The 50-year-old, who still attracts the longest line of autograph hunters out of any driver at Mount Panorama, made his 31st Great Race start last Sunday.
Only his late mentor Peter Brock (32 starts) and Jim Richards (35) have more.
Lowndes’ Bathurst stats are of course remarkable; seven wins, a record 14 podiums, two pole positions and 17 Top 10 Shootout appearances.
While he didn’t add to those stats, this year Lowndes chalked up an unusual first; seeing one of his former Bathurst 1000 cars racing in a historic category at the event.
There aren’t too many greater signs of career longevity than that!
Super2 Series team owner Ben Eggleston drove Lowndes’ 1995 Bathurst 1000 polesitting Holden Commodore VR in the Heritage Revival, winning all three races.
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Lowndes and his 1995 co-driver Greg Murphy both checked out the Holden Racing Team rocket over the weekend, as pictured above.
“It’s great to see the old cars still run around,” Lowndes said at Bathurst of the popular Heritage Revival field. “It’s fantastic to have 54 of them, it’s quite incredible.”
The 1995 HRT car was moved to the National Motor Racing Museum following the last of its three wins on Saturday.
Those triumphs were a long-time coming for the machine, given HRT’s 1995 Bathurst campaign proved a disaster as both of its cars retired early due to engine failure.
Lowndes’ Bathurst time warp was completed by a special role in the pre-race ceremony on Sunday, driving the Peter Brock Trophy to the grid aboard a replica of the 1969 race-winning Holden Monaro.
The fact a driver in a Supercheap Auto race suit was granted permission to perform such a high-profile role before the start of the Repco-sponsored race again underlines Lowndes’ status.
Unfortunately for Lowndes, the Great Race itself did not turn out as hoped.
A likely top five result alongside rising star co-driver Cooper Murray went begging when the youngster was penalised for exceeding the speed limit under the race’s only Safety Car.
“It’s mixed emotions,” said Lowndes post-race, having finished 14th. His own time in the car included a run down the escape road at Murray’s Corner.
“I think that we can go away from this weekend disappointed because we knew we had a fast car. If we didn’t have a fast car, it’d be a bit of a different scenario.
“But really for us, we had some good moments, we had some strong moments. The race car was a strong race car.
“Cooper did a great job. We had a few little issues for both myself in the car, but also in a team-related sense as well. But at the end of the day, we can say that we tried our hardest.
“The team did a fantastic job. There are a lot of “ifs” and “what’s” about what today could have been, but we’ll go away from this weekend with a lot of learnings.”
Lowndes and Supercheap Auto are set to return to Triple Eight’s wildcard program for a fourth year in 2025, but he will need a new co-driver as Murray replaces Brodie Kostecki at Erebus Motorsport.
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