MOTORSPORT: Injured Lowndes out of 12-Hour
Broken collarbone from motorcycle accident rules him out of repeating 2014 success in return to Bathurst's other 'Great Race'The biggest name in Australian motor racing, Craig Lowndes, is out of the Bathurst 12-Hour, now only two-and-a-half weeks away.
Lowndes has a broken collarbone and other, apparently minor, injuries after a crash on a recreational motorcycle ride.
The recently-remarried 41-year-old is to have surgery this week and is hopeful of being fit for the start of the V8 Supercar season in Adelaide on March 3-4.
Lowndes won the 2014 12-Hour in a Ferrari 458 GT3 but missed last year's race because of a clash with the V8 Supercar test weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Last October he scored his sixth Bathurst 1000 victory, driving a Holden Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering with which he is still contracted for this year - although he will be seen in different colours as Shane Van Gisbergen slots in as Jamie Whincup's more direct teammate.
Lowndes was to have driven a Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS in the 12-Hour with Garth Tander and Steve McLaughlin.
Russell Ingall had been mentioned as a replacement, but German Rene Rast – an Audi factory driver who finished fifth in the 12-Hour in 2014 with Phoenix Racing – has promptly been named for the seat.
The Audi is due to be on track at Victoria's Phillip Island today in a test for the 12-Hour.
Lowndes said that while he was "obviously very disappointed" to be missing Bathurst's other 'Great Race' his focus now was on being fully recovered and fit for the V8 Supercar season, for which there will be testing in late February.
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