Photo: Prodrive Racing Australia

Hunter and hunted: Lowndes vs. Winterbottom in Sydney season finale

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Mark Winterbottom leads Craig Lowndes by 179 points with 300 points left to fight for in the 2015 V8 Supercars season finale in Sydney this weekend.
”We’ve got to keep pushing on and still put the pressure back on him, put the pressure back on the team because we saw they made a mistake at the Gold Coast,” said Lowndes to v8supercars.com.au.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver has gained on the Prodrive Racing Australia driver in all race weekends since Bathurst.

“With this style of track being like the Gold Coast, anything is possible – we’ve just got to keep putting pressure on and staying up the front, which is the key. We’ve got to make the car fast, qualify well and race well,” said Lowndes.

Winterbottom is yet to win a V8 Supercars title while Lowndes has won it three times, albeit not since 1999.

“I’m sure Frosty will have pressure on himself. He hasn’t won a championship but he’s been involved in the sport for a very long time, so it’s a great opportunity for him to be able to clinch that number one. For me, I’m just going down as business as usual – the approach that we have to make the car fast, qualify up the front and let the racing do it’s talking,” said Lowndes.

While Lowndes has closed in on Winterbottom, a 179-point gap is a comfortable cushion with just one race weekend remaining. For Lowndes to beat the Ford driver, he must gain 60 points per race in the three races of the Sydney 500 season finale weekend.

Winterbottom is not surprisingly confident ahead of the weekend with his sights set on the title.

“It’s a dream you’ve had since being a young kid, it’s the pinnacle of our sport, I’d put it above Bathurst – always have and always will. So it’s hard not to get carried away. It’s like Christmas – Santa says we are going to buy you this but you’ve go to wait!” said Winterbottom.

“We’re working hard – my engineer and the team are really putting in the hours – it’s not a last ditch effort but they’re putting the hours in … they’re giving it every crack they can and that’s what you need to do to win it.”