. He was disappointed after Saturday's results. No doubt he was going to try and fix that up the next day, he hates losing.So he was pretty determined on the Sunday to make it work. He had good car speed, was sensible about the wet, looked after the car and away he went. It was an awesome weekend, great audience and Clipsal's always a class act.Jonathon Webb had a great run on the Sunday, as did Dave Reynolds, he qualified well on the Sunday and raced well in the wet. There's some great guys, the normal guys up the front but the next generation of drivers are coming through and proving to be fast.We flew into Bathurst on Monday and weren't sure whether the F1 run was going to go ahead, it was bucketing down with rain, rivers running everywhere across the circuit. It was still raining Tuesday morning but about 8am the clouds started to clear and it dried about 11am in time for Jenson to do his observation lap.It was a great day and the McLaren better than I expected over Skyline and the Dipper, going over the top it was just really nice to drive. It had that much downforce and that much grip, it turned. Through the Dipper it wasn't as bad I thought. It surprised me, being the style a Formula One car is I thought it would struggle around Bathurst.I bottomed out going down Conrod, which is pretty normal, but it was flat down into the Chase, flat coming out of the Chase, really good, just pulling gears. The corners do come up faster but the car's built for it and you get your mind up to speed. And those brakes are sensational, it was the first time I've driven a car with carbon fibre brakes..amazing.Now it's off to the Melbourne GP weekend. We've got some new components in the car we want to give a few more miles so it's a good opportunity to do that in race conditions.It's another big, great audience for V8 Supercars and the McLaren and Vodaphone bosses out for the weekend we'll be taking it all pretty seriously.