Lowndes bracing for 'really foreign' Finke challenges
Craig Lowndes set for Finke Desert Race debut
Supercars Hall of Famer will partner Dale Moscatt in Chevrolet Silverado
2024 Finke Desert Race will get underway on June 8
Craig Lowndes is excited yet wary ahead of his Finke Desert Race debut, citing pace notes and a co-driver as a “really foreign” challenge.
The Supercars Hall of Famer will partner Dale Moscatt in a Chevrolet Silverado at next month’s Finke Desert Race.
Seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Lowndes will compete in the Production 4WD class, with the Silverado run with support from Chevrolet Racing, GMSV, Ramped and Hall Racing.
The 2024 Finke Desert Race will get underway with the Prologue on June 8, a week before Round 5 of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship in Darwin.
Lowndes and Moscatt have already tested the Silverado, with Lowndes previously a spectator of the Finke event on a number of occasions.
While a veteran of nearly 700 Supercars race starts, Lowndes says racing with the experienced Moscatt by his side — complete with pace notes — will be an all new challenge.
“We've done a number of test days in the truck so it's sort of, for me, just getting familiarised with what the actual capabilities of what the Silverado can handle," the 110-time Supercars race winner said.
“But also, I'm not used to having someone sitting beside me throwing directions at me – it's normally from a pit lane – so getting used to having someone beside me, but also to understand that whole language, which is really foreign for me.”
Following the Finke event, Lowndes will share a Triple Eight wildcard Gen3 Camaro with rising star Cooper Murray at this year's Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.
Moscatt, who has competed in the Dakar Rally and has two Australian Rally Championship titles, says Lowndes has enjoyed their test days, and is on the right track with understanding pace notes.
"I'm fortunate enough to have a very strong rally background and I'm used to calling pace notes and describing everything along the way,” Moscatt said.
“So, we've got pace notes – if you want to call them that – to tell you how fast to be everywhere.
“Obviously, you put all those safety aspects in as well, because you're never going to make it to the other end if you don't think about safety as well.
“We're both more mature these days and hopefully smart enough to know where to back off as well as where to push and enjoy ourselves. I've got notes from previous years which Craig's enjoyed in our tests and understands that now, so we'll use those notes.
“You work together as a team and try and stay concentrated and focused, the whole way.”
