This is the 11th exclusive Supercars.com column by Supercars Hall of Famer Craig Lowndes for the 2026 season. Seven-time Bathurst winner Lowndes will unpack each round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship from his own perspective, continuing with last weekend's Repco Bathurst 1000.
When the Mountain bites, it bites hard.
We always talk about how the Bathurst 1000 is so easy to lose and, and it's just proven it again.
We talk about the heartbreaks, but then of course there’s the other side of it. To see the emotions coming out of Dick Johnson was special. There would have been flashbacks to some of his victories.
But it's just such a heartbreaking event at times, and that's probably the biggest ticket for us as drivers to come back next year. As I said to Zach Bates, ‘It'll put a fire in your belly to come back next year'. He said, ‘Absolutely’.
It’s those stories of redemption that give drivers and teams the motivation to come back every year and try and conquer the Mountain.
The rollercoaster
Up until the final 10 laps, it was a clinical race. The fast guys got to the front and were exactly where you would want and need to be at that point.
For Brodie Kostecki to have to pit with only a handful of laps remaining, after their bungled brake change, you'd almost scratch him out. At that stage, you’d give him no chance.
When Chaz Mostert crashed at Forrest's Elbow, it brought out a Safety Car, which completely opened up Pandora's box.
After passing Will Brown, Brodie managed the restart, and didn’t lose much time battling Zach.
It boiled down to Anton De Pasquale unfortunately running out of fuel on the last lap, so for Brodie to go on to win the race… seriously, you can't script this stuff.
Heartbreak for the #18
No doubt, Anton and Lee Holdsworth will be absolutely gutted.
Anton and Lee drove the perfect race. They had car speed. The team had put them into the right spot at the right place at the right time. Unfortunately, a calculation error occurred, and they didn't have enough fuel.
It's the one of the biggest Bathurst heartbreaks that I've seen for a long time. But as Peter Brock used to say, these things are character building.
Anton and Lee didn't do anything wrong. If anything, they did everything right. They drove the car cleanly and smartly, but unfortunately, due to a team error, they didn't get the win.
Obviously, the debrief is the next big step. That calculation error will be high on the agenda for the team to try and ascertain where the mistake was made, and how they rectify it.
Roland Dane used to tell me all the time that we're all human, and we all make mistakes — just don't make the same mistake twice.
We're human. We do make mistakes. But of course, this was a very high stakes, costly mistake, so that's something that the team will analyse.
Clinical Kostecki
Beyond that, what a weekend for Brodie Kostecki. He lost his engineer, and his car had an engine and transaxle change. Come Saturday, he looked like he had pole, until Zach did a better lap. Both laps were incredibly impressive.
But for Brodie to have to do that final stop so late in the race, that would have been a big deep breath moment for him. He had to focus on getting a result. However, with the Safety Car, Brodie was played back into it beautifully.
To make that pass on Will Brown — yes, it took a couple of attempts — was crucial. Brodie's always been a very smart driver. He’s a very clinical, but smart driver. He’s very much of the Shane van Gisbergen mould.
He completely understands, calculates, and executes, and he did all of it beautifully.
Our strategy play
Our #15 crew entered the weekend with the possibility of doing a five-stopper. We thought there was potential, but we also didn't understand at that time what the pace of the race was going to be.
If it was going to be the 2:07s and 2:08s, we weren’t able to do the five-stopper. In the early part of the race, when it was 2:09s, 2:10s and somewhat 2:11s, it became more evident that we could potentially do the five-stopper.
But there were tyre issues, so it was about managing the tyre with the pace of the race as well. We switched to the five-stopper pretty early, and that was our focus the whole way.
Bayley Hall did a great job with the double duties. The Gen3 and Gen2 cars are very similar cars in ergonomics, but you require very different driving styles. So to switch from one to the other all weekend was really impressive.
He brought it home, and did really well. He dropped two wheels off at The Chase, but other than that, he had a clean weekend and did everything we needed him to do.
A star is born
I see something of myself in Zach Bates. I caught up with Zach and Aaron Seton on Sunday night after the race, and I congratulated them. Zach was upset, but we still managed to have bit of a laugh.
Bayley Hall and I were proud to go from 22nd to 10th, so I told Zach, ‘It’s funny, you’re pissed off because you went from first to third. You’re still on the podium’.
Zach and Aaron did a mega job throughout the practice sessions, but for Zach to put it on provisional pole, and then to back it up in the Shootout… what a performance.
Unfortunately for Zach and Aaron, if not for a couple of little things at the end of the race, they potentially could've won.
It's just great to see that what I'm doing with the wildcard program is working. To see Zach be so competitive this year, after debuting with me last year, was incredible.
I was actually really hoping for them as well, because I had in the back of my brain that I was only able to give Glenn Seton a second position. So if Glenn could see a Seton on the top step with Aaron, it would've been magical.
The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.
