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SOLD – Brocks Last Bathurst Winning Commodore

imagePeter Brock holds the record for the most wins at Mt Panorama. Nine is the number and in 2004, he gave it a red hot go to up the number to double digits.
Or, rather, would have if it weren’t for the misfortune of his U.K. based co-driver Jason Plato. 27 laps into the 2004 race, Plato was at the wheel of the 05 HRT Commodore and after tapping a wall with the front right, was easing the stricken vehicle down Conrod Straight. [More]

Supercars Abroad

ImageSupercars, as they are now known, and previously as the V8 Supercars and Australian Touring Car Championship, have had a strong presence in this country for quite some time now. Followers have seen Falcons, Commodores, Skylines, and more, pound the circuits of Australia.
However, there were occasional excursions to places other than Sydney or Perth or tracks in Tasmania. And for the sake of prudency we’ll also include New Zealand as we’re looking at locations such as Europe or Japan. [More]

Round 6 Super 2 Series – Sandown 500 Race Report - Adam Marjoram

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Round 6 of the Championship, the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 has been run and won, but for me it was a tough weekend in the office. They say motor racing is character building, and if you can’t take disappointment don’t go motor racing. Well last weekend proved those statements to be true, especially after ending Bathurst with a blown engine. My strong performance during the year has taken a battering in the last two rounds. Stick with me and I will let you know how it unfolded. [More]

Best of the Best in Supercars

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Records are black, round, and made of a form of plastic. Or they’re what is created when a previous level is exceeded. People such as basketballer Michael Jordan, Red Bull balloonist Felix Baumgartner, or movie franchise “The Avengers” have created records.
In Australia there are plenty of record makers. In motorsport, especially in our home grown Australian Touring car Championships/V8 Supercars/Supercars.
With the 2019 Bathurst 1000 run and done, we thought we’d have a look at a few of the record makers and holders for our top tier motorsport category. [More]

Round 4 Super2 Series – Queensland Raceway Race Report - Adam Marjoram

Round 4 of the Super 2 Championship was held at Queensland Raceway, or the paper clip as it’s affectionately called. It’s a track that I have practiced at a few times but never actually raced at in a Supercar, so it was new for me and the team as the Dunlop Super2 Series has not raced at QR since moving to the car of the future. The team having never raced there means we have no previous set up data for the car, so we will have to work it out as we go. [More]

The technical side of the Mustang in Supercars

Sports have rules, regulations, guidelines. Sometimes they’re easily interpreted and implemented, sometimes they’re not.

Motorsport is a great example of this, and in 2019 there’s been a measure of controversy about a new entrant to the category now known as Supercars.

Ford’s Mustang is the new kid on the block, and it’s been greeted with both open arms and raised eyebrows. The main cause of its mixed reception has been to do with the regulations that Supercars run and this has affected the aerodynamics of the car that’s been built. [More]

