Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 34 – Eighth (1:19.4278)
Top Ten Shootout – Third (1:19.6147)
Race 34 – First

Championship standings – Sixth (2377 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #1
Qualifying, Race 34 – Fourth (1:19.3680)
Top Ten Shootout – Fourth (1:19.6670)
Race 34 – Seventh

Championship standings – First (3523 points)

Teams’ Championship standings – First (5900 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“This is such an amazing feeling. It sunk in when I walked out on the podium and everyone was screaming, I didn’t realise how much stuff goes on when you win a race – you get pulled in every direction, it’s so cool and I’m sure later tonight it will sink in and we will realise what we’ve achieved. It was a pretty special moment walking out in front of all of the fans and everyone cheering – it’s a great send off for Holden. I wanted to get the win all year – I left it pretty late but the car was awesome and everything fell our way today, but we also had good speed. I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time, we just had to put all the pieces together, so to do it like this is a perfect way to send off the year. I felt pretty good out the front, probably calmer than what I do out the back – I could just focus on what I had to do and focus on the lap time and try and mange the gap behind. I felt bad, everyone else in the team has been up on the podium this year, but my boys have been holding back, so it was good to get Marty (Short, Race Engineer) up on the podium, he’s a rookie as well so to get the first race win was special. It’s pretty special, a lot of people have supported me here and I’m sure we will celebrate hard tonight.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #1
“It feels pretty awesome to be champion again. It’s been an amazing year, a year of change with our team. The results we’ve had have been pretty amazing and I think we will have a good night tonight. We need to remember the achievements we’ve had and celebrate them, because it’s never going to be like this again, we need to cherish this moment. I think it’s pretty cool and I have allowed myself to enjoy the moment a lot more this year and appreciate how cool it is to be in a team with such a great group of people.”

Jamie Whincup – Team Principal
“It’s been an incredible year – there’s three major trophies for the year; Drivers’ Championship, Bathurst 1000 and the Teams’ Championship. Any year that you can win those is an unbelievable year. Triple Eight is run by the people and certainly the management team. RD (Roland Dane) has engineered a fantastic group of people and we just went out there and executed it all year. There’s been so many extraordinary performances within the group – big ones that are highly publicised on TV, ones that go on behind the scenes, but it’s just been a full group effort, everyone is striving for the one goal, and we all got there together which is something I’m extremely proud of.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 32 – 11th (1:10.6618)
Race 32 – DNF

Championship standings – Sixth (2137 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 32 – First (1:10.2639)
Top Ten Shootout – Pole (1:10.3133)
Race 32 – First

Championship standings – First (3382 points)

Teams’ Championship standings – First (5519 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“The body is fine after today’s shunt – all good. We had a big improvement over night and just missed out on the shootout which I was pretty gutted by. We made a big step forward today and missed out by I think it was a hundredth, so it was pretty disappointing. I dropped a couple of spots off the start but the car felt really good, it felt like we made an improvement from yesterday and I had plenty of speed on the guys around me. We went through the beach chicane and one of the cars ahead had a big moment, hit a tyre bundle and spun out into the fence and initially I thought I was going to be ok – I slowed right up and was trying to avoid the crash myself and then got a massive whack from behind. That pushed me into the car that was stopped and then into the fence and then another three cars piled into the back of me. Thankfully I’m all good, but just sucks obviously, the car is pretty smashed. This next month is supposed to be focused on building Gen3 cars and now we’ve got to repair our car before Adelaide, so it’s just a shame – we’ve been having such a good year, finishing all the races and being super consistent and then having something that was completely out of our hands, is a shame. It’s been a pretty tough weekend but we’ll bounce back for Adelaide and try and end the season on a high. Shane’s just absolutely smashing it this year with the back to back championships. He has been untouchable the last two seasons, but to do what he’s done this year…he has wiped the floor. It’s just very cool to be a part of the team and to see what he gets to do up close, and learning heaps from him. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to have a good battle with him.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“It’s been an awesome weekend, can’t thank the team enough. To come home with a couple of gold surfboard is pretty awesome. I was flipping angry at the red flag, how they let him (Will Davison) keep the lead at the first chicane – I haven’t analysed yet, if he got a tap or if he got off the brakes or whatever, whatever it is I was angry and after that restart I was going through him or around him and I went around him which was good and I just drove away. My car was magic and I was relieved to do it like that and do it properly. In my view in the car it felt like he got off the brake but maybe he got a hit behind, I’m not sure. He got a really good start and we were side by side and I gave him room to go around but when I saw he took the straight I took the apex but then he just came out straight in front instead of side by side, it is what it is, we have this argument every year, I can’t fix it, I just know I fixed it after the restart. I was good to do a few skids after the race. I couldn’t do one yesterday so did one today and seeing Scotty (McLaughlin) up there was bit of encouragement. I want to win more races so for sure we can go to Adelaide as a celebration and have a good time. We also have the chance to celebrate Holden, that’s going to mean a lot to our team and GM so for sure we want to go out with a good result. Everyone wants to be the last Holden winner and the Ford guys probably want to spoil that, so I’ll be there prepared but also ready to party.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 31 – 15th (1:11.1607)
Race 31 – 14th

