The two sides of the Red Bull garage must remain united in order to fend off Ford Performance Racing’s championship charge at Phillip Island this weekend, believes points leader Craig Lowndes.
Lowndes heads team-mate Jamie Whincup by six points with 600 still available across the Phillip Island and Homebush events.
FPR duo Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison are 88 and 121 points adrift of Lowndes respectively.
Having finished second to Whincup in the final reckoning for the last two seasons, this year looms as Lowndes’ best chance of edging his younger team-mate to the title.
Lowndes has not led heading into the penultimate round since 1999; the year of his third and most recent crown.
“We (Red Bull) have got to try and step our side of it up a bit for these last four races,” he told ABC Grandstand ahead of Phillip Island.
“We are not only just going to have a battle between Jamie and I but we are going to have a battle between FPR and us.
“I think we’ll focus on trying to out-do FPR first and then see where we end up.”
The typically amiable Lowndes dismissed any suggestion of friction between he and Whincup at what is a crucial stage of the season.
Both drivers spoke earlier in the year of working closer than ever before this season in order to develop the new-for-2013 Car of the Future technical package.
“It’s still friendly; the last two years we’ve been lucky enough to be one-two in the championship, but two years ago there was only 30 points between us going into the last race,” he said of Whincup.
“There was a bit of tension in the camp back then but I think we’ve probably got better at managing that.
“Roland (Dane, team owner) really wants to see us race to the chequered flag but at the same time he’s very keen for us not to have contact.
“I think that really the fans just want to see a good clean race and a good battle to the finish and hopefully the best man wins.”
Lowndes’ race engineer Jeromy Moore describes Phillip Island as crucial for setting up December’s Homebush finale, and says that the #888 Holden has undergone extra prep-work ahead of the meeting.
“Up until this week our car was in a pretty raw state,” he said.
“Huge kerb hits on the Gold Coast moved the chassis a little bit and it’s taken a few shunts here and there before that.
“We wanted to make sure it was all right for Phillip Island and have taken a bit more time than normal to fix up everything.”
Lowndes has the most wins of any current driver at Phillip Island, most recently teaming with Mark Skaife to win the 500km races held at the venue in 2010 and 2011.
Whincup meanwhile is yet to taste success at the Victorian venue in a Holden, having taken his only two Island wins aboard a Triple Eight Ford in 2009.
FPR duo Winterbottom and Davison set the pace at the Victorian venue last year, taking a win apiece.
