Seven wins, 32 starts, but Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 will have extra meaning for Craig Lowndes

One lesson Craig Lowndes has learnt in more than three decades as a racing car driver is that you never know what’s just around the corner.

The next major landmark he will pass has been a long time coming: when he lines up on Sunday in his 32nd Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama he will equal the number of appearances of his legendary mentor, the late, great Peter Brock.

The iconic race will also represent a figurative fork in the road for Lowndes, as it will be his swansong appearance with Triple Eight – his employers for the past 20 years – after signing to launch a new venture with Team 18 next year.

The 51-year-old could hardly have hoped for a more fitting venue to end his 458-race association with Triple Eight.

Mt Panorama has held a special place in his heart since he made his debut there as a co-driver alongside Brock in 1994, and each year he feels the same buzz of excitement about 20 kilometres outside Bathurst, when the motorsport mecca first appears on the horizon.

“You go across the top of the mountain for the first time, it’s amazing,” Lowndes said. “It gives you goosebumps every time, and if it doesn’t, there’s something wrong with you.

“Come Sunday morning when you’re on the start line, when you’ve got 100,000 people here, it’s an amazing feeling.

“It’s a very unique circuit going across the top of the mountain. The crowd is actually above you, so it’s like an amphitheatre, and you do hear the crowd on the opening laps and the closing laps of the races.

“It’s just all those little elements that just makes it such a great race.”

Lowndes’ passion is understandable when you consider his history at “the mountain”.

He has won seven Bathurst 1000 titles: in 1996, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015 and 2018. Only Brock, with nine victories, has earned more. And only Jim Richards, with 35 starts, has made more appearances on the track.

“I’ll be back next year,” Lowndes promised. “There’s three more years I’d have to come back to catch Jimmy Richards, but I’ll definitely be back next year, and we’ll see what happens after that.”

A three-time series champion, Lowndes has already started in more Supercars races than any other driver and has won 110 of them, second only to Jamie Whincup (125).

There will be a tangible sense of nostalgia as he prepares for his Triple Eight farewell, but Lowndes was also “looking forward to a new challenge” next year. The team’s decision to switch manufacturers to Ford prompted his move.

“I’ve been with Triple Eight for the last two decades and that has been a great foundation for me,” he said. “I’ve loved every minute of it; it’s growing the team, building the team.

“But obviously my decision was to stay with GM [General Motors], which the team’s not.

“For me, GM is where I started my career.

“I did have a stint in Ford land, but going forward now and probably for the closing years of my career, I’m staying with GM to build with them, and I’ll be an ambassador for that brand, GM, and work with Team 18, which I will do from the start of next year.”

All that can wait, however, until the dust settles and the fumes dissipate after Sunday’s race, which Lowndes describes as the highlight of any Supercars season, regardless of the new three-round finals series that has been added on to this year’s format.

“You have the AFL grand final and then the NRL grand final, and this is our grand final,” he said.

Asked to reflect on the evolution of the sport, Lowndes said today’s cars were a dream to drive, in comparison to the Commodore he first raced at Bathurst in 1994.

“Back then you had to be mechanically sympathetic; you had to look after the car, nurture it,” he said. “Today’s cars, you just drive them hard and fast from lap one to lap 161.

“I think that the cars themselves, they do move around very similar because of the aerodynamics and that side of it – we’re still close to 300 kilometres down Conrod Straight – but just the evolution of brakes and gearboxes, the finessing of everything is just nicer now.

“The cars are much easier to drive in some regards. As I said, because of that, you drive them hard and fast all day.”

In saying that, nobody knows better than Lowndes not to disrespect the famous 6.213-kilometre track that snakes up and down Mt Panorama.

“It’s high consequences,” he said. “Across the top of the mountain, you’ve got no room for error; you make a mistake, you’re in the concrete wall, we all know that.

“It’s a circuit you need to respect.”