Craig Lowndes is 52. On Sunday he’ll start his 33rd Bathurst 1000. And this year, more than most, it’s personal.
It’s 20 years since Peter Brock died. Lowndes was his close mate and his protégé. Now Bathurst is back. Everyone in the pits will have Brock on their mind.
The King of the Mountain
Nobody has won at Mount Panorama like Brock. Nine wins. Nobody’s matched it. To the fans he was Peter Perfect, or just the King of the Mountain.
Born in Richmond, Victoria, in 1945, he also won the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour, which he liked to count as win number 10.
He died on 8 September 2006, when the car he was driving in the Targa West rally in Western Australia left the road and hit a tree near Gidgegannup. He was 61.
Since then, the winners of the Bathurst 1000 have lifted the Peter Brock Trophy.
That 2006 win
Brock had only been gone a few weeks when Lowndes and Jamie Whincup crossed the line first in 2006. It still gets to both of them.
“The minute’s silence, I’ll never forget that,” Whincup said. “It was my first (Bathurst) win for the team and a memory that I’ll take to the grave.”
Lowndes still gets a bit spooked by the winning margin. The gap was 0.5, he says, “and that was Brock’s number for a long time”.
“Peter was more than just a teammate,” he said. His legacy, Lowndes reckons, will “live on forever”.
Lowndes goes round again
Lowndes has seven Bathurst wins of his own. This time he’s driving the No. 15 wildcard for Team 18, with young Super2 driver Bayley Hall alongside. Ever since Whincup hung up the helmet in 2021, Lowndes has been teaming up with the kids.
“I’m somewhat gone full circle,” he said.
Whincup won’t be on the grid at all. For the first time since his debut back in 2002, he’s not racing. He’s now running Triple Eight as team principal.
New engines for the Fords
Everyone’s talking about engines. Every single Ford on the grid is getting one swapped for Bathurst, Supercars has confirmed.
Why? Testing showed the Ford motor dropped power when the air pressure dropped. Not ideal on a circuit that goes right up a mountain. Triple Eight developed the change, and Supercars has approved it for this race only. The Toyotas and Chevrolets stay as they are.
Fair to say the rivals will be watching that one closely.
Who’s quick so far?
Kai Allen set the pace in Thursday practice. He topped both sessions in the No. 26 Grove Racing Ford Mustang, with a 2:05.5460 in the first one. That was more than three-tenths clear of PremiAir’s Jayden Ojeda.
Lochie Dalton in the No. 99 Erebus Chevrolet was quickest in the co-driver session. Six of the top 10 in the first session were Fords.
Chaz Mostert, the reigning champ, was way back in 17th in the Walkinshaw TWG Toyota. And Matt Payne, who won here last year, got called in early. His crew had spotted power steering fluid on the garage floor.
Then there’s Broc Feeney. Still no Bathurst win to his name. Nick Percat is his co-driver at Triple Eight. He’s second in the championship behind Payne, so there’s plenty riding on Sunday.
Their lead-up wasn’t great, mind you. At The Bend 500, the warm-up round, they came 24th out of 26. Ouch. And Triple Eight only moved from Chevy to Ford last year, so the new engine is a big deal for them.
Lowndes, meanwhile, knows exactly where the time is. Turn 1. Hell Corner. Murray’s. Brake at the right spot over Skyline, clip the kink on the inside of the Elbow. That’s his checklist. After 32 goes at it, he should know.
When to watch the Bathurst 1000
There are two more practice sessions on Friday, then qualifying. The race itself is on Sunday 11 October, all 1,000 kilometres and 23 corners of it, from Hell Corner up to Skyline and back down to Murray’s Corner.
In plenty of Aussie homes, Bathurst Sunday is basically a public holiday. The barbecue’s going, the telly’s on all day, and somebody always brings up Brock.
Twenty years on, that hasn’t changed. Whoever wins this weekend will be holding his trophy.