Craig's Corner: No time for caution, because Adelaide bites

This is the 12th exclusive Supercars.com column by Supercars Hall of Famer Craig Lowndes for the 2024 season. Seven-time Bathurst winner Lowndes will preview each round of the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship from his own perspective, concluding with this weekend’s VAILO Adelaide 500.

It’s title decider time, and there’s no grander stage than Adelaide! It’s a wonderful place, and an incredible event.

When Adelaide first came on the calendar in 1999, it raised the bar in so many ways. It was, and remains, a huge test for drivers. The fitness and the physicality required is immense, and the mental strength required is immense.

There was always so much at stake at Adelaide as the season opener, because it's one race you really want to win outside of Bathurst. In the early days when it was the first round of the championship, it was probably a little harder because you came straight out of Christmas.

Now it’s the season finale, the drivers are match fit, but you can't underestimate the physicality and the mental strain on the drivers around this concrete canyon.

Drivers need to lift their game. The track is a great challenge, and in the Adelaide heat, it is a big test for drivers to do 78 laps on the Saturday, and back it up on Sunday.

When you walk back into the paddock on the Sunday morning with blisters on your hands, sore feet, a sore back, and knowing that you've got to do another 78 laps, it's brutal.

Adelaide was the first race where, when we first started racing there, that we genuinely realised we needed to increase our level of fitness and mental strength to be successful.

Physically, this is as tough as it gets for the drivers. And, knowing that we’ll potentially see some high temperatures this weekend, it's definitely going to put the drivers under extreme pressure to perform.

The recovery on the Saturday night is so important. This was the event that I started using ice baths. You need to get your recovery done as quickly as possible on the Saturday after the race, so when it comes Sunday morning, you're in the best shape you can be.

We can’t talk about Adelaide without talking about the infamous Turn 8. Thankfully, I never went in there, but teammates have — Jamie Whincup had a big hit there in 2018, and it did a lot of damage to the car. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get away with everything there. I recall colliding with Mark Skaife at Turn 6, and I clashed at Turn 10 with James Courtney. Both were big hits!

Turn 8 is a 'hold your breath' corner. It's always been an evolving corner for drivers, in the sense of trying to figure out how to attack it in the best way possible. Over the years, drivers have got their head around it, but you can make or break your lap time with that one corner. You've got to be so committed, and you’ve got to put it all on the line, especially when you get to qualifying.

If I can compare Adelaide to anything, it’s like the Gold Coast. The closer you are to the front in qualifying, the more chance you have to not only stay out of trouble, but score a victory.

Now it's the last round of the year, it's the last big chance to make a statement on the field. You're only as good as your last race, and this is the last race of the year. I expect drivers to have their elbows out more than any other round.

You want to start next year knowing that you've had a successful final round. It really is something that drivers are thinking about, and some want to finish off strongly with teams before they move elsewhere, or end their time in the car.

The strategy through the race is very important. It’s important to get out of traffic, and make sure that the team can utilise clean air, for the driver to be able to maximise the lap times. Obviously, you create your own luck in this game, but you also need a few things to go your way too to win here.

It’s a title decider after all, and it’s going to be fought between Will Brown and Broc Feeney. They’re teammates, but there's no doubt they’ve both got victory lane in their sights. If you try and play the conservative game now, especially for Will, this track will bite you. So easily, you can get caught up in someone else's incident here. We saw it happen last year with Shane van Gisbergen, who ironically, crashed with Will!

You’ve got to be aggressive, but while Will does have that little buffer, he has more to lose. Yes, it's out of those two. The team knows, their rivals know it. But around them, there'll be a lot of other drivers trying to finish this season on a positive note.

Guys like Chaz Mostert and Cam Waters, they won't care about the top two. They're just going to go all out for wins. They're not going to do them any favours. On lap 1, when it's a 50-50 decision going into Turn 4, I expect Chaz or Cam to fire down the inside. If it's on a Will or Broc, expect fireworks.

Through it all, how do I describe what it’s like to win in Adelaide? Well, each time I did, there was a big sense of relief, mostly because it's so brutal on your body to even get onto the podium.

I look back to ’99, which for me, was a great occasion given it was the first ‘500’ for us in Adelaide, and I came from the back of the field. Being able to win it was incredible. It's quite amazing to have my name engraved on the inaugural trophy, which is for the Sunday winner.

If you can be that Sunday winner, it's just an amazing feeling when you're standing on the podium.

You’re celebrating in front of a massive crowd that has stormed the track. It’s like the days of old Grand Prix races there. Standing on that podium, you truly get a sense of the enormity of the occasion. You can feel the fans, the grandstand creates an amphitheatre of sorts.

To the driver who does that on Sunday, I salute you. And to the champion, enjoy the moment!