Craig Lowndes: “I’ve never had such a big gap on the last lap”

Craig Lowndes secured his seventh Bathurst 1000 victory yesterday in his last ‘great race’ as a full-time driver and the Triple Eight Race Engineering veteran hailed his co-driver Steven Richards.

“The crowd was immense, but Richo (Steven Richards) did a fantastic job and what an amazing finish to a great race,” said Lowndes.

The duo won the race in style, finishing over six seconds ahead of Scott Pye in second place.

“I’ve never had such a big gap on the last lap to be able to enjoy it. Towards the end, your mind’s thinking anything can happen. I started to smell rubber and thought something could be wrong, but it was (Tim) Slade,” said Lowndes.

The Bathurst weekend didn’t start as the team had hoped for, fighting with a steering issue but managed to get into the top ten shootout where Lowndes finished ninth.

At mid-point of the race it looked like the Holden duo were in for a disappointment as Richards went off while heading into the pits. But they fought back and claimed the lead from David Reynolds on lap 135.

“What an amazing finish! To have all the problems we had earlier in the week and then for us to bounce back as a team was really good. I couldn’t have asked for anything more to really have the track come to me at the end and for us it really was an incredible finish,” said Lowndes.