Veteran Craig Lowndes believes teammate Jamie Whincup is close to being the greatest Supercars driver of all-time, after the Red Bull racer joined Lowndes in the ‘100 club’ last weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Whincup’s 100 wins adds to a stellar record of six championships, four Bathurst 1000 wins and a 40 per cent podium finishing rate throughout his Supercars career. Lowndes sits just ahead with 105 wins, but wouldn’t be surprised if he was overtaken by his younger competitor very soon. The TeamVortex driver said it was fantastic to welcome Whincup into triple figures.
Whincup brought up 99 races in Townsville back in July and was denied his milestone win by teammate Shane van Gisbergen at the following event in Queensland Raceway and yesterday in the final laps. But last weekend it was him who ended the fairytale for Lowndes in his 600th Supercars Championship race, jumping him in the pits in the second round of pit stops to ultimately sail 2.58sec ahead of the TeamVortex driver.
With plenty of hype about, Lowndes was glad to have it behind him and now focus on the enduros.
Triple Eight has locked in the top three positions in the Championship with Whincup leading Shane van Gisbergen by 137, and Lowndes 198 behind Whincup in third. Mark Winterbottom has dropped back to a 273-point deficit heading to Sandown, where he won with Steve Owen last year.