Championship standings – Sixth (2137 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 31 – First (1:10.4046)
Top Ten Shootout – Second (1:10.8358)
Race 31 – First

Championship standings – First (3232 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“It was a long race today – you get out of the car, go through your things and it’s already dark. It’s been a pretty long day but overall, we’re just not fast enough. The body’s a little bit sore as well. You’re driving around and you’re not too bad but as soon as you stop and get out of the car, your body seizes up a bit. We’re just going through the normal procedure, we’ve got a physio here and we’ll make sure I’m all good to do it all again tomorrow. I’ve just got to look through everything tonight and see what improvements we can make. Shane won the race and we’re banging around mid-pack. We just need to qualify better, I think in clear air we’re a lot faster than the guys around us, but once you get behind someone it’s so hard to pass and I’m stuck following guys for most of the race, so we’ll try and qualify better tomorrow and be in the mix.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“This year has obviously been a massive change for the team with Jamie (Whincup) retiring and taking over the team with the help of Jess (Dane, co-owner) and also RD (Roland Dane) taking that big backwards step. It’s also been a huge change with (David) Cauchi leaving and us getting a new engineer in Andrew (Edwards), but the team has been awesome. Although having no real rule changes has helped, we’ve got a good car that we could continue on with, it’s just been great this year, not many mistakes – a couple from myself which hurt, but it’s been amazing this year and we’ve still got a fair way to go. I don’t want to relax, I want to keep doing the job tomorrow and into Adelaide as well, but it’s been awesome. I had a good battle with Dave (Reynolds) at the start of today’s race – it was fun racing him again. I went out there and got the lead and just raced the gap behind on the dash really and just watched the gap increase. My goal was to get it to 20 seconds and I failed but I just pushed like anything.”

Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup – Car #88
Race 30 – 5th

Championship standings – Sixth (2074 points)

Shane van Gisbergen/Garth Tander – Car #97
Race 30 – First

Championship standings – First (3082 points)

Teams’ Championship standings – First (5156 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“Well, I thought we were over about 20 seconds into the race. J-Dub was spinning, hitting cars, rear wing just missed the fence. Then, about five minutes later, he was nearly in another massive crash, so to even be in the mix with a straight car at the end was pretty cool. To come fifth, I’ll definitely take that. I made a few too many mistakes today, but overall, that’s probably about where we were. I had to remind myself of last year’s DNF. To get to the end of the race and the last safety car, I’m three cars behind the leader, so I had to have a reset and realise that I probably wasn’t going to fight with those boys. I probably didn’t drive 110% in that last stint, it was probably more 95% and just making sure I brought it home and kept Holdsworth behind. The Triple Eight Race Engineering team is fantastic, they’ve done such a good job. We don’t always rock up with the fastest car, but somehow we manage to finish on top. Shane and GT deserve their win. Shane is so on top of the game this year and to see it all come together, not only for the Red Bull Ampol Racing cars, but also the Supercheap Auto wildcard as well, is pretty awesome.”

