Extra support for Lowndes

Craig Lowndes will contest next week’s Clipsal 500 with a modified HANS (head and neck support) device to help protect his injured collarbone.

The TeamVortex driver pulled up well after a full day of testing on Thursday, but he and the Triple Eight team will not be taking any chances at the races Lowndes describes as the toughest of the year on the streets of Adelaide.

“We’ve modified the HANS device slightly, we’ve put a bit of extra padding underneath the ends of it, just so it is like a bridge that goes over the collarbone and doesn’t rest on it,” Lowndes told v8supercars.com.au. 

“It worked fine – obviously it’s a little bit thicker – but it worked fine in the car so we will run that at Clipsal and then see where we go from there.”

Lowndes broke his collarbone over the summer and went in for surgery to help speed up the healing process. He was forced to sit out the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, but the injury has not affected his V8 Supercars campaign.

In fact, the six-time Bathurst 1000 winner pulled up better than expected on the Friday, the day after the Queensland Raceway test.

“[I was] fine – I was expecting the upper body to be a little bit sore, but to be honest I pulled up really well, which was for me a great sign,” he said.  

“The test was all about giving the car a run but also about giving myself a test, so it was nice to pull up raring to go.”

Test days are always important for the teams, with a restriction of three days this season (one that must be utilised before the season starts). Lowndes said Thursday’s was one of the most critical he’s ever completed.

“It was vital for me.

“I think it was more confidence than anything – the car itself was fine, I didn’t have any issues and wouldn’t have thought there’d be any issues with the car side of it. 

"It was more me getting back in the car, seeing if there were any niggling problems, which there wasn’t … probably one of the most important tests we’ve done.”

Sharing the circuit with DJR Team Penske and TEKNO Autosports – as well as the two Red Bull cars – Lowndes recorded the third fastest time of the day, 0.39sec off quickest driver Scott Pye.

The TeamVortex racer believes the combined times didn’t tell the whole story of the test day.

DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard came in second, and Lowndes doesn’t doubt the growing team will be one to watch this season.

“We all did our times in different stages of the day so a little bit hard to take a little out of what did go on,” Lowndes said. 

“It did show they [DJRTP] are still on form – they’ve got good pace, and will be one of the team’s to be reckoned with, for sure.”

Lowndes heads to the Clipsal 500 with five race wins to his name – equal with Marcos Ambrose and second only to Jamie Whincup.

He is not the only driver headed to Adelaide in recovery mode, with Chaz Mostert returning from his enormous 2015 crash and also happy with his performance during his test day on Monday.

Mostert was third fastest at Winton Motor Raceway, behind Tim Slade and James Courtney.