HI to all you Supercars Fans around the world!
Earlier this year Craig Lowndes announced his retirement from full time driving in V8 Supercars. Although he will participate in the Enduros next year, he will be sorely missed as a brilliant and exciting driver to watch and an all-round ‘hell of a nice guy’.
The 2018 V8 Supercars season has now ended and Craig Lowndes has run his last race as a full time driver so I thought I might take the opportunity to put together a brief retrospective on his fantastic career.
Craig Lowndes was born on the 21st of June 1974 in Melbourne, Australia.
At the tender age of 9 with his father’s encouragement, Craig Lowndes started racing go karts at a track in the town of Whittlesea.
He moved into race cars in 1991 driving a Van Diemen in the Motorcraft Formula Ford Championship. Think about it. That would make him roughly 17 years old. Quite an achievement don’t you think?
In 1993 Craig Lowndes won the Australian Formula Ford Championship which was a good way to start his motor racing career. It caught everyone’s attention and all eyes were on him to see what he could do next.
The following year, 1994 he accepted the offer to be co-driver to Brad Jones who was already a legend. It must have been quite an honour to be ‘the chosen’ but also it said quite a lot about the faith they had in him.
In 1995 he earned the pole position at Sandown and Bathurst. Unfortunately, both ended with a DNF but he soon returned to his usual form.
In 1996 he made his fulltime Australian Touring Car Championship debut and won the championship.
By 1997 his rapid rise through the ranks put him in a position to go overseas and try his hand as a Formula 1 driver. Things didn’t appear to go to plan so he ended up coming back to Australia for the Endurance races which were the Tickford 500 at Sandown and the Primus 1000 at Bathurst.
In 1998 he accepted an offer from the Holden Racing Team to be teammate to Mark Skaife (moving from Ford). He replaced the massive gap left in the team by Peter Brock, who retired at the end of the 1997 season. They were big shoes to fill but Craig Lowndes (CL) proved his worth by winning The Shell Championship Series for a second time (the first being 1996).
Then the following year (1999) just to prove a point, he won the Shell Championship Series for the third time.
So let me just recap that because it is quite astounding:
· 1991 at 17 years old he starts his career in professional race cars
· 1993 in his 3rd season he wins the Australian Formula Ford Championship
· 1994 becomes co-driver to Brad Jones.
· 1996 becomes a fulltime driver and wins the Australian Touring Car Championship
· 1998 replaces the retired Peter Brock in the Holden Racing Team
o Teamed up with another race legend, Mark Skaife
o Wins the Shell Championship Series (for a second time).
· 1999 wins the championship again. That is his 3rd season as a full time driver and 3rd season win.
If not before, he now had really made a name for himself.
He was going for his 4th championship in 2000 but that went to his teammate Mark Skaife.
In 2001 he joined Gibson Motorsport but it didn’t seem to be a good fit.
The following year he moved to 00 Motorsport. This was also a short term relationship and for 2003 and 2004 joined Ford Performance Racing.
2003 he won round 2 at Phillip Island after the race got red flagged due pouring rain.
With his teammate Glenn Seton came runner up for the Bathurst 1000, 2nd to Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly in 2003 and 2004.
For the 2005 he moved under the wing of Triple 8 Race Engineering. He finally seemed to have found his perfect match and it started a 14 year relationship with Triple 8.
In that first year with Triple 8 he won the Betta Electrical Sandown 500 and finished runner up to ‘The Enforcer’, Russell Ingall for the season Championship.
With co-driver Yvan Muller he should have won the supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in 2005. If it wasn’t for Craig Lowndes hitting the wall and collecting a wheel from the Larry Perkins’ Castrol Commodore I reckon they would’ve won Bathurst in 2005.
In 2006 Craig Lowndes won the Clipsal 500 Race 1
While in race 2 he had a DNF (Did Not Finish) due to an accident with Cameron McConville, James Courtney and Jason Richards.
He also won Oran Park Race 3 and the coveted the 2006 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
From 2007 to 2012 Team Vodafone was the new sponsor for Craig Lowndes and also Jamie Whincup. They were a great match as team mates and soon became a force to be reckoned with.
2008 Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup made a 3-peat, winning the Bathurst 1000 for a third time in a row. 2006, 2007 and 2008.
2009 both Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes won 6 from 6 races to start the 2009 V8 Supercars Championship. The year for Triple 8 was looking great.
Over the next 9 seasons he continued in the same form with far too many accomplishments to list.
In 2013 Red Bull took over as the naming rights sponsor.
Caltex Vortex came in as the sponsor for Craig in 2016 and 2017. Jamie Whincup and Shane Van Gisbergen stayed sponsored by Red Bull.
In his final year, 2018 Craig Lowndes was again under new sponsorship Autobarn Lowndes Racing.
With the completion of the 2018 season it ends Craig Lowndes’ 22 year career as a fulltime driver in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship and his 14 year relationship with Triple Eight Race Engineering.
His stats clearly define him as one of the all-time greats.
Craig Lowndes – stats of a legend:
Races: 667
Crashes (obviously survived): 1996 Phillip Island, Race 2
1999 Calder Park, Race 2
2001 Clipsal 500 Adelaide, Race 2
2003 Barbagallo Raceway, Race 2
2005 Clipsal 500, Race 2
2006 Phillip Island, Race 3
2008 Clipsal 500, Race 2
2011 Abu Dhabi, Race 2 (I don’t see a pattern here. Do you?)
Race wins: 107. The first in the history of racing to reach 100 race wins.
Pole positions: 42
Bathurst 1000 Wins: 7
The Bathurst tally includes a trifecta having won 3 years running 2006,2007 & 2008.
Winner of the opening race 3 years in a row 1999, 2000 and 2001.
He has been team mates with some of the most well-known drivers in the history of the sport including;
· Peter brock 1994 – 1996
· Brad Jones 1994
· Greg Murphy 1995 – 1997
· Mark Skaife 1998 – 2000
· Neil Crompton 2001 – 2002
· Glenn Seton 2003 – 2004
· Steven Ellery 2005
· Jamie Whincup 2006 -2018
Co-drivers include many of the above plus:
· Cameron McConville 1999
· Glenn Seton 2003, 2004
· Yvan Muller 2005
· Warren Luff 2012, 2013
· Steven Richards 2014, 2018
He has worked with some of the best race engineers in the industry including:
· Matthew Crawford 1996 – 2000
· Oscar Fearonoto 2001 2002
· Campbell little 2005 – 2007
· Jeromy Moore 2008 – 2014 Jeromy Moore’s nickname is JJ. In 2015 Jeromy Moore moved to Germany to work with the Porsche LMP1 Team for 2015, 2016 and 2017.
· Grant Mcpherson – Nickname is Shippy 2015
· Ludo Lacroix 2016
· John McGregor – Irish 2017 – 2018
At his last race for the 2018 season he did his lap of honour to a cheering crowd. What amazed me was the response from not just his team, but all the other drivers. Some on hands and knees bowing in his presence, asking to have their driving suits signed and more. No-one has ever had a bad thing to say about Craig Lowndes (except that he beat them in a race). It really says a lot about the character of the man.
Congratulations Craig Lowndes! You truly are one of the greats in the sport. I am looking forward to the Enduros next year but am sure that I speak for everyone when I say ‘Gonna miss you’ from full time racing.
Good luck with everything you do in the future.
https://www.facebook.com/williamsperfectride/
Please feel free to let me know what your favourite Craig Lowndes moments are.