Lowndes wins his 100th race
Craig Lowndes has earned his 100th V8 Supercars race win in spectacular fashion at the SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin.
Lowndes - who debuted in the category full-time in 1996 - has been on the verge of cracking triple figures since Tasmania in March, and today achieved the amazing feat that further cements him as a great of the sport.
The Red Bull racer adds 100 wins to an illustrious list of results, including three Championship wins, five Bathurst wins and top five finishes in the Championship for the past 10 consecutive years.
Funnily enough, today's race was number 888 in the Championship!
And it was another wild race, this time on soft tyres.Both front-row starters Rick Kelly and Fabian Coulthard charged into turn one, with Kelly unable to pull up his Nissan, tagging Coulthard and later getting a drive-through penalty.
As they ran off the road, Lowndes drove through for the lead and sailed home to the end of the 21-lap race for a 1.839sec victory over Supercheap Auto Racing's Tim Slade.
"It's quite incredible - we've been close a number of times the last couple of rounds, but this one is obviously very special for me," an emotional Lowndes said after getting out of the car.
"Credit to these guys - it's been a fantastic career, amazing to work with these guys [at Red Bull]... all the stars aligned ... it's an amazing feeling."
Lowndes said given they had been talking about 100 wins for so long he wasn't sure how it would feel - but the fan favourite celebrated with a great burnout and was rapt on the podium.
"We thought we were in for a chance on the soft tyre, that altercation at turn one just opened the doors and it's very special," he said.
Cars scattered on the first lap of the race - after the incident that allowed Lonwdes the lead, Nick Percat copped a big hit, his Repair Management Australia Racing Commodore suffering significant damage after a battle involving rookie Andre Heimgartner, as well as Jamie Whincup and Will Davison.
A safety car was deployed early but the restart was tame as drivers focused on finishing.
DJR Team Penske's Scott Pye put in a stellar performance finishing fourth, James Courtney and Garth Tander recovered from their first race incident to come home inside the top 10 and Mark Winterbottom held onto the Championship lead with a seventh place finish.
But Lowndes was the star of the show, winning the 888th Championship race and claiming his 100th win.
He still sits second in the Championship, 29 points behind Winterbottom.
Click here for full results.
Tune in to ONE at 8.30pm EST and TEN at midnight for the highlights, and see Lowndes' 100th victory.
