In a thrilling close to the SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin, Jamie and Red Bull Racing Australia claimed a third place finish in today’s 200km race, which sees Jamie climb a spot on the championship ladder to third.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the fairytale ending to the weekend hoped for, the coveted Triple Crown award for a clean sweep of all three races eluding the team for another year. However, having never claimed a pole position at Hidden Valley, Craig completed a triple-whammy for Triple Eight with pole in today’s qualifying session after Jamie took out both of yesterday’s.
“All in all it was a good weekend for the team on both of the tyre compounds,” the No.1 Holden pilot said.
“Although we were in the box seat with our strategy we ended up in third today because it came down to car pace which the other two teams had. In the last few laps I knew that Shane Van Gisbergen was faster and just like the fans on the hill I wanted to see a good race so I made a move to see him give it a red hot go.
“It was really important for us to get back in form for this weekend and we had a great test day during the break so we’re looking forward to the second half of the season.”
Lowndesy wasn’t able to capitalise on his pole position after suffering a flat tyre shortly after his first pit stop and finished 17th.
“Our strategy today was to start on the hard tyre and then follow it up with two sets of soft tyres with a brand new set for the end of the race. With the altercation mid-race we got a flat tyre and we were already on a soft set so we had to put on one brand new tyre and we were too far away from the end of the race to put on a whole new set.
“When the final three tyres came on the car it was balanced again and we were really fast but soft tyres can’t last forever and we burnt them up towards the end. It was one of those days that got away from us.
“It was gut-wrenching to know that we had the speed, the strategy and the tyres to do it but we’ll take it all on board and move forward to Townsville.”
Craig remains second in the championship on 1,290 points, with Jamie sitting third on 1,265. We’re back action in just two weeks on the streets of Townsville from 4th to 6th July.
