MOTORSPORT: Lowndes Le Mans bound

Australian motorsport legend Craig Lowndes will re-launch his international racing career in 2019.

Freed from the commitments required for the 16-round Supercars championship, he is expected to make a series of high-profile appearances in GT3 races.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is also a strong possibility.

“There's plenty of other racing to do and he wants to put himself in a position to do some of the overseas events like Le Mans while he still has a realistic chance of getting those drives and being competitive,” said Lowndes’ boss, Triple Eight Race Engineering boss Roland Dane, on Friday.

“Craig's not retiring from racing, only stopping driving full-time in Supercars,” said Dane.

Next year will be the first time since his abortive attempt to break into Formula 1 (when he drove a single season in Formula 3000 in Europe in 1997) that Lowndes will have the time and focus for overseas events.

Lowndes was touted as a potential grand prix star in his early career with the Holden Racing Team and his F3000 effort with Dr Helmut Marko’s team was underwritten by Tom Walkinshaw.

But when Lowndes was outclassed by his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya and struggled with the move to Austria, Walkinshaw withdrew his backing and brought Lowndes back to Australia for a starring role at HRT.

More recently, Lowndes tried once to get a ride at the Le Mans 24 Hour but the cost was extravagant because of his lack of international experience and seat time in the Ferrari GT cars he was targeting to race.

Since then he has starred at the Bathurst 12 Hour in GT3 cars, winning the race twice for Ferrari and impressing overseas teams and drivers with his speed and consistency.

Lowndes is yet to talk about his plans for next year, but Supercars insiders are confident he is not done and, like his late friend and mentor Peter Brock, will continue in motorsport beyond touring cars.

Lowndes has always said he would not be doing the sort of road rallies that claimed Brock’s life but would be open to other opportunities outside the Supercars paddock once his full-time duties were done.