The stars that didn't slow down after 250 rounds

Will Davison and James Courtney have a chance to again prove 250 rounds isn’t just a milestone, with the number not slowing down Supercars stars.

Ford veterans Davison and Courtney will both hit 250 Supercars rounds at the betr Darwin Triple Crown, growing the ‘250 club’ to nine drivers.

Milestones haven’t often been kind to veterans in motorsport — notably, no Formula 1 driver has ever won a race after passing the 300 starts milestone. Davison is motivated to keep going, stating he wants to make his 250th a "bloody good one."

However, Supercars drivers have continued to defy the age barrier. Of the seven drivers that previously hit 250 rounds — signifying a two-decade Supercars career — four have gone on to win races.

Six of the seven drivers are Supercars champions, but for some, the career point at which their final wins fell is in each case pretty telling.

Russell Ingall notched up 250 rounds on the Gold Coast in 2015, when he was an injury replacement for Chaz Mostert. However, his final victory came in 2005 — the year he won his maiden championship. For the record, Ingall finished 17th and 19th with a young Cam Waters.

In 2017 — his final full-time season in a fourth Tickford Falcon — Jason Bright hit 250 rounds in Townsville 2017, and finished 23rd and 19th. The 1998 Bathurst winner’s final win came in Pukekohe in April 2014.

It was in Pukekohe in 2019 when Rick Kelly brought up 250 rounds, but he would only finish 19th and 11th. His final win was sooner, at Winton in 2018, just days after Nissan announced it had parted ways with the Kelly team.

Which drivers won after hitting 250 rounds?

Craig Lowndes hit 250 rounds at the 2015 finale at Homebush, and finished the three races in 15th, 17th and sixth. At the time, Lowndes was 41, and little did we know he only had three full-time campaigns left in him.

However, the now Supercars Hall of Famer won two races in 2016 — in Perth and Ipswich — and finished fourth overall. However, a winless 2017 and eventual finish of 10th led to many thinking Lowndes was done.

In typical Lowndes fashion, he was far from done.

Come 2018, he powered to victory from pole in Tasmania, before scaling the summit at Mount Panorama with Steven Richards to claim an unprecedented seventh Great Race win at the age of 44.

Then, in his first season as a bonafide co-driver, Lowndes won the Gold Coast 600 and Sandown 500 alongside old mate Jamie Whincup, taking his post-250 round win tally to seven — the best so far.

Garth Tander’s 250th round was one to forget, claiming finishes of 15th and 11th and being penalised over a shocking accident with Fabian Coulthard at the 2016 Gold Coast event.

By then, he was out the door of the Holden Racing Team, and two years later, was pushed out of full-time racing altogether.

He earned a plumb co-drive at Triple Eight with Shane van Gisbergen, and in four seasons, the lanky duo combined for two Bathurst wins — in 2020 and 2022 — and a Gold Coast win in 2019.

Towards the end of 2021, old rivals Whincup and Mark Winterbottom both hit 250 rounds — Whincup in the third of four Sydney rounds, and Winterbottom at the Bathurst season finale.

For the record, Whincup’s 250th featured a fourth and two seconds, while Winterbottom was 16th at the Great Race.

Whincup, to no surprise, was the closest to victory at his 250th rounds, narrowly missing out to Will Brown in Sydney in a dramatic and tense race that was headlined by his scrap with teammate van Gisbergen.

Come 2023, and Whincup — aged 40 — helped Broc Feeney to a dominant Sandown 500 win, his fifth Sandown victory.

However, Winterbottom got one over his old foe earlier in the year, breaking through for Team 18 — and ended his personal seven-year drought — at Darwin, where Davison and Courtney will themselves hit 250.

The 2024 season resumes at the betr Darwin Triple Crown on June 14-16. Tickets for the event are on sale now. International viewers can follow all the action on Superview.