It was a testing day at the Townsville 500 for Red Bull Racing Australia as a chaotic first race presented results at the opposite end of the spectrum, with Jamie claiming a fantastic victory while his team-mate had a race to forget.
Starting from 10th, J-Dub benefitted from excellent strategy and car speed to come through the pack and claim a well deserved win.
“Race One was excellent for us,” he said. “We qualified poorly in the morning so we knew from then that it was going to be a tough day. We over excelled in the first race with a good pit strategy, really good car and to win the race was just awesome.”
Meanwhile, the No.888 Holden had a flying start but was turned around into the wall on the first lap, sending him into the garage. Upon rejoining the race