CRAIG ENDS ENDURO CUP CAMPAIGN ON A HIGH NOTE

CRAIG ENDS ENDURO CUP CAMPAIGN ON A HIGH NOTE

Craig Lowndes completed his 2017 Supercars Endurance Cup campaign with a fine fourth place in the Gold Coast 600 at Surfers Paradise yesterday.

Craig and co-driver Steve Richards had the TeamVortex Commodore at the sharp end throughout the day, Craig putting the car third in the Shoot Out before ultimately finishing one spot further back.

A day earlier, in truly atrocious wet conditions, the duo drove to a cautious seventh.

“It was a really positive weekend for us, today really topped it off to finish fourth,” Craig Lowndes said.

“We’ve had a strong car most of the weekend … through Friday practice and in the wet yesterday … it was impressive to bounce back after Bathurst.

“It was a really pleasing weekend to finish in the top five again and now be sixth in the championship.”

 

Friday

  • Craig 14th fastest in Practice 1
  • Steve 14th fastest in Practice 2
  • Craig 10th fastest in Practice 3

“It was a good day, we’re happy with where the car is at. We made a lot of changes over the course of the day and it’s been very productive. We managed to be in the 10 at the end of the last session when everyone had good tyres, so it’s an indication to where we are at. We need to find a little bit more to be further in the top end of the 10 but all in all we are happy. Bring on tomorrow, we believe the weather is going to be completely turned on its head and we’ll be fighting in the wet.”

 

Saturday

  • Craig qualifies 11th for Race 21
  • Craig finishes 7th in Race 21

“It was trying conditions with the weather, we spent all practice yesterday setting up a dry car but today we were straight into qualifying in the rain. We were reasonably happy with 11th in qualifying, we hoped to start a bit further up but we just missed the window with the second set of tyres and a red flag. Richo (Steven Richards) started the race, he did a great job, stayed out of trouble. He did his 34 mandatory laps and I got in. We were pushing hard, we had a good battle with Jamie (Whincup) towards the end. For us it was a good way to bounce back from Bathurst, especially in these conditions. We’ve got a little bit of work to do overnight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings in the sense of weather, if it does rain tomorrow I think we’ll have a fast race car.”

 

Sunday

  • Craig qualifies the TeamVortex Commodore 8th
  • Blistering run in the Top Ten Shootout see Craig move up to 3rd starting position
  • Craig finishes 4th

“Credit to the team, we stuck to our strategy, Richo (Steve Richards) again did a great job in that first stint, stayed out of trouble and kept with the other two cars, when we changed over it went well. In the end I suppose we had to just bring it home.”

“The first three cars had skipped away and we had a good healthy gap on position five, so really for me it was just to look after the car and bring it home.”