Victory in today’s V8 Supercars race at Symmons Plains didn’t make Craig Lowndes think he could win the V8 title – he already knew he was in with a big chance.
The TeamVodafone driver blitzed the field, leading every lap of the race (excluding the pit stop shuffle) and has narrowed the gap to title leader to James Courtney to 188 points.
When asked if he thought today’s win put him in with a championship chance, he said he was already there …
“I haven’t forgotten about it (the championship),” said the three-time V8 champ.
“188 points – we’ve just got to keep doing the best we can, win races, be in front of them and let Jamie and James sort themselves out. We’ve just got to do what we can control.
“We had a great day. We didn’t quite get pole position, we gave it a red hot go, but to get a good start, get into clean air and look after the tyres in the race was really important.
“The car was sensational. I got away to a fairly good start. It bogged down, got going, but I got a better jump than Garth. I got into turn two and from there, I just had to look after the car, drive it straight, use the brakes for what their worth and I eventually started to pull away.
“We planned to do the diagonal tyre change, and really from that point on, the car was sensational, even at the end. I backed off a bit to make sure we got to the finish, but all in all, it was a clean race. To be honest, 50 laps went pretty quick.”
For more on today’s race, CLICK HERE for race report and results.
For more from the top three drivers, see below for Speedcafe TV video …