Lowndes set to surpass Brock Bathurst benchmark

Craig Lowndes is set to break new ground at the upcoming Repco Bathurst 1000, with the Supercars Hall of Famer set to record his 31st consecutive Great Race start.

Lowndes, who has started every Great Race since 1994, will surpass late mentor Peter Brock's marker of 30 straight Bathurst starts.

Brock started each Great Race from his 1969 debut to 1997, before making two more starts in 2002 and 2004 for his own team and the Holden Racing Team respectively.

Only seven-time winner Jim Richards, who made 35 consecutive starts, has made more Bathurst starts in a row, a number that may live on on history.

Lowndes debuted as a 20-year-old for the Holden Racing Team in 1994, and is set to reach at least 32 consecutive starts with his current Triple Eight Race Engineering contract taking him through to 2025.

The 50-year-old already has the 'most podiums' record at Mount Panorama with 14, and has seven wins. After winning in 1996, Lowndes won again in 2006 in the weeks after Brock's passing, and added five more wins between 2007 and 2018.

Lowndes has every reason to feel confident heading to Bathurst, given he and rookie Cooper Murray delivered a stunning fifth at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, the highest ever enduro finish by a wildcard in Supercars history.

Murray capped his Sandown performance with a sterling effort to hold off a charging Cam Waters, impressing Lowndes: "What [Peter] Brock did with me was off-track stuff. When you put a helmet on these kids, they're great.

“He proved that today, he's really developed. He's blossoming. He's doing a great job and we're both now really looking forward to Bathurst."

Remarkably, when Lowndes made his Bathurst debut, 26 drivers on the 52-driver grid hadn’t been born, including co-driver Murray, who was born in 2001. Macauley Jones, son of Lowndes’ debut co-driver Brad, was born six days after the 1994 race.

Every session of the Repco Bathurst 1000 will be broadcast live on Foxtel and streamed on Kayo. The Seven Network will provide live free to air coverage of the event.

Most Bathurst starts in succession*

Most Bathurst starts*

*Includes years the race was held twice (1997 and 1998)

**Streak ongoing

^Will race in 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000

2024 drivers born after Lowndes' Bathurst debut