Townsville Race Report 5-7 July 2019 - Adam Marjoram

Round 3 of the Championship, which was held on the streets of Townsville, far North Queensland has always been a favourite of mine with great success there in recent years, big crowds and an overall great atmosphere. As mentioned Townsville has been a fairly happy hunting ground for me in the past and because of the brake failure in Perth that resulted in a DNF, dropping me from 6th in the Championship to 12th, I needed a good round to get me back in the points. On a personal note Townsville is also the round that allows me to escape the Perth winter, and suck up some sunshine and get a tan, although that was not to be this weekend with colder than normal weather and rain.  So this is how the weekend unfolded. Thursday 4th After a long and badly delayed flight yesterday, I was a bit shocked to wake up to very dark and cloudy skies and a weather forecast of a wet weekend. We got to the track by about 9.30 to unload the Transporter, set up my pit bay and get everything ready for racing practice tomorrow. I spent the afternoon doing my customary track walk and final review of last years’ data and vision. On the track walk it was hard to imagine that only a few months prior, parts of the track were well and truly submerged due to the floods. There are still hundreds of people yet to return to their houses that were inundated with water and mud. We left the track early to get a good night’s rest before the action begins. Friday 5th Today we have 2x 40 minute practice sessions to get myself and the car dialed back in after a two month break between race weekends, one at 10.00am and one at 1.30pm. These sessions are about tuning the suspension to ride the curbs, the road cambers and the bumps and give me the turn and power down I need to go fast. Unfortunately the rain started to fall with about ten minutes to go, and after a fairly scary moment over the back I decided to pit and wait the session out as there was no benefit to be gained on a wet track. I ended the session in 13th but this session was not about lap times it was about getting the most out of the car, which we obtained a lot of data to help us with. After a data and debrief session the boys made the necessary changes to the car and it was time for practice 2. Luckily the sun was back out again and the track dry. During a 40 minute session you may pit as many times as you want to allow the mechanics to make the adjustments required. Initially the car had a fair bit of oversteer on the high speed corner entries, so we played with Ride Height and Roll Centre to tame this. Roll Centre is an imaginary axis at which the car pivots around when cornering. After raising the Roll Centre the car got worse so we boxed again and put it back where it was. Once I was happy setting consistent fast laps I boxed for my first set of greens. On my second lap on new tyres I went to the top and purple  which denotes the fastest anyone had been so far, I ended that session in 3rd only 2 tenths off the fastest time after making a mistake into Turn 1. We were looking strong. At 3.50 pm it was time for sponsor rides and although it was raining the whole time, everyone enjoyed the skid fest.  Saturday 6th This morning we woke up to rain, we have Qualifying at 9.15am and Race 1 at 1.50pm. The last thing anyone wants is to qualify in the wet. Lucky enough the rain stopped about an hour before we were due out and the track had pretty much dried out except for a few puddles against the kerbs in corners.  We decided to try a different strategy for qualifying. Normally we go out on a good set of used tyres to set a banking lap and get the driver and car up to speed then about 5 minutes before end of session, box for a set of greens and have only two laps to set a time. This time I was going to go out hard on my new set of tyres do two laps and then sit the remainder out. This strategy would either make or break Quali.  As I entered the track I worked my tyres and brakes really hard swerving and braking to get them up to temp for the first flyer. I did a pretty good job but there was not enough heat in the tyres to really put me at the top. I decided to go again on another flier, I put it all on the line, as I crossed the first sector the time went purple, at the second sector we went purple again, and we held that all the way to the last corner when pushing hard I pushed a little too deep and stuffed the last corner costing me about 0.8secs and unfortunately losing my chance at getting my first Pole Position! But as I have explained before you only get two good laps before the best part of the tyre is gone and they lose about 0.3-0.4secs. I boxed in 5th place but the other guys had not had their green tyre run yet. As the minutes ticked by and the tracked temp rose with the sun the track went faster and I had fallen to second last, I had no option but to give it another go on used tyres. I only had enough time for 1 lap and pushed as hard as I could and went p13, with a faster time on used tyres than new. I was devastated that I threw away a potential Pole with a silly mistake. After reviewing data, without the mistake we would have started on the front row at worst. On the positive side we had a car capable of doing the job. As I sat on the grid for the start of Race 1, with all the cars in front of me I could not help to think, I have really made my race harder than it needed to be. As the lights went green I got a reasonable start and made the charge down through the kink into turn 2, which is always tough at this track with cars jostling for position. I was sitting about mid track when the cars around me started spearing each other and taking evasive action managed to pick my way through. I was now in 8th with good pace and the safety car was called. We spent about 4 laps behind the safety car before the lights went green again and it was back to racing. I made up another position with a very late lunge, pulled a gap and was faster than the guys in front, when the yellow flags waived and the safety car was called again! The restart was a mess with cars swerving everywhere to miss the compression created by the pole sitter. There is a natural phenomenon in motor racing that safety cars breed safety cars, as the cars are all bunched up, especially when there is only a few laps to go.  Lucky we all escaped any potential Safety Cars and we raced to the flag and I finished 6th which is a great recovery after starting 13th.  Sunday 7th Today we have Quali followed by Race 2, it was supposed to be wet again all day, but it was dry when I got to the track and the amended forecast was for rain at 1.30pm, just when my race was about to start. For Quali we decided to go back to the tried and true method of starting on used tyres and boxing for the greens towards the end of the session. After a few laps I was 7th which was good enough to bank, I then boxed to count the clock down.  With five minutes to go I was pushed out for my green run. On my first flyer I made a couple of small mistakes so had one more chance, I overshot Turn 5 which put me a little off line into 6 and sprayed out the back of 6 onto the grass, finishing the session in 11th. With hindsight I over drove the car trying to make up for yesterday’s qualifying and was untidy and it cost me time.  It was also a busy day off the track with an autograph session, pit tours and a radio interview with Triple M live from the track. The weather was threatening as we hit the track for Race 2, and started to fall as we sat on the grid for the start. But it was only wet in the braking zone of Turn 2 through to the exit of Turn 3 and the rest of the track is dry! It is really tricky to read differing grip levels! Over the next few laps, the wet weather would extend out to Turn 6.  This made it an interesting first few laps.  The light went green and I got an amazing start and made two positions before the kink at T1! I got another at turn 3 and the safety car was called due to an accident behind me at turn 2. A few laps later and it was back to racing where I set about making up a few more positions. I was in 7th when the yellow flags waved with Safety Car boards again with a car in the wall at T1. Back to racing and I was faster than the guys in front so should be able to make a few more positions. Unfortunately due to time spent behind the safety car, the race was called “time certain” and finished 6 laps early preventing me from gaining many more positions. I finished in 6th again. I was probably hoping for a little better this weekend, but a pair of 6th’s gives me a fair points haul and puts me back to 6th overall in the championship - so I shouldn’t complain.  Running through the championship points back in the Transporter, if we had not had the DNF at Barbagallo due to the brake failure we would be sitting 3rd in the Championship right now!! But that is all a bit ‘Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda’. We are getting better with each round and learning from some small mistakes this round I think we can improve at Queensland Raceway in a few weeks’ time. 

