FOUR years after he last contested a top 10 shootout at Mount Panorama, Craig Lowndes will once again do battle for pole position in the Bathurst 1000.
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While Lowndes’ record of 13 Great Race podiums is unsurpassed, and only two drivers have more victories than him in the history of the endurance epic, pole positions are a different matter.
This Saturday afternoon will mark Lowndes’ 17th appearance in the top 10 shootout in what is his 25th Bathurst 1000 campaign, but he has only gone from pole twice.
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He first did it behind the wheel of a Holden Commodore VR in 1995 and 10 years later again snared position one on the grid in a Ford Falcon BA.
After being off the pace on a wet Thursday at Mount Panorama, on Friday Lowndes and his team worked hard to get more speed out of the Lowndes Autobarn Racing Commodore ZB.
It paid off as he qualified sixth fastest.
“Obviously it’s been a terrible run into qualifying with all the weather, but I couldn’t be more pleased,” Lowndes said.
“We’ve rolled the car out 90 percent right. We made adjustments through that qualifying session, trying to chase a bit of front, then we chased a bit of rear, but all in all the car wasn’t too far out of the window, so I’m delighted.”
Lowndes clocked his best time – a 2:04.5702 – on the 11th of 12 laps he did in the qualifying session.
It was 0.4609 off the effort that Jamie Whincup clocked – a 2:04.1093 – to top the time sheet, but Lowndes was still pleased with the effort.
“It’s obviously a fantastic result for the team, we’ve been working hard. That last run was what we needed to get into the top 10, so I’m delighted we get an opportunity,” he said.
“We’ll just build on what we’ve got and make it into a fast race car for Sunday.”
The top 10 shootout will commence at 5.10pm on Saturday.
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