Championship change doesn't concern Lowndes

Just two points separates the top two in the Championship. It’s the Ford versus Holden rivalry, Ford Performance Racing versus Triple Eight, and two fan favourites in Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes.

Winterbottom dominated the 200km race in Winton, winning his first race of the year, after tearing through the field and improving 16 positions in the previous day’s race. 

Lowndes clinched the win in the 200km race in Tasmania the week prior, his second after the season opener, after driving from 25th to fifth the day before.

And now it’s Frosty with the two-point buffer – and he doesn’t want that top spot compromised.

But Lowndes wasn’t worried about the standings after Race 12 and actually sounded excited for it to be so close.

“That’s not my big concern at the moment,” he told v8supercars.com.au.

“My concern is that it’s a 150 point race (today), so that’s more important to get right because obviously the three races we’ve just done and concluded is 150 points (combined) we’ve been fighting for. This will be a big part.”

Red Bull Racing Australia had an uncharacteristically poor round at previous event Winton, and while Whincup has bounced back to qualify up the front (but was hampered instead by a power steering issue on Friday), Lowndes doesn’t quite seem back at full power.

Finishing 16th in Race 11 after dropping a spot from qualifying, and then 10th, Lowndes didn’t threaten the top contenders. But despite that, he was positive about today's 200km race.

“I think we take a bit of confidence,” he said when asked what could be taken from Saturday’s ordinary results.  

“We’ve moved forward with the car setup – the car in that second race was better for me. It was more consistent, looked after it’s tyres better and we’ve gotten stronger still towards the end.

“We’re still not fast enough but we can work on that… We have gone a step forward to where we need to be.”

The circuits change, but the key to fighting for the win is still the same.

“We need to qualify up the front. Qualifying 15th is just not going to cut it... We need to be up the front where we were Friday and of course then you can fight the battle. At the moment we’ve got nothing to fight with because we’re too far back.”

Strategy will have a huge effect on this afternoon’s race. The 120-litre minimum fuel drop means each car will need two pit stops, and the option to take on more or less fuel at certain stages of the race will mix up the order, as seen in the previous Sunday Super Sprints.

“Whether you do a short stop to begin with and get some track position, you then know you’re going to have a longer stop later on. That’s all going to play a major part in strategy.

“The first thing for us I think is to find out where we both qualify so we don’t trip over each other…

“If we’ve got good speed we’ll need to utilise that to get a break, get a gap and then it can dictate it, in a sense.

“If you haven’t got the speed, you can sort of use that for your advantage as well.

“If you get track position, try and get a gap and stay out of traffic, because traffic is a big thing, it holds you up a lot. So if you can stay in clean air throughout the day, I think that’s going to be more vital than trying to just get through your number of laps.”

While he has contested every V8 Supercar Championship race meeting at Pukekohe – from 2001-7, and '13-14 – it is one of just two circuits on the 2014 calendar where Lowndes hasn't won a race. The other is Townsville, but only 10 races have been staged there. Why hasn’t the record holder for the most V8 Supercars wins been able to jag one at the New Zealand track?

“Don’t know!” he said.

“We’ve had good cars here in the past, we’ve had really ugly cars. I think it’s just a track that everything can go right for you. A bit of strategy today may play a big part in it.

“Getting track position around here is going to play a big part in the sense of getting in front of someone, because it’s very hard to pass around here.

“So if you can get track position – who knows what can happen. But first things first, you’ve got to qualify and then move on.

“But I don’t know – I like the track, it’s quite a bumpy challenging track as drivers – but I don’t know what it is.”

The V8 Supercars will qualify at 1pm local time, with the 200km race beginning at 3.25pm.

The highest pointscorer this weekend will be awarded the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy – Race 12 winner Shane van Gisbergen leads.