Super2 Mid-Season Recap

Super2 is the name given to the second level of Supercars racing in Australia. It’s undergone a number of name changes in recent years, but the level of entertainment and gripping racing hasn’t. It’s provided a home for superseded top tier Supercars, and is a place for drivers aiming to enter the big league to test themselves in close quarter racing. Naturally there is some big money being moved around on track in the form of Commodore, Falcon, and Nissan shaped cars. All of these are draped in sponsorship logos and proudly representing Rare Spares is Perth born Adam Marjoram. The West Aussie is no stranger to high performance racing. The Saloon Cars category and Porsche GT3s have felt the Marjoram touch, before finding a place in the biff and barge that was V8 Utes. The talented Marjoram quickly caught the eye of Erebus Motorsport and the dynamic Betty Klimenko. After rapid growth in racing stature here and almost winning the V8 Ute Championship in 2015, Marjoram entered the Super2 category and raced the Ford FG Falcon in a tough competition in 2016. 2017 and Marjoram moves into a Holden VF Commodore, where he remains but now with the Image Racing/Erebus Motorsport team. There have been two rounds of the Super2 with Adelaide and Perth having seen the cars on circuit so far. Qualifying for the Rare Spares backed driver wasn’t kind for his first 2019 race, starting from 11th, but did manage to make his way up through to 9th. Race 2 was a better result, with Marjoram getting good pace on the tight Adelaide street circuit and finishing in 6th. Round 2 saw the category head to Barbagallo, a circuit that Marjoram knows well. Up against some serious competition, and just weeks away from his 26th birthday, Marjoram’s first race was forgettable, with no result against his name after reaching 7th. Brake failure took him out of a top 8 finish on the last lap and took him out of serious points contention. Race 2 saw Adam climb from 10th to 6th off the start, only to be muscled off the track on lap 3, dropping to 12th and driving back through to 10th. Round 3 was held in rainy conditions in the normally sunny town of Townsville. Race 1 Adam qualified 13th and was in contention for pole but a last second error took that out of his hands. The race itself saw him finish as high as 6th. This would be where he would finish in Race 1, and in Race 2 just had nowhere to go. Most of the second race was held under safety car conditions due to the inclement weather. A second 6th will be in his history books for the third round of Super2s in 2019. Adam says of Rare Spares that he aligns with them due to their passion for motorsport, and enjoys their like minded attitude when it comes to cars and the aftermarket automotive industry. For the rest of the year he says a podium is well and truly within sight, and by continuing to harass the top five, he’s certain that a podium finish and a chance to spray the champers is his! Are you a follower of Super2 and/or Adam Marjoram? Let us know your thoughts on the category and this talented and engaging Perth born driver via our blog feedback section.       

