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Lowndes surprised with sixth

11 Oct 2014
Car was fine after repairs, but Red Bull star was conservative and focused on keeping it straight in shootout lap.
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Craig Lowndes is "delighted" to start from sixth position on the grid for tomorrow's Bathurst 1000 after putting in a conservative lap in the ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout.

Lowndes assured v8supercars.com.au his Red Bull Holden Commodore was fine, despite hurried repairs from the team after being involved in a huge accident in the day's morning practice session.

"The car's fine - no vibrations, no nothing else, it was actually nice to drive," Lowndes said after the shootout, which young Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen topped.

"It was more me doing a conservative lap, me making sure we didn't have to repair again.

"So there's definitely more in it -but ... the guys said just go out there, if you can feel something that's not normal or strange, just bring it home. So with that in mind, went through turn one, got a good run, went though turn two up around the Cutting - the car actually felt really good, but I just didn't want to step over the line or step over the mark to injure the car or run it up against the wall.

"The guys, as I said, have been working pretty hard and they're quite tired now so the last thing we need is another repair job.

"The car is fine -the car is good."

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Starting from sixth is no drama for Lowndes, who paired with Steven Richards, is one of the top contenders to take out tomorrow's race.

"I think we've been on the third row, fifth and sixth for the last five or six years, so it's a good number for us.I'm not superstitious, but we've started there in the past.

"I'm probably a little bit surprised we ended up there knowing we were the first car out, we were conservative, the track was quite dirty with all the Utes running around ... I'm not surprised we struggled a bit with pace - we knew it would get faster as the cars went on because the track was going to clean up, the condition of the track was going to calm down, they were always going to go faster.

"But to finish sixth I'm delighted, I'm really happy."

Lowndes' teammate Jamie Whincup, paired with Paul Dumbrell, starts 23rd after crashing his Commodore yesterday in the qualifying session. Whincup has already gained two positions, elevated after Chaz Mostert was excluded from yesterday's qualifying, and Garth Tander's crashed Commodore was withdrawn earlier this morning.

Click here for full results from the ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout.

The V8 Supercars will be on track tomorrow morning for one final 20-minute warm-up before The Great Race begins at 10.30am local time.

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