Jamie Whincup – Car #88
“The first thing that comes to mind is that Triple Eight Race Engineering winning the Bathurst 12 Hour and the Bathurst 1000 all in one year is a big achievement. It’s massive as a team owner. We’re just doing everything we can behind the scenes to keep the momentum rolling from what RD (Roland Dane) instigated. You can’t win Bathurst without having a good team of people. Everyone played their part, and I think in 10 years’ time we’ll talk about the good old days as being right now. We’re living those days in 2022! But man, crazy Sunday! Our day should have been done 500 metres into the race. Spinning in front of the field up Mountain Straight in the water and then I got another get-out-of-jail-free card when going through two cars after The Chase, I couldn’t believe we came out of there unscathed. We got to the back of the podium, which was great, but we just didn’t quite have the pace in the end. I would have been happy to come out of the weekend with three straight cars, but to have all three Triple Eight cars in the top 10 just shows unbelievable depth from a team perspective and I couldn’t be happier.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“It still hasn’t sunk in. To compare our win in 2020, it’s another farewell to Holden, but to have the fans here this time and share it with them is extra special. This week especially, I learnt a lot about how much the Holden brand means to so many people and to represent it like we do, it’s a privilege to add to the tally of Holden wins. It’s hard to put into words but it’s pretty cool. I think Adelaide is going to be a massive farewell for the brand because it’s the home of Holden, so hopefully we can have a good finish there as well, but today was epic. It was also cool to have my family in friends here to share this moment as they missed out on our win in 2020. My dad is finally able to come over to watch our races again, and I’ve loved racing again with him mainly in rally. It’s great to see how much it means to him as well. It would have been nice to have wrapped up the championship today but we can look forward to Gold Coast and hopefully celebrate there.”

Garth Tander – Car #97
“Although those last few laps were quite tense to watch, having Shane in the car and watching the three guys go at it; Shane, Chaz (Mostert) and Cam (Waters) like they did after that restart was just mega to watch. Chaz threw everything at Shane in those last four-or-five laps and I didn’t know how it was going to play out – it was the most nervous I’ve been in a while. It’s been a reasonable week for Shane, he scored points in WRC (World Rally Championship) and then seven days later you win the Bathurst 1000. I said to Shane after the Pukekohe result that I would never blow wind up his ass but he’s going ok right now – it’s hard not to. It’s a privilege to be able to get close to the action and work with him, even though I’m an old bastard I still get the opportunity to learn a lot. I’ve never really been an emotional guy but today’s win was special. The emotion to have had success here five times is out of this world. I knew the car, the team and Shane were going to be exceptional this week, and I was determined to not be the weakest link in the team, and to be able to contribute to the result is amazing.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 28 – Second (1:02.1714)
Qualifying, Race 29 – Fourth (1:02.2157)
Race 28 – Eighth
Race 29 – Fourth

Championship standings – Sixth (1852 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 28 – Pole (1:02.1092)
Qualifying, Race 29 – Eighth (1:02.3191)
Race 28 – First
Race 29 – First

Championship standings – First (2782 points)

Teams’ Championship standings – First (4634 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“We had good qualifying results today. We made the cars quite a lot faster overnight because we both struggled yesterday. To roll out today and get a front row lockout for the first race was awesome, and then to back it up with P4 was great. We needed to improve a little bit on that second qualifying result, but overall it was pretty good. The first race today sucked. We got off the line and was in third place but I got roughed up quite a bit. I dropped back quite a long way, but we managed to claw back to P8 in the end. It was a bit frustrating to go from the front row all the way back there because we know in clean air we’re fast, and if we stayed up the front we could have hung on for a podium. In the second race, we were running strong and Andre (Heimgartner) overcut us because he had an awesome pit stop and had a lot of pace. He came out in front of me, then Davo (Will Davison) had that issue and then Shane (van Gisbergen) got out in front of me as well. Overall, it’s been a good weekend. We’ve been pretty fast all weekend but I’m pretty bummed to miss out on a podium because we had the pace today, but we’re definitely heading in the right direction towards Bathurst.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“It’s been a very special day. We’ve been really struggling with the car in a couple of areas and I couldn’t fix the car, but Andrew (Edwards) did a really cool tweak for that last race which made a huge difference. Our qualifying was ok this morning in one session but not the other, and I was only good in the first race because I had clear air. I knew we had to change something to the car, and Andrew did his thing – I don’t know what he did but it worked a treat. Right from the start I knew I had a good car, and guys in front of me kept pitting and I kept getting clear air. I noticed Andre (Heimgartner) was battling at the hairpin for a couple of laps and I knew I’d be able to jump some people. When I came out after my pit stop, I stayed up it and had some good battles with Andre and Cam (Waters). I felt good in the car, especially in the last race. Seeing the crowd on the hill and the responses when I passed someone – even when I was side-by-side with Cam (Waters) you could see them going wild, it was pretty motivating and made it hard to focus. When I passed Cam (Waters) into the hairpin, the crowd went nuts, and to me it was better than Bathurst. This is one of the all time greatest moments in my motorsport career. The way we won that race, and seeing how much it meant to everyone and how much it meant to Andrew (Edwards), it was so special to him. He worked with JR (Jason Richards) and was very close to that team, and to have Jase’s parents there made it very cool.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 25 – Fourth (1:07.5230)
Qualifying, Race 26 – Ninth (1:07.5723)
Race 25 – 10th
Race 26 – Third