Adelaide 2019 Race Report - Adam Marjoram

Adelaide is now done and dusted we had our best overall result yet and below is how it unfolded. Wednesday 27th February I arrived in Adelaide on Wednesday morning for the usual day of set up, scrutineering, track walk, team meetings and review data and vision from previous years. Now for the un-initiated in Supercars or Motorsport, I will use these race reports to take you behind the scenes of Supercar racing as understanding some of the intricacies of the sport will make the race reports more interesting. Although I am still racing for image Racing this year, the support from Erebus Motorsport this year has stepped up to another level. Combine that with the fact that Dunlop Super 2 Supercars and main game Supercars are now identical except for main game will use a soft tyre at some tracks where we are restricted to hard tyres at most events (2 events will be soft tyre). Just to cover the track walk and why we do it, every driver walks every track before practice to make their driver notes as things change from year to year, track surfaces and grip levels change, bumps in braking zones, curbs, even track signage or other landmarks that drivers may use as a pointer as to where to brake for a corner may move. Can you imagine if last year’s track notes tell you to brake at the Fosters sign and this year they moved it 20 metres closer to the turn, it would get ugly very quickly. Once the track notes are made the engineer and driver use them as a guide during the meeting combined with the car data to quantify if the driver is actually braking and accelerating where he should be or whether he can gain time by braking later and accelerating earlier. Everything done it was time to have dinner and get an early night.  Thursday 28th February Today I get to drive the car in anger for the first time at a race weekend this year. The format for Adelaide is two practice sessions on Thursday, qualifying and Race 1 on Friday, Race 2 on Saturday and Race 3 on Sunday. For Practice 1, we elected to put on a very well used tyres as being a street circuit the track was dusty and dirty, and the first session is really all about getting you eye back in and finding out how well balanced the car feels so there is no point wasting a new set of tyres. With that said numerous teams actually bolted on a new set which are obviously faster so we finished well down the order in P12 about 1.5 seconds off the pace. The car had a fair bit of understeer during the session, so we made some adjustments before practice 2 to find more balance. You will hear the word “balance” used a lot in Motorsport as that’s what every team and driver is chasing, the better the balance, the faster the car. A car that is well balanced will brake in a nice straight line, transferring weight to the front wheels to aid in turn in without trying to swap ends, it will then rotate when steering input is made, and will then squat down and transfer the weight to the rear wheels as you accelerate off the turn giving you great drive.  A racecar that wants to go straight when you turn the steering wheel has understeer, a car that slides in the rear when the throttle is applied has oversteer. Too much understeer or oversteer will be slow, as you can’t direct it and transition the weight perfectly through the different zones of a corner .  With some set up changes made it was time for Practice 2. We started the session on the same old tyres we used for practice 1 and the car felt instantly better. Half way through the session we elected to put on a green set (new) tyres to see how the balance is on new tyres as this is what we will qualify on. On the first flyer we were in the top 3 in times, however the end result was not that good p15 as we went early on the new tyres and the track got faster and faster so those that left it later to put on greens were rewarded with better times. We used this to make sure the car was good for Qualifying rather than set a good lap time. Just talking tyres for a second, depending on the track surface and the track temp a new set of tyres will only produce their fastest times for between 1-3 laps, after that they drop between 2 tenths to half a second a lap. After that they level out a bit and slowly lose time over the next 20-30 laps. So if you have not set a good time in qualifying with two flying laps you may as well pull in and save the tyres because you will not go any faster as the tyres have lost their best bit. After each session we viewed the data, debriefed with the engineer as to what changes we need to make to go faster. At 7.00pm I was a guest speaker along with Steven Johnson at a corporate function held in the city, where I was interviewed on stage and did a question session with the audience and shamelessly dropped some great sponsor plugs. It is always good fun being able to share my stories and experiences with guests, and love meeting new fans!  Friday 1st February Qualifying was scheduled for a 12.30 start, with the ambient temperature being 40 degrees and inside cabin temp being about 20 degrees hotter than ambient it was going to be a tough session.  