MOTORSPORT: Lowndes may finish in 2018

Despite a newly signed contract that guarantees him a Supercars drive until the end of 2019, Australian motorsport icon Craig Lowndes has revealed his full-time career might finish next season.

Speaking before this weekend’s Virgin Australia Supercars Championship round at Sydney Motorsport Park, the track where he made his full-time (and winning) debut in the category in 1996, Lowndes confirmed he and Triple Eight Race Engineering team owner Roland Dane would review his 2018 form before committing to 2019.

“It’s a two-year program, but Roland and I will definitely sit down at the end of next year and analyse the year and work out what the best thing is for me and the team going forward is,” Lowndes told motoring.com.au.

“For me it’s a two-year deal, but we have to be realistic. If I am struggling next year to perform, well then you have got to be realistic and that’s an honest conversation to have. But you have got to have it.

“I am not getting any younger, but at the same time I have been very thankful to have longevity in the sport way longer than I ever expected.

“Over two decades I have been driving a race car full-time and getting paid to do it.”

Lowndes, now 43, is the winner of a record 105 races in his touring car/Supercars career including the Bathurst 1000 six times. He has won the driver’s championship three times, although most recently was 1999 with the Holden Racing Team.

In 12 completed seasons racing for Triple Eight he has either finished second or fourth in the championship. This year, his second driving the satellite TeamVortex Holden Commodore for T8, he might buck that trend as he runs only seventh in the pointscore after a difficult first half of the season.

It’s also been just over 12 months since Lowndes won his last race at Queensland Raceway in 2016. His 2017 has been hampered by an inability to extract qualifying speed from the new-construction Dunlop tyre.

He is also establishing a relationship with his fourth engineer in four years, John McGregor, after Ludo Lacroix’s shock move to DJR Team Penske for this season.

Last time out at Queensland Raceway Lowndes showed his best qualifying speed of the year to claim second for the Saturday race and seventh on Sunday, translating that into two top-six finishes.

“I have always said that the two things that keep me in the seat are the enjoyment – and I still thoroughly do enjoy it – and being competitive,” Lowndes said.

“You have to be honest with yourself; at some point we are going to have to step down as a lead driver.

“But I feel like I still can contribute on that side and I think while Roland still believes that we will keep going.”

Lowndes said his and Dane’s intention would be for him to stay involved with Triple Eight, including co-driving duties, when he did step back from a full-time seat.

“He (Dane) is obviously very keen beyond the main driving aspect for me to be part of the team going forward in other ways and co-driving is definitely one of them.”

Lowndes made it clear he had no qualms with Dane’s desire to conduct a performance review at the end of next season as part of his new deal, which was announced in May.

“For me it was a pretty easy decision to want to move forward and move to the next couple of years,” Lowndes said.

“Roland and I did have a very in-depth conversation about what that looks like, he has been a very hard but very fair boss and this is the longest serving team I have been with.

“So it was pretty easy to put pen to paper and re-sign, but by the same token we had a very frank chat about what that looks like and how it needs to go to go forward.

“He is very mindful of [me] not staying around too long and not just hanging on because I want to drive.”

While Lowndes heads to this weekend’s championship event on the back of his best form of the year, the man some people dub ‘the new Lowndes’ because of his similarly cheery disposition and huge natural driving talent, Scott McLaughlin, will take some stopping in his DJR Team Penske/Shell V-Power Ford Falcon FG X.

McLaughlin enters the meeting with a 129-point lead over Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Jamie Whincup. DJRTP’s Fabian Coulthard is third, 233 points behind, while defending Supercars championship Shane van Gisbergen (RBHRT) is 261 points adrift. QR Sunday winner Chaz Mostert is in-form but trails by 351.

McLaughlin is driving on an incredible high, qualifying on the front row for 14 straight races and finishing first or second in nine of his last 10 starts.

While that looks like a championship-winning run, SMP is the final sprint round before we hit the Pirtek Enduro Cup and there’s no doubt the Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600 play a pivotal role in setting up title wins … and losses.

Meanwhile, here’s what to watch out for this weekend:

>> The Red Rooster Sydney SuperSprint comprises the 17th and 18th races of the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. It includes practice on Friday, qualifying and one 120km race on Saturday and qualifying and a 200km race on Sunday. The cars race on the new-for-2018 Dunlop super-soft tyre.

>> The anti-clockwise 3.905km circuit in Sydney’s west has a top speed of 265km/h. Average speed is 154km/h.

>> The primary set-up focus is on car stability and rotation and – of course – tyre life. SMP is a challenging set-up because of its wide array of corner speeds and cambers. Turn one is the highlight for the drivers with a 200km/h entry speed.

>> Chaz Mostert owns the qualifying lap record at 1m 28.8272s. Garth Tander owns the race lap record at 1m 30.9123s.

>> Mark Skaife has the most wins at SMP with 10, Marcos Ambrose has seven and Glenn Seton six. Lowndes is the first active driver on the list with five.

>> Ambrose, Skaife and Chaz Mostert share the most poles with four, one ahead of Scott McLaughlin and John Bowe on three.

>> Fox Sports 506 will show the action live. Ten and ONE will show highlights on Saturday and Sunday.