Craig Lowndes was left to reflect on his costly Saturday clash with Mark Winterbottom after finding himself second in the championship for a third successive year.
Lowndes’ chances of snaring a fourth title after a 14 year drought were the subject of great hype throughout recent months.
The 39-year-old led the standings heading to the penultimate event at Phillip Island and entered Sydney just 20 points adrift.
A fuel filling issue due to damage from a Winterbottom punt in Saturday’s Race 35 left Lowndes needing a miracle to steal the title in the finale.
“I suppose it’s disappointing in some ways,” Lowndes told Speedcafe.com having finished fifth in the last race.
“We went into the weekend in a great position with a 20-points deficit. I thought with our previous races here we would be a bit stronger than what we were.”
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“We definitely lost the championship aspirations yesterday with the Frosty incident,” he continued.
“That really hurt us beyond a comeback really. The chance for me today was to be in the top five which we did and for Jamie to have a DNF, which he was never going to do.
“I knew after yesterday’s race we were long shots.”
There were occasions when Whincup flirted with disaster, bearing his knuckles by racing hard and having some close shaves with Winterbottom and Jason Bright in the deciding race.
“I knew there was a touch up with Jamie and Frosty and a touch up with Brighty at the end,” Lowndes said.
“I was sitting behind it all thinking on one hand I hope he does it (crashes) and on the other I thought he is smart enough to know he doesn’t need to win the race to win the championship.
“I did my part Jamie just didn’t do his,” Lowndes smiled.
“Seriously, this year he has been a class act. He is very dedicated and very focussed on it and I know how hard he works because I sit alongside him in the garage.”
