This is the seventh 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 NTI Townsville 500.
What a weekend!
It was a weekend of aggression, drama, incidents, and all three races had passes for the lead. You can’t ask for much more!
No surprises there — Wanneroo is a bull ring, and we saw some elbows out — probably more than I anticipated. I think we'll see more of that come Queensland Raceway.
Big decisions unpacked
Two incidents caught my eye — Kai Allen clashing with Brodie Kostecki, and Will Brown hitting Rylan Gray.
I think Kai had enough overlap, and I think Brodie was trying to be cheeky and squeeze him into the corner. You’ve also got to remember that Kai had spent six to eight laps behind Brodie at that stage. Brodie was being very defensive and doing his best to keep Kai behind him.
The Brown/Gray one was interesting. They had different line approaches into Kolb Corner, which contributed to the incident. Rylan was taking the wide entry, and Will was taking the narrow line, which I used to use. My opinion is, I don't think Will was as far up underneath Rylan as what Kai was with Brodie. That’s the little difference between the two incidents.
But then you look at Zach Bates, who hit Macauley Jones. Like Will, Zach also got a 15-second penalty. I think both penalties were justified. All we want is consistency, right? And I do think there has been consistency.
Craig Baird has a lot more camera angles than what TV shows. He's got a very tough job. I will never want his job! I think he's been consistent, and drivers should now know where the boundary lines are, and if penalties are deserved.
Is Triple Eight back?
I can’t confidently say they’re back. Yes, they had a bit of a purple patch on the weekend, and Broc Feeney absolutely found some pace in his car. Whatever he was doing for qualifying worked, because it translated into race results.
But on the other side of the garage, you've got Will Brown, who is completely struggling. Will is still battling with that Ford Mustang. He just isn’t able to find the pace that Broc can. That was pretty evident when Will qualified 19th, and Broc got pole position.
So, should Triple Eight favour Broc? Well, I think Will's got one more round to prove his performance. Otherwise, the team should start focusing on Broc.
What happened in the Finals last year would still be in their back of their minds. But I have absolutely no doubt that they should put more energy behind Broc when it gets to crunch time.
We all knew Triple Eight was going to bounce back at some point, but they've only found a way for one half of the garage to do that. To claim they're totally back, I'd say that you need both cars fighting at the front.
Payne versus Feeney
Two days, two incredible battles. They’re both very hard chargers, both very determined, and both wanted to win.
On Sunday, strategy was absolutely the best I've ever seen between two top teams fighting for a win. Penrite Racing were very attacking in their strategy. There’s a lot of coding going on over radio, saying ‘Plan A’, ‘Plan B’ and so on. It’s gamesmanship.
Teams are definitely seeing a benefit in making big strategy calls, especially with track position, and we saw that firsthand on Sunday.
On the other side of the story, Triple Eight lost out. I saw Jamie Whincup was pissed off. I think that's because Triple Eight has been in the wilderness for a number of meetings, and when they finally got a car that was a race winner, they felt that they let one go.
Whenever you've got a car that’s competitive, and you don't get the win, there'll be some angry people. Jamie was angry, and so was Broc. Broc was praising that his team has closed the gap in speed, but was absolutely annoyed with himself that he let that one go.
DJR needs to lift
They're definitely feeling the pressure. The team is letting Brodie down.
Brodie is absolutely a first-class driver with great ability. He can win races. But when you've got one hand tied behind your back, and when the team and the strategy lets you down, that is frustrating as a driver.
I have no problem with what Brodie was saying on the radio. He’s very clever, and very astute with what goes on. I felt through his radio comments that he’s being let down by the team.
De Pasquale, Mostert and Randle impress
Good performance in qualifying did the business for Anton De Pasquale. But two podiums? What a performance by Anton and Team 18.
Like we saw in Darwin and Townsville, through the strategy and the smarts of the team — with a little bit of luck with incidents and accidents in front of him — Anton was in the fight.
Chaz Mostert did really well, given Walkinshaw TWG Racing is still up and down. They'll fix their engine issues, don’t worry about that. But it was a shame to see Ryan Wood drop out on Sunday, because I think another great opportunity slipped away.
Someone who impressed me was Thomas Randle. The Tickford Racing cars were again pretty strong. They're showing great performance and strong results towards the pointy end, and Thomas is reeling in the top 10.
It’s tightening up
It's the second last round before we conclude the Repco Sprint Cup. Some teams and drivers are very keen and somewhat desperate to be in the 10. We saw that on track over the weekend.Guys like James Golding and Jack Le Brocq, who are on the bubble at the moment, actually swapped positions throughout Sunday’s race. It’s getting tense.
Everyone that's in the 10 deserves to be there. Those at the top end of town absolutely deserve to be there. But once we get into the enduros of it, I think it'll whittle out some others.
There’s a lot to play for!
The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of Supercars, teams or drivers.
