So near yet so far

Craig Lowndes has accepted philosophically the end of his shot at the 2015 V8 Supercars drivers’ championship and the likely prospect of finishing second - the sixth time in the last 11 seasons he will have achieved the feat. 

The Red Bull Racing Australia Holden Commodore VF driver entered the Coates Hire Sydney 500 trailing Mark Winterbottom by 179 and needing to post outstanding results to have a shot at the title.

But a crash in qualifying for Saturday’s first 125km sprint meant the task of even keeping the championship fight alive into Sunday was beyond him. 

“It was always going to be a tough ask this weekend to be honest,” Lowndes conceded to v8supercars.com.au on Saturday evening.

“We were talking it up and hopeful, but we really needed Frosty to have a DNF and have a bit of luck go our way.

“Even if I won he only had to be in the top 14 - which we knew they were capable of. So the outcome for me is no surprise.”

Now Lowndes must take care not to suffer disaster in today 250km final race of the season as Winterbottom’s Prodrive Racing Australia team-mate David Reynolds could snatch second from him, while PRA is still a big shot at claiming the teams’ championship.

Pepsi-Max Ford Falcon FG X driver Winterbottom leads the drivers’ championship by 220 points with only 150 points to be won, while Reynolds, in his last drive in The Bottle-O Falcon before moving to Erebus Motorsport, trails Lowndes by 117 points.

In the teams’ championship, RBRA moved past Pepsi-Max Crew yesterday to lead by 16 points with 288 points still up for grabs.

“The points gap to Reynolds is still well over 100 so but I’ve obviously got to drive smart tomorrow,” Lowndes said. “But the key thing for me is securing second in the teams’ championship for the team.

“We’re just going to keep trucking on,” he said. “We want to finish the year on a high now and a positive note and something we’ll focus on overnight is to make the car better, qualify better and see where we end up.

“Tomorrow’s race suits my style, being a longer race with multiple pit stops. I’m really looking forward to getting my teeth into it.”

Lowndes took the blame for his crucial qualifying crash, explaining he was distracted by yellow flags being displayed as he approached turn 11, not realising they were for James Moffat’s crash in the Faresin Industries Nissan Altima in turn 13.

“I was in two frames of mind whether to run down the escape road or go round the corner and of course I buggered it up and locked up the fronts and went into the tyres. So it was my mistake.”

Lowndes, 41, made it clear his enthusiasm and desire to succeed in V8 Supercars remains undimmed despite not being able to break through and win the drivers’ championship in his 11 years at Triple Eight Race Engineering.

Meanwhile, team-mate Jamie Whincup has won six drivers’ championships in the past seven years.

“It shows we’re consistent but not consistent enough,” Lowndes reflected. “I think that we’ve been in good cars in good times, but unfortunately we haven’t crossed the line in that number one position.  

“So Jamie’s been the majority of those problems.” 

Winterbottom has, of course, been the problem this year and Lowndes was generous in his praise for the first-time champion. 

“I thought he would win the championship, and congratulations to him. He’s had a great year and the team have performed very well.

“Frosty drove really well and smart today and he’s been very competitive and very fast all year. So they’ve done what they needed to do, which was great for them.”