Regarding tyres, each team is allocated 3 new sets of tyres to use through practice, qualifying and three races, so tyre conservation is always part of the strategy, otherwise by race three you have nothing good to race on. We rolled out on our best used tyres to set a banking lap just in case a red flag is pulled ending the session. Our strategy was to do two flying laps on our two remaining sets of race tyres and sit out the rest of qualifying. With the first set, the car felt great and I had lit up two green boxes on my second flyer only to brake a little too deep in turn 14 locking the rears costing me about three tenths and that would have put me in the Top 5. I then boxed and sat in the pits for a few minutes counting the clock down before my last run. With new tyres on I set about ragging the hell out of the car to put me further up the grid. Unfortunately as the track temp was still rising not many went any faster so my qualifying lap was the one set on the first set of tyres. As the chequered flag waved I had Qualified 9th for Race 1. Although not a bad result if I had not made the mistake in turn 14 I would have finished 5th fastest. Race 1 was scheduled to start at 5.40pm and it was still close to 40 degrees so 19 laps in this heat was going to be gruelling. As a driver we have a few driver aids to help us deal with the heat stress from the high in-cabin temperature. We have a cool shirt that pumps coolant through an ice box and then through capillaries in the fireproof undershirt we wear. We also have a helmet fan that forces cooled filtered air through a tube connected to the top of our helmets onto the top of our heads and via a manifold on the helmet for us to breathe.  The problem for me was that on the roll around lap before the start of the race my helmet fan decided it was way too hot to work so it gave up. As the lights went green, I did not get a very good start, I simply did not hook the car up properly and lost two positions before the first corner. It was then “elbows out” to get those positions back which I did by going around the outside of cars on the first lap. We had two safety car periods during the race due to accidents, but in the heat this only makes the inside of the car hotter as you get heat soak from the engine and brakes but very little air flow to remove it.  After the second safety car period the gap I had made had disappeared and I had to fight for the rest of the race to rebuild the gap behind me. My brake pedal had got so hot that it had burnt and started to blister the bottom of my foot through my race boots.  The final few laps were quite painful as you can imagine applying 100kg pressure on a burn each time I hit the brake pedal. By the time the chequered flag waved I was 7th across the line, a great way to open the account for the year! Saturday 2nd February Our race start today was not until 3.30pm so there was plenty of time between corporate box visits, driver signing sessions and pit tours to review the data and race set up from race 1. To alleviate some understeer problems I had in race 1 we decided to change the rear roll centre, and put on our other set of new tyres. Race 2 Starting P7, this time I absolutely nailed the start, as I went to pass the car in front down the middle, he blocked me, so I flicked it left and passed him on the inside and made it 3 wide into the turn 1-2 chicane. The set up changes we had made had still not fixed the understeer problem which made me very vulnerable to dive bombs at turn 9 as I could not hold mid corner speed through turn 8. The cars behind me were putting immense pressure on, so I backed them up a little into each other working their rear tyres harder than they wanted also whilst they were fighting each other it gave me a bit of a break.  At the end of 19 laps I crossed the line in 6th, with a nice straight car – more points for the championship. Sunday 3rd February Once again only one race today with Race 3 starting at 2.00pm, after reviewing the data, my engineers decided to change front springs and rear anti roll bar to fix the understeering problem I had had during the last two races. This has been a problem we battled all weekend, and to move forward we needed this fixed. But at least the weather today was a bit cooler – a nice change, but it became very humid! I again got a good start, but by the end of the first lap I knew we had gone a little too far with the changes and my understeering car was now oversteering quite badly. As a drivers we can trim understeer or oversteer by stiffening or softening the front and rear anti roll bars. As a general rule if you soften the bar you give more grip, if you stiffen the bar you lose grip.  By about quarter race distance I was maxed out on bar adjustment and still oversteering to the point of having a couple of scary moments through the high speed turn 8 that ended my race last year. I tried everything I knew to keep my position but unfortunately lost three positions during the race to finish 9th. All in all we had a great start to the Championship with me taking 6th overall for the round and Championship. I would like to once again take this opportunity to thank all my sponsors, Penrite Oil, Rare Spares Fabcon, Altrex, Carplan, Little Tree’s, Industrial Chemical Supplies, Bremtec Brakes, CoolDrive Ultima Shock Absorbers, Supercharge Batteries, Wesfil, Tridon, PK Tools, Nova and DB Connect. Until next time. Adam Marjoram       

