Seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes says that Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander’s 2022 glory is a fitting farewell for the Holden brand, fifty years on from Peter Brock’s first win.
Triple Eight Race Engineering took victory with its #97 ZB Commodore on what was the last race for Holden at Mount Panorama as the category switches to the Chevrolet Camaro with next year’s Gen3 regulations.
The final victory for the brand came 50 years after Brock took the first of nine Bathurst wins, claiming the 1972 race in an LJ Holden Torana GTR XU-1.
“It’s probably fitting that we’ve closed out a chapter now with Holden branding 50 years on from when he got his first one – that’s a nice way to be able to close that chapter,” Lowndes told Speedcafe.com.
“I was lucky enough to drive the Torana around on the parade lap in ’06 and to see the machinery that they had to use back then was quite incredible – in the sense of [a] lack of it!
“We’re a bit spoilt these days with cool suits and power steering and everything else.”
Holden ends its Bathurst tally with 36 wins, the first being Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland’s 1968 victory in an HK Monaro GTS.
Brock’s 1972 win was the final by a solo driver, and the last 500-mile race as the format changed to 1000km from the 1973 race. Brock’s total of nine wins is still yet to be matched, with Lowndes achieving his first in 1996.
In this year’s race, Lowndes drove a third Triple Eight Race Engineering ZB Commodore alongside debutant Declan Fraser with Supercheap Auto backing, coming home eighth. The result was the highest of any wildcard Bathurst entry and the first finish in the top 10.
The 2022 edition of the Mount Panorama enduro saw Lowndes start the 161-lap race from 16th on the grid.
He remarked: “With the conditions and everything else it was the right decision to do, we didn’t want to put more pressure on Decca – he’s done a great job, he did a fantastic job during the day, we just wanted to get him into the car, get him into his rhythm and see where he fitted out. No, he did a really good job.”
Avoiding significant incidents on the opening lap, Lowndes and Fraser drove a clean race to eighth.
“I was hoping to be in the 10 somewhere, not sure where,” Lowndes added.
“To be honest, we struggled with a bit of straight-line speed to bring the rear wing up to get the stability across the top, but then we struggled then obviously with Conrod.
“All in all, we’re really happy with our performance, I think Decca did a great job, team did a fantastic job strategy-wise so I’m really happy with eighth position.”
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