Lowndes looks to carry momentum

Encouraged by a positive run at Hidden Valley, Craig Lowndes has his sights set on a return to the podium at the Watpac Townsville 400.

Lowndes, who turned 43 last week, has struggled for qualifying form on the new tyre this year before continually moving forward in the races.

Watpac Townsville 400: Tickets | TV schedule

Confident of progress after a pre-Darwin test, traffic in qualifying saw Lowndes manage just 18th on the grid for the Saturday Hidden Valley race.

He rebounded with a solid ninth grid slot on the Sunday, turning it into a fine sixth place finish.

The result moved the veteran to seventh in the championship – a position achieved with nine top 10 finishes from 12 races.

He has however only finished on the podium once this year, which came in the shortened Symmons Plains Race 3 for which points were eventually withheld.

Prior to that, the TeamVortex driver's last podium came at Sydney Motorsport Park in August 2016.

Lowndes was in Townsville on Wednesday for a promotion alongside North Queensland Cowboys rugby league star Michael Morgan and says he’s eager to take to the circuit.

With the exception of the new event in Newcastle, Townsville and Pukekohe are the only two current circuits on which Lowndes has never won.

“We had an opportunity to drive through the circuit and see it all under construction,” he said of his pre-event visit.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back next week, getting into it proper and seeing if we can keep on that momentum we started to build in Darwin.

“I’ve been on the podium here but I haven’t actually won it, so I’d like to turn that around.

“It’s a great track. I love the circuit, it’s quite brutal both physically and mentally but also the car.

“But hopefully next weekend we can turn things around and get back on the podium.”

Morgan took on Lowndes in a virtual reality racing challenge and expects several of his Cowboys team-mates to be out supporting the Townsville Supercars event.

Cowboys involvement in the July 7-9 event will see two of the Toyota 86 Racing Series entries presented in team colours.

“Hopefully I’m away for Origin, but I know that a number of boys are going,” said Morgan of the event.

“There’s already been talk around the club, I know boys were looking for tickets.

“I think it’s a great weekend for Townsville with the amount of support that’s shown for it.

“If people don’t show support and get down and support it then these things don’t happen, so it’s great to see.”