Championship standings – Sixth (1648 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 25 – Pole (1:07.4467)
Qualifying, Race 26 – Second (1:07.2491)
Race 25 – First
Race 26 – First

Championship standings – First (2493 points)

Teams’ Championship standings – First (4141 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“It’s been such a hard weekend, but to walk away with a podium at the end of it is awesome. We’ve been quick all weekend, but I got turned in Race 1 and made a mistake in Race 2 when we were battling for the podium, but to come from ninth to third was so awesome – it was definitely one of the most enjoyable races I’ve had. It’s been a long time since I’ve been at the podium, and for the team to go away with a one-three is even better. When I saw Cam (Waters) and Chaz (Mostert) battle it out together I knew I was in reach of a podium. Obviously Cam made a mistake and Chaz was struggling at the end there, and I knew as soon as I got to him I had to pass him before my tyres overheated, and I got it done. It was a nervous last few laps for me in the car.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“I want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting us today – hopefully we put on a cool show for everyone. It was pretty cool to race in those opening few laps because we were having some awesome battles, and it was a shame that Anton (de Pasquale) suffered damage and we couldn’t all battle it out. I’m so stoked for the team to get a double-podium and a huge congratulations to Broc (Feeney) and the entire crew at Red Bull Ampol Racing. What an awesome weekend overall. Will (Davison) has been really fast this weekend and I followed him yesterday and he was driving very well. In the last race, I knew I had to get him at the start, so I put maximum pressure on him. At the end I could see him coming, but I went as hard as I could and I didn’t look in the mirror – I just kept pushing. Broc had a tough race this morning with his stall in pit lane, but to rebound like he did to get a podium is so awesome.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 20 – Seventh (1:13.6830)
Race 20 – Sixth 

Championship standings – Sixth (1257 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 20 – Fourth (1:14.3393)
Race 20 – First

Championship standings – First (1881 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“It sucked to miss today’s shootout. We showed yesterday that we had a strong car, but to miss out by such a small margin today was really disappointing. I think our qualifying result definitely hampered our race result, but I think we made up for it in the race. I had a cracking start to the race, which shows that the practice at our previous test days has really paid off, and that definitely got me out of a lot of trouble especially in that lap one carnage. In general, we had pretty good car pace today which was much better then the pace we had yesterday and that meant we could look after the tyres. It was a pretty lonely race from the middle part onwards, but we tracked along and ended up P6. We were getting pretty close to the guys in fourth and fifth but overall, I’m really happy to have gained five spots in that race, and gained an extra spot in the championship.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“Two in a row up here in Townsville is awesome, and I have to thank the entire team at Red Bull Ampol Racing. The car was good, but Anton (De Pasquale’s) was better, in he ran me down and had a lunge at the last corner which you have to respect. I’m really stoked with that win and thanks to all of the fans for turning up to this cool event. I tried to go slow in the closing stages in that race to conserve my tyres but also managing the gap, but I noticed in the second stint that Anton had more drive than me, although I had better front grip. My car was really good on the hard tyres, but I burnt up the rears and that hurt more. It was cool to have some action in the closing stages of the race, and good to see some racing.”

