Supercars: Legend of Craig Lowndes forged under pressure on and off track
AS Craig Lowndes enters his 25th and final full-time Bathurst 1000 race, teammate Steven Richards says the six-time champion will depart having defined the sport.
Motorsport
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AS Craig Lowndes enters his 25th and final full-time Bathurst 1000 race, teammate Steven Richards says the six-time champion will depart having defined the sport.
Lowndes 44, will start from ninth position today at Mount Panorama and a crowd of 200,000 will bid him an emotional farewell.
“Supercars today wouldn’t be where it is without Craig Lowndes,” co-driver Richards said.
“Because the reality is he’s got so much time for people outside the car that he’s really brought a lot of new fans to the sport.
“Some drivers can’t cope with the attention outside the car as well as being able to drive the car quickly.
“That’s the biggest thing.
“He gets in the car [on Friday] with a lot of little issues going on within our team environment with power steering, and he’s jumped in and put it in the top 10.
“Yet outside of the car, whenever he’s outside the car, he’s got a heap of people that want his attention.
“For me, the sport will hopefully keep him around for a bit longer because I think it’s really important.”
Having ironed out the power steering issues, Lowndes will need to produce one of his finest performances over the 161 laps to match his winning efforts of 1996, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2015.
A seventh victory would put him outright second behind nine-time winner Peter Brock.
The finality of this race and the will of the crowd won’t add extra pressure on Lowndes and Richards, the latter said.
“There’s always expectation when you drive with Craig Lowndes, whether it’s his first race or last race,” Richards said.
“I know there’s an outside perception, but we’re doing the same thing that we come and do every year.
“And that’s how Craig wants it. He knows it’s his last, everyone knows it’s his last race full time, but we just want to keep it the same we always do.
“Every year they want Craig to be the guy that wins the race.
“There’s a lot more attention outside the car for Craig this weekend, but inside the car, to me, it’s the same thing; everyone loves Lownedsy and they want him to win and that’s what we’re going to try to do.
“Craig and I, our careers are parallel, we came into it at a very similar time.
“Craig’s been my longest associated co-driver, we both enjoy each others’ accompany outside the car as well as inside the car.
“But things move on, times change and you’ve got to roll with the punches.”
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