Lowndes praises Bathurst effort with 'top six' car
Craig Lowndes/Zane Goddard wildcard 24th, 20 laps down in Bathurst 1000
#888 wildcard suffered broken gear lever mount
Lowndes proud of team performance in 30th Bathurst start
Craig Lowndes felt he had a car that could’ve made the top six in the Repco Bathurst 1000, with his 30th start undone by an early issue.
Lowndes and Zane Goddard brought the #888 Supercheap Auto Camaro home in 24th, 20 laps off the pace, in Sunday’s Great Race. Once repaired, the #888 still demonstrated strong pace late in the day.
A broken gear lever mount consigned the Triple Eight Chevrolet to pit lane 12 times during the race, which was won by the sister car of Shane van Gisbergen/Richie Stanaway.
Lowndes’ 2016 race was also undone by a gear lever issue, with a similar fate ending the hopes of the other Triple Eight car of Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup late on Sunday.
While disappointed to miss out on a result, Lowndes praised his team’s efforts to deliver yet another fast wildcard effort at the Mountain.
“We had worked hard to make a nice race car and that's what I felt we had,” Lowndes said.
"In my first stint, the gear lever mount broke, from that point on we were playing catch up for the rest of the race.
"I do have to say, I don't think I've ever been with a team who worked so hard for such a little result. I think we might've set a new record for the amount of times we came in and out of the pits.
"In the end, with all the gear linkage problems we also lost sixth gear as well. It was a disappointing result, however overall, the team worked unbelievably hard to get us the result we did.
"Zane also worked incredibly hard, we didn't put a foot wrong. I think if we had our time over again, we had a car that could've made the top six, in that sense there is a slight disappointment.
“However, we all worked damn hard to achieve the result we did.”
The Bathurst result came after Lowndes/Goddard raced to an impressive 10th at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500.
"I'm pretty gutted, not just for myself but for the whole team,” Goddard added.
“It's pretty devastating. There were so many hours put in behind the scenes. Something so simple could be the undoing. I also feel for Broc because he was on for a great result.
"We had a really good car pace, I feel. Seeing that we couldn't change gears we were still up there with our times."
