"We gave it our best shot"

V8 Supercars legend Craig Lowndes says he is happy with his season, after finishing second and earning the prestigious Barry Sheene Medal last night.

Lowndes – who is now a five-time winner of the award – was voted fairest and best by the media at the annual V8 Supercars Gala Awards after a strong season.

Speaking to v8supercars.com.au on Sunday night, the six-time and 2015 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 winner said he was proud to be runner up in the championship, and praised the efforts of Mark Winterbottom and Prodrive.

“I’m pretty happy with the year, at the end of the day we gave it our best shot,” Lowndes said.

“We had our ups and downs – the tyre blowing in New Zealand, then you have your Bathurst win – so we’ve had a pretty good year.

“We’ve hit some milestones, got 100 race wins, we ended up second in the championship so t the end of the day you reflect and look back on it, it hasn’t been a bad year.”

On top of the Barry Sheene Medal, he was also voted fan favourite for the third year running – and has been the only driver in the award’s history to win it.

His positive personality is a big part of that – the 41-year old believes that while many may see second as a consolation prize, for him it was a testament to his competitiveness.

“Some may say it’s the first of the losers, but we’ve been in the top four I think the last 10 years, so our longevity and consistency has been really good,” Lowndes said.

“We would’ve loved to have had a couple more championship wins, but you’ve got to take it for what it is and we knew coming into this we were going be a bit of a long shot.

“We were hopeful to try and push it into Sunday if we could, but really we just couldn’t push it into Sunday. We were very mindful of securing second, but at the same token, to get the teams championship, which our aim was for the year.”

The points gap was 179 coming into the weekend – with 300 available – and Lowndes always knew it was a big task. He and the Red Bull team treated it as having nothing to lose. While Lowndes and Winterbottom have had some incidents on-track over the years, three-time champion Lowndes had nothing but nice words for the 2015 title winner.

“It’s a credit to him – he’s just deserving,” he said of Frosty.

“He’s had a strong year, he’s been solid, he’s been fast, he’s won races – so I think he can be proud to be number one next year.

“We’ve got to try and take it off him for next year if we can.

“The teams championship side of it is something we’ve been conscious of, we’ve had it … for many years and we want to try and continue that.”

Shifting to what’s effectively the third Triple Eight car next year with Vortex, as Shane van Gisbergen shifts into the team, Lowndes is looking forward to the challenge and is hopeful of again being a front runner.

“I don’t think it’ll be a different mindset – it will be a different look car, the personnel will be a little bit different, but the car will be a Triple Eight car, we’ll debrief with the Triple Eight guys,” he explained.

“So it’s a little bit different in the way it’s made up, but otherwise it’s business as usual and looking forward to kicking on the year at the Clipsal – and I’m excited about the new look.”