Lowndes: I was waiting for the call
29 Mar 2015
Red Bull star Craig Lowndes knew he was doomed to drive through pit lane as soon as he'd make contact with The Bottle-O's David Reynolds in yesterday's Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint.
All eyes were on the Championship veteran as he strived to be the first in history to clock up an impressive 100 race wins - but it was over almost before it began with the turn two incident banishing the #888 to the back of the grid.
Lowndes powered through the field to finish sixth, in a charge reminiscent of last year's effort at the Symmons Plains circuit - but rather than dwell on the disastrous part of the race, he was positive about just how strong the car's speed was.
"In hindsight we probably could've pushed a bit harder earlier - we didn't know it at the time and I think that, really for us, you go away from this weekend looking forward to Perth and what we can do," Lowndes told v8supercars.com.au.
He knew he'd receive the message for the pit lane penalty, and was immediately focused on the longevity of the car and tyres.
"I was just waiting for the call to be honest, because I knew I was in the wrong," he said.
"I think it's one of those things - you know you're in trouble straight away, you know you're going to serve a penalty, you're at the back of the field.
"One thing you don't want to do is burn up your tyres too quickly, you've really got to look after the car, look after the tyre and over the course of race we were able to do that."
After two flying starts on Saturday, which helped him dominate the two races, Sunday's wasn't so good.
"I got a bad start, the clutch pedal actually went away, I got going, had some overlap into one, all happened into two, turned in understeered and tagged the back of his [Reynolds'] car and of course turned him around."
Rejoining at the back of the field, Reynolds' devastation was clear post-race, despite the Bottle-O racer able to claw back to 11th.
"I'm happy with the car pace, it worked out - except for when Lowndes turned me around," Reynolds said.
With his contract with Rod Nash's Prodrive entry up at the end of the season, Reynolds has performed under immense pressure, with team boss Tim Edwards saying he was driving for his career this year.
Since switching to the FG X model Falcon for the support races at the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month, Reynolds seems to have found form - something qualifying second by 0.04 seconds attests to.
"I had good car pace," he said.
"I won the start - I thought I gave him a bit of room but he stuffed up or something, gone a bit too deep and drilled me but went back to dead last caught the back of the train in five or six laps started picking people off and was going ok.
"We had good pace on hard tyres and we're getting there - we did what we could, it was ok."
The incident was one of many this weekend with interesting outcomes, with a touch between James Courtney and Will Davison creating fireworks in the garage post-race, and Shane van Gisbergen apologising for a mistake affecting Ash Walsh, copping a two grid spot penality.
For Lowndes, all he could do was watch on as his teammate achieved a record of his own after winning on Sunday, surpassing Mark Skaife's number of race wins, which saw him move to become the second winningest driver of all time.
"He's done a great job. Jamie has been fighting all weekend to get car pace and balance and looks like they got it right for that last race," Lowndes said.
He has dropped from second to third in the Championship, with Whincup now leading James Courtney.
The V8 Supercars next hit the track in May for the Perth SuperSprint - a track Lowndes has previously performed well at.
