'Smooth' test day crucial for Lowndes amid longest wait

Craig Lowndes was pleased with a “smooth" pre-Bathurst test day ahead of his first Supercars appearance in 14 months.

Lowndes joined Red Bull Ampol Racing at Queensland Raceway last week for the team’s pre-Bathurst shakedown.

The Repco Bathurst 1000, which will be held between November 30 and December 5, will be Lowndes’ first start since last October’s Great Race.

December’s event will mark nearly 14 months between championship starts for Lowndes.

Lowndes made his Bathurst debut in 1994 and full series debut in 1996.

After a year in Europe, he enjoyed an uninterrupted full-time career between 1998 and 2018.

Even while plying his trade overseas, Lowndes still made an appearance at Mount Panorama in 1997.

When he rolls out in Bathurst, it will end Lowndes’ longest stint without a competitive ATCC/Supercar start since his career began.

It’s not as though Lowndes will arrive in Bathurst not match-fit; the 47-year-old has been competing in the ongoing Porsche Carrera Cup campaign.

After a number of stints behind the wheel testing General Motors’ Gen3 Camaro engine, Lowndes was pleased to return to the seat of a ZB Commodore Supercar.

“It was a nice, smooth day,” Lowndes told Supercars.com of the test day.

“We did pit stop practice, Jamie [Whincup] and I were in and out of the car. That side of it went really smoothly.

“On our side, we're very happy with where we’re at.”

Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen also cut laps in Ipswich, but the latter’s co-driver Garth Tander - who is based in Victoria - was unable to make it.

Regardless, it was an otherwise untroubled day of running from the perspective of Lowndes, who is aiming for an eighth Bathurst win.

"It’s unfortunate that Garth couldn’t make it,” Lowndes continued.

“But the rest of it was obviously routine in what we’d do leading into Bathurst.

“Run components in, bed brakes in, get gearboxes warmed up. It was great to be out there.”

Lowndes also cited the upcoming events in Sydney as another key opportunity for teams to prepare for the mountain.

From October 29, Sydney Motorsport Park will host four straight weekends of racing, with the fourth and final event headlined by dual 250km races.

Lowndes on track in Bathurst last year

After nearly two seasons of calendars punctuated by back-to-backs, Lowndes was confident teams are well-positioned to arrive in Bathurst without fatigue in both cars and team members.

“Definitely over the last 18 months of doing back-to-back race meetings, teams learned what it took to work well on the road,” he explained.

“Teams understand now how much infrastructure they need to carry for consecutive weekends.

“Obviously crash damage is something you can’t predict, but general lifeing of componentry is much better now.

“As a category, we’ve gotten much smarter in how we operate. I think the four back-to-back weekends in Sydney will work really well ahead of Bathurst.”

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