Closing the gap a priority for Lowndes

Today is a big day for fan favourite Craig Lowndes.

"It's qualifying!" he joked.

The Red Bull racer celebrates his 40thbirthday today -and what better way to mark it than with a win?

That will be the goal as Lowndes promises his priority is to close the gap to Championship leader Mark Winterbottom at this weekend's SKYCITY Triple Crown.

"It's hugely important," Lowndes told v8supercars.com.au of bridging the gap.

"I think 101 points, although it doesn't sound like a lot, knowing there's not a lot of opportunities and the difference between positions and points (awarded), you need to peg back every point you can.

"As I said, it may not sound like it, but it is a lot to peg back knowing that Frosty is going to be, at least, reliable. He's going to be consistent and scoring points.

"To peg that back is going to take time."

After both Winterbottom and his Pepsi Max FPR team have barely faltered this year, Lowndes predicted it was unlikely to see them have a mechanical issue this weekend.

"If he has a problem with the car it's going to help us all, but I can't see that being the case -their cars have been strong and reliable so far all year.

"This weekend it'd be nice to try and start than claw back."

Lowndes is mindful of what is ahead in this mid-section of the season, with next event the Castrol Townsville 500 -Driven by TAFE Queensland amazingly one of just two circuits where he hasn't won a race (the other being Pukekohe, where we have already raced this year).

"Townsville, we haven't had the best run the last couple of years. So it's important to do that now, get the points back now and get to our home track in QR (Queensland Raceway) -which again we've had mixed emotions and races.

"Every round is going to be important to the end."

And while the main focus is on the leader, Lowndes is also wary of teammate Jamie Whincup, a formidable competitor perched fourth in the points. If Whincup gets track position during Sunday's 200km, it could mean a strategy compromise for Lowndes as Red Bull avoids the potentially damaging double stack.

"Totally," he said when asked if it was important to stay ahead of the #1.

"We've always told everyone the lead car on the track has priority in the pits and it's too early to even be thinking about team orders -which we've never done - so it's going to be a fight to Homebush.

"Both of us are going to be pushing hard to be in front of each other and of course, hopefully with that hopefully we can elevate ourselves up the grid."

Lowndes described Friday practice as up and down, having finished the day 11th overall, but was comfortable with where his crew had the car by the end of his run.

"The first session we went out we sort of struggled a little bit to get the balance of the car.

"We did a race run in the middle stint which was great, that gave me a bit of confidence, that also gave us a lot of good information about the car pace and the tyre wear, and in p3 I think we stepped it up.

"The car was handling a lot better, I think I was a lot more comfortable...

"It's interesting because everyone's on mixed tyres - some run softs, some run hards - you just don't really know at the moment where you pan out over the grid order because it's just the way the format is... I'm quietly confident our car is good. We made a lot of adjustments and changes over those three sessions and I think getting that race run in the middle part was really beneficial for us."

Lowndes has had an enjoyable week having participated in NT tourism promotions in the lead up to the SKYCITY Triple Crown, andhas appreciated the fans' birthday wishes.

"It's been great, there's been a lot of support, a lot of fans have come up.

"It's been nice, really good to coincide a 40thbirthday with a V8 Supercars race - it's probably a good combination."

How will Lowndes -who won the final race here last year and has five wins to his name at Hidden Valley - go this weekend?

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