Lowndes, Stanaway to lead wildcard entries

Craig Lowndes, Richie Stanaway and Matt Chahda will lead their respective wildcards in Bathurst.

Supercars confirmed last week that this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 will be contested by 28 cars.

The official entry list contains the 25 full-time entries and three wildcards.

Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are available on Supercars.com and Ticketek.

The three approved wildcards are entries from Matt Chahda Motorsport, Triple Eight Race Engineering and Erebus Motorsport.

Lowndes, Stanaway and Chahda are the nominated primary drivers for their respective entries.

Lowndes will race a Supercheap Auto-backed Triple Eight Commodore with rookie Declan Fraser.

Lowndes is making start No. 29, and debuted six years before Fraser was born.

The seven-time Bathurst winner will be a primary driver at Mount Panorama for the first time since his 2018 win.

Lowndes was Jamie Whincup's co-driver in 2019, 2020 and 2021 following his full-time retirement.

The October 6-9 event will also be Lowndes' 300th ATCC/Supercars round start, making him the first to do so.

"Being the lead driver again, I'm the teacher teaching the student," Lowndes told Supercars.com.

"Declan has grown in leaps and bounds this year, he's matured a lot even though he's still young.

"He adapts really well to different scenarios. He'll fit into the Bathurst crowd really well.

Stanaway's last start came in 2019, with the Kiwi to race with countryman Greg Murphy.

Murphy last raced in 2014, and recently turned 50 years old.

Stanaway will make his first start since 2019

Stanaway and Murphy are also no strangers to being a co-driver, the latter being James Courtney's co-driver in 2013 and 2014.

Stanaway's first two Bathurst starts were as a 'B' driver, his first coming 2016 with Chris Pither at Super Black Racing.

Stanaway and Cam Waters led the most laps in the 2017 race just weeks after their Sandown 500 triumph.

Chahda and co-driver Jaylyn Robotham join Fraser as Bathurst 1000 rookies.

Being a primary driver doesn't guarantee who will qualify the car.

Regardless, Fraser, Murphy and Robotham will drive their respective entries in the dedicated co-driver sessions.

The trio are joined by fellow rookies and Super2 rivals Matt Payne (Penrite Racing), Aaron Seton (Matt Stone Racing) and Cameron Hill (PremiAir Racing).

All bar one of the 56 seats have been filled for the October 6-9 event.

Brad Jones Racing has yet to confirm a co-driver for the Jack Smith entry.

However, it was revealed Tuesday that Kiwi Porsche ace Jaxon Evans will complete an evaluation day in a bid to secure the seat.

The 2022 season will continue this weekend in New Zealand.

2022 Repco Bathurst 1000 entry list

*Denotes wildcard