Lowndes and Skaife win Bathurst 1000km

Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife have won the Bathurst 1000km race, leading a TeamVodafone 1-2 at Mount Panorama as Holden dominate the event.

Bathurst 1000km Hours 1-2 Report
Bathurst 1000km Hours 3-4 Report

There was a fascinating final third to the Bathurst 1000km, with the battle raging between Craig Lowndes in the TeamVodafone Holden and David Besnard in the leading GRM Commodore raging on, as Lowndes struggled to pass the No.33 car of Besnard.

Lowndes briefly took the lead as Besnard went too deep into The Chase, but was on the wrong side for Murrays Corner, which meant Besnard was able to hold the position. This was just delaying the inevitable however, as Lowndes got past the GRM car on the Mountain Straight two laps later to take the lead for the first time on lap 117.

GRM then pulled a clearly struggling Besnard in to the pits shortly after to put Lee Holdsworth in to run to the end, with TeamVodafone pitting Lowndes shortly after.

The close battle between GRM and TeamVodafone for the Bathurst 1000km race was soon to take another turn however, as it was revealed Besnard had sped entering the pits and was served a drive through penalty on lap 123.

Holdsworth served the penalty the next lap and came out behind Garth Tander in seventh place, but was unable pass the HRT car, despite it running on old tyres, and as he was held up, fell into the clutches of the other HRT car of Will Davison, who passed Holdsworth on lap 132, and then passed his team-mate three laps later.

As that happened, a safety car was called for the Kelly Racing car of Jason Bargwanna which had stopped on circuit just within the final pit window, so everyone pitted.

At the restart, the top five was Craig Lowndes ahead of team-mate Jamie Whincup, HRT’s Will Davison 3rd, Jim Beam Racing’s James Courtney 4th, & GRM’s Lee Holdsworth in fifth.

Lowndes drove away at the restart, aided with the lapped car of Andrew Thompson lodged between him and Whincup as the safety car pulled in to the pits.

Holdsworth didn’t have the pace he had earlier on after the restart, falling behind Tander, and then Jason Bright on lap 146, who had strong pace in the final stages. The BJR team having been one of the more economical runners during the race, and Bright quickly moved up the order, setting the fastest lap in the process.

On lap 151, Garth Tander got up to fourth place ahead of James Courtney, but then one lap later Will Davison crashed out at the top of the mountain from third, causing a final safety car deployment.

Four laps later, the safety car was pulled in leaving a six lap dash for the win, as Lowndes led away again from team-mate Whincup, who kept right with him, crossing the line just over a tenth of a second behind.
Garth Tander, now third, had nothing in reserve to be able to prevent TeamVodafone from taking a 1-2 finish, as Lowndes won his fifth Bathurst 1000km and Mark Skaife his sixth at Mount Panorama.

Jason Bright had moved up ahead of James Courtney in the final few laps, passing the Ford at Forrest’s Elbow to make it a Holden 1-2-3-4 at the circuit. Championship leader Courtney held on to finish fifth ahead of Greg Murphy, who had passed early race leader Lee Holdsworth at the restart.

“It couldn’t get better,” said race winner Mark Skaife

“When we won Phillip Island, it was a fairytale finish, but to join up and win this race and get a result at our Grand Final, it doesn’t get any better in motorsport in this country”.

Garth Tander and Cameron McConville had recovered from a sluggish start and a loose door to finish third, and the 2007 champion was as happy as he could be with third for HRT.

“In the second pitstop when the door was on the ground, I thought it was going to be a long day. And even in that last stop we had to queue behind Will for fuel, I just gave everything I had, and to have both cars in the top four with ten odd laps to go was a great result for the team, and just unfortunate Will had his moment on the top of the hill.”

With Mark Winterbottom recovering to finish in ninth place, he still keeps close to the front of the points but drops to fourth behind Craig Lowndes, whilst Whincup decreases the deficit to James Courtney to 129 points on the back of his second place.

The next race is the Gold Coast 600 in two weeks at Surfers Paradise, where 18 international drivers will join the V8 Supercars driver line-up, with BMW Team RBM WTCC driver Andy Priaulx joining Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes in the No.888 Holden Commodore.