Craig Lowndes Motorsport Career

His Mum calls him Craig. His mates call him whatever they want. Fans call him CL, or Lowndesy. We know him as Craig Lowndes. During his racing career he would become known for not just his talent, but his ever present smile, a great sense of humour, and a deep appreciation for his followers. In a (V8) Supercars career that started in 1996, the year of his 22nd birthday, Lowndes became a winner at Bathurst seven times, including the memorable win in 2006 where he and Jamie Whincup became the first to have their names etched on the Peter Brock Trophy. He’s a triple V8 Supercars champion, and, as of the end of 2018, no longer a full time competitor in the Supercars championship. Born in Melbourne on June 21, 1974, Lowndes trod a path many others have followed when following a motorsport dream. Karting was the weapon of choice, and at the age of nine he was likely to be found at the Whittlesea karting circuit, some forty or so kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD. It took less than a decade before racing success came his way. In Formula Ford Lowndes found a kindred automotive spirit, gaining valuable exposure in the Motorcraft Formula Ford “Drive To Europe” series in 1991. Other drivers that found fame in this series were Russell Ingall, Tomas Mezera, and Cameron McConville. 1993 and Lowndes wins the Formula Ford championship, propelling him into the vision of Formula Ford in Europe. The championship title eluded him, but not by much, with third being notched up. Come 1994 and he’s in Formula Brabham, winning the Australian Silver Star. Also known as Formula Holden, the series itself was short-lived. The Brabham nomenclature was part of the series for just five years, from 1991 to 1995. V8 Supercars were coming and the bright lights beckoned. Lowndes was added to the test team crew of the Holden Racing Team and competed, in what was meant to be a one off appearance, alongside Brad Jones for the 1994 Sandown 500. The drive was successful enough to impress team principal Jeff Grech enough to offer a seat that had become vacant to Lowndes. The 1994 Bathurst 1000 race cemented Lowndes as part of the Australian racing landscape. Ballsy driving, a rookie error or two, and a second place in 1994 set him on the path to become a full time member of HRT, winning the championship with them in 1996. On his first full season with them, mind. It had Lowndes drive next to Greg Murphy, with the win making Lowndes the youngest driver to win “The Great Race” at the time. Although Australian success was his, the call from his heart to return to Europe was strong. 1997 and the International Formula 3000 Championship saw Lowndes sharing team driving duties with Juan Pablo Montoya. The candle was alight but the success proved elusive for the Victorian, with just one season completed and Lowndes returning to Australia. By this time the V8 Supercars category was established and in full flight, with Lowndes quickly returning to form on Australian circuits. The 1997 Sandown 500 was added to the trophy cabinet, with “Murf” his co-driver. The next year Lowndes and Mark Skaife co-starred throughout the year, and Lowndes took out the 1998 championship. 1999 promised a lot inside the new VT Commodore and consistent performance had Lowndes on track to win that year’s championship by the time round eight arrived. The location? Calder Park. The result? A car written off, one of the most spectacular rollovers seen in Aussie motorsport, and one very lucky CL. Although the crash gave him just minor injuries and being forced to miss the Sandown race that year, his lead was such that the championship was yet again his. Australia’s automotive brand rivalry was brought to the fore at the beginning of the 21st century as Lowndes went from a red lion to a blue oval on his car. Further colour changes came in the form of his AU Falcon being a combination of black, silver, and green, the latter on the headlight covers and giving the car the affectionate nickname of “the green eyed monster”. As much a talking point the car was, it didn’t deliver for Lowndes. It wasn’t until 2003 when a move to FPR, Ford Performance Racing, that his first win with Ford and the first since 2000 came along. The tenure with FPR proved short in time, with Lowndes signing with Team Betta Electrical, or Triple Eight Racing, for 2005. This was partly spurred by a 20th place finish for the 2004 season. Again his tilt at the championship was looking good; he’d taken the most victories, and the most pole positions, but incidents such as a wheel smashing his windscreen at the 2005 Bathurst race had him place second behind Russell Ingall. However, there was a highlight for Lowndes in the form of the Barry Sheen Medal. Voted upon by motorsport writers, former drivers, and commentators, it was a recognition of Lowndes in that he’d won without being the year’s championship winner. Perhaps the most memorable of wins for Lowndes was at Bathurst in 2006. Just weeks after the tragic passing of his friend and mentor, one Peter Brock, Lowndes and Whincup muscled their way through for the win to finish just a half second ahead of second placed Rick Kelly. Lowndes capped off that year by winning the Barry Sheene medal for the second year running. 2006 would also see he and Whincup take the first of three Bathurst victories in a row, making them just the third pairing to do so, with Brock and Larry Perkins, and Brock with Jim Richards the others. In a flagging of what was to come, Ford Australia cut their motorsport sponsorship. Lowndes made the move back to Holden, with whom he would become the first driver to reach 100 wins, win his fifth Barry Sheene medal, and his third most popular driver award. 2015 saw him win his sixth Bathurst 1000. 2017 would be perhaps his career lowlight, with no wins to his name. Although this spurred talk of retirement which was denied, in mid 2018 Lowndes, CL, and Craig to his mum, along with his ever present smile, announced he would retire from full time competition. What was your favourite Lowndesy career highlight? Head on over to the Rare Spares Facebook page and let us know in the comment section below this blog!