Broc Feeney – Car #88
Practice 1 – 10th (0:50.6257)
Practice 2 – Eighth (0:50.7177)
Qualifying, Race 3– Third (0:50.6022)
Race 3 – Fifth

Championship standings – Eighth (230 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Practice 1 – Second (0:50.4218)
Practice 2 – First (0:50.4473)
Qualifying, Race 3– Fifth (0:50.6436)
Race 3 – First

Championship standings – First (352 points)

Broc Feeney – Car #88
“My first laps around Symmons Plains this morning was pretty cool. Rolling out for practice, I quickly realised how full-on this place is. There was a lot to get used to in two 30-minute sessions, and they went quick. The sprint format is also a different format that I had to get used to and it was full-on. Throughout the day, there’s really short breaks in between sessions, so it was a bit to get used to. The qualifying session was really cool. It obviously helps having Shane (van Gisbergen) as a teammate, sharing his data and being able to work together to get the cars to perform better, and P3 was an awesome result, but I’m hoping to improve further tomorrow. My first Supercars top-five is a pretty good feeling too, but I still want to be up with the other boys on the podium and hopefully that’s coming soon. There’s still a lot to learn here; race craft, where to make moves and how to look after the car during the race, but we’re still learning. I got a little bit beaten up during the race because I didn’t put myself in the right positions, but only a few hours ago I’d never done a lap of this track, so to finish P5 today is pretty good.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“The first few laps were pretty wild and there were a few little battles going on which was pretty cool. I started making some moves and tried to push but it was unknown what these new tyres were going to do, but my car was really good and I got through to the front. The crew had an awesome pit stop too which made the day even better. The opening lap was quite funny because there was stuff going everywhere, and all of a sudden I’m next to my teammate, and I’m having to give him a bit more room. It was cool to see him in the thick of it – he certainly isn’t scared to battle with everyone else. His performances over the first three races have been awesome, and he outqualified me today on his first day at this track, so he’s going super well – it’s pretty impressive. A huge shoutout to the team after the first day as well. We got the win, banked a heap of points, but there’s still two races tomorrow so we have to keep this momentum up.”

And just like that, the 2021 Supercars season come to a close, and the Drivers’ Championship crown is SVG’s for a second time!

After a grueling Bathurst 1000, SVG reflected on the year that was.

“It’s been an awesome year. We raced tracks at the start of the year that suited our car, and that’s where we were able to get a few wins on the board and build momentum and grab a great lead at the start of the season,” he said.

“I can’t thank our team enough and it’s super awesome to be apart of it. We had a really fun year and I can’t wait to celebrate the Championship with them tonight.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted today, but it is what it is. I was driving as fast as I could and probably pushed a bit too hard, and we ended up with a tyre failure late in the race.

“Full credit to Chaz (Mostert) and Lee (Holdsworth) on their Bathurst 1000 win. They were quick all day, didn’t make any mistakes and deserved to stand on the top step of the podium.”

Jamie Whincup – Car #88
Qualifying, Race 30 – Seventh (1:44.7127)
Race 30 – Race abandoned

Championship standings – Second (2479 points)

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
Qualifying, Race 30 – Second (1:44.2694)
Race 30 – Race abandoned

Championship standings – First (2828 points)

Jamie Whincup – Car #88
“It was a hectic day today. We were quick in the wet, but I locked a wheel in qualifying in treacherous conditions and ended up flying off at turn one and collecting the fence. Luckily, I hit side on, even though it was a big impact inside the car, but the impact distributed to the whole side of the car so the damage wasn’t so bad. The boys and girls at Red Bull Ampol Racing did a good job to replace the side of the car and got me out for the shootout. I’ve got to go back to racing go karts in Ballarat to think of worse conditions then today – it hasn’t stopped raining all day. I feel for our fan base as well. We’re not used to abandoned races here in Australia. NASCAR or drag racing or speedway fans are used to it because it happens all the time, but not in Supercars. I feel for the fans but at the end of the day it was the right call to make. We’ve all been away for so long, and we have the biggest race of the year in two weeks’ time so the last thing we needed was a couple of binned cars and make life harder for the crew. Congratulations to SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) as well. I think we were one-three in the Sydney Cup which was fantastic, and we couldn’t have asked for anything more over the last four weeks. Now we go into Bathurst and do what we can to finish the year off.”

Shane van Gisbergen – Car #97
“It’s still pretty fresh and the feeling of it all hasn’t really sunk in, but it’s been an awesome year. We’ve had some challenges, some ups and downs, but we’ve come here to Sydney with a plan with and we’ve pretty much executed that plan at every race. We’ve been super consistent and did what we needed to do, and overall, it’s been an awesome year. I obviously had some challenges earlier in the year breaking myself, but the car has been fantastic, the team has been fantastic, and I’m super stoked with everything. Although Sydney Motorsport Park isn’t my favourite track, it’s been cool that we’ve been able to come here and we’ve been well accommodated here. The facilities are awesome, and it’s been a great home base for the guys prepping the cars every week, so I appreciate what the staff have done for us over the last four weeks. Our race pace was always good, but we could never qualify well, but we executed our plans and ended up with the most points over the last four weeks which is awesome. We can now look forward to Bathurst with a weight off our shoulders and give it a red-hot crack to win the biggest race of the year.”

SVG is joining the big league…the Pro Eseries that is.

After successfully taking out the Supercars All Stars Eseries during the year, the 2020 Bathurst 1000 winner will join teammate Jarrad ‘Fuelcell’ Filsell in the series which will see two Red Bull Holden Commodores take to the virtual grid for rounds four and five.

No stranger to the simulator, SVG believes the Pro Eseries is a whole different ball game.

“I’m looking forward to joining Fuelcell in the Pro Eseries for the next two weeks, said SVG.”

“Jarrad and I have raced against each other before, but I’ve been out of my sim for a few weeks now so I’m expecting to be a bit rusty.

“I really enjoy racing on my Omen sim, but the pros are in a whole different league so I’m expecting a challenge however the American ovals are always fun, which we’re at this week.

“Hopefully we can have a fair crack, and it’ll be even better if we get a couple of good results for the team.”

SVG will contest rounds four and five of the Pro Eseries on Tuesday nights, with all the action live streamed on the Red Bull Holden Racing Team’s Facebook page.

Jamie Whincup / Craig Lowndes – Car #888
Race result – DNF

Shane van Gisbergen / Garth Tander – Car #97
Race result – First

Jamie Whincup – Car #888

“I’m rapt for the team – massive day, particularly for the 97 crew. They made it happen, Shane made it happen in the middle of the race when he passed cars and got to the lead and then 60 qualifying laps to the end was really impressive to watch. I wish I was part of the battle. The pace they had, I’m pretty sure our car would have had the same so it was disappointing to not be out there cutting laps at that pace like he was. All in all, I’m aware that at Bathurst you win some, you lose some. In hindsight I wish I would have done it a little bit differently, but Brodie (Kostecki, co-driver car #99) was playing a tough game and it got the better of me. I underestimated the surface temp of the tyres and in a normal situation it would have been fine, but I just turned in with the rears still on fire and oversteered and hit the wall. Thankfully, the car is nowhere near as bad as it looks so we’ll be able to just bolt a couple of wishbones on and it’ll be ready to go in a couple of hours. I’m not sentimental but seeing Shane drive around with the Holden flag out the window made me reflect on all the people who have supported the brand, all the people who’ve worked for Holden, all the fans – there are so many passionate people associated with this Aussie brand. I so hope they were watching that last lap and felt the win as much as we did in the garage.”

Craig Lowndes – Car #888

“The day started off really well. In the warm-up, we were happy with the car and where we got it. We’d been working really hard all weekend to make sure the car was going to be nice for today. The start of the race for me was a little entertaining. I got a ripper start and managed to get a couple of places. I had to be a little bit patient following some other drivers but I made the passes eventually as the car was coming to us. I was quite happy and comfortable. The original plan was to do a single stint and then a double, but unfortunately we didn’t get to my double. It’s one that I think got away because we had a nice car and definitely had the same speed as 97 had. It’s unfortunate, but that’s motor racing and we’ll come back next year fighting harder. To have a win here as a team to close out a chapter of factory Holden backing is sensational.”