Photo: Red Bull Racing Australia

Craig Lowndes bags record breaking 100th V8 Supercars victory

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Craig Lowndes bagged a record breaking 100th V8 Supercars victory, a feat no other driver has accomplished, in the second race of the weekend in Darwin. The victory comes in the 888th race of Triple Eight Race Engineering.

”It has been fantastic, huge thanks to all of the guys in the team and all supporters out there,” said Lowndes.

Lowndes started fifth but made a strong start and then took advantage of the first corner chaos. Nissan driver Rick Kelly started from pole position but was out dragged by Fabian Coulthard off the line.

Kelly then tried to out brake Coulthard into the first corner, a move resulting in contact and the two running wide, dropping far back the order. The Nissan Motorsport driver was later penalised with a drive through for the incident.

As Lowndes pulled away in the lead, action was plentiful behind him. The safety car was issued on lap one after an incident between Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat. Both driver retired from the incident, with several other drivers getting involved while taking evasive action. One of those driver was reigning champion Jamie Whincup who dropped back to finish 16th.

Walkinshaw Racing driver Tim Slade took advantage of the first lap chaos and climbed to second place from eighth on the grid. The Holden driver came under hard pressure from previous race winner Chaz Mostert. But Slade was able to cling on to finish second, with Mostert crossing the line in third position.

The battle for fourth was a hard four-car fight between Scott Pye, Shane Van Gisbergen, James Courtney and Mark Winterbottom. DJR Team Penske driver Pye came victorious out of the battle, finishing fourth ahead of Van Gisbergen, who made a mistake towards the end of the race and race wide, in fifth, Courtney in sixth and championship leader Winterbottom in seventh.

Garth Tander, Scott McLaughlin and David Reynolds rounded off the top ten.

Prodrive Racing Australia’s Winterbottom keeps the championship lead, but with Lowndes getting closer to be just 29 points behind.