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Lowndes well and raring to go

17 Jan 2015
After being instructed to rest up over the off-season, Red Bull racer has recovered from injury sustained in Sydney crash.
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Craig Lowndes has recovered from injury sustained in a high impact crash at the Sydney NRMA 500 in December.

Red Bull Racing Australia's data showed the fan favourite hit the concrete at 139km/h with a 6.8G impact on the Sydney street circuit during Saturday's first qualifying session, resulting in a huge accident and bruising around his ribs.

While Lowndes was able to get back in the car, he found it difficult to race throughout the event - as he fought for second in the Championship behind teammate Jamie Whincup - and was instructed to rest up over the off-season.

Team boss Mark Dutton confirmed Lowndes was well and more than ready to jump back into his Red Bull Holden Commodore VF, with the V8 Supercars sydney.com SuperTest from February 7-8 fast approaching.

"Craig is fully recovered after the Homebush crash in qualifying," Dutton told v8supercars.com.au.

"Thankfully there were no broken bones so it was just a matter of using the off-season to really relax and recover and give his body a chance to completely mend.

"It was a massive impact so of course he was feeling the effects for a while, but he's looking forward to getting the season started with the test next month."

Lowndes was disappointed with the way the final weekend went, left fourth in the Championship as Shane van Gisbergen and Mark Winterbottom took positions two and three behind Whincup.

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"I think the car was good enough, there's no doubt about that - I think my body was just not right for it," Lowndes reflected on the Sydney races.

The one positive for the 40-year old was the effort his team put in to repair his Commodore between the qualifying session in Sydney and the afternoon's races. It was all hands on-deck - with even Whincup pitching in - to fight for that team 1-2 finish.

"Jamie was in there doing stuff, so it was all hands on deck," Lowndes told v8supercars.com.au.

"When you have an impact like that you don't expect too much with the car being repaired but they did a fantastic job - one thing that's a credit to them is they got absolutely everyone on deck and it was incredible."

Lowndes proved that night after the accident why he was awarded his second consecutive People's Choice Award for favourite driver at the 2014 V8 Supercars Gala dinner, signing autographs for queuing fans as his team tried to usher him to lay down and rest.

"You've still got to come out, put on a brave face," Lowndes said.

"The fans are here to have fun and experience what it is. Some days it's good, some days it's bad, but most of the time it's a great business to be involved in."

Days before Christmas it was announced Mark Winterbottom's 2014 engineer Grant McPherson would join Triple Eight for the 2015 season, with Lowndes' engineer Jeromy Moore considering a move to European racing. The team is yet to clarify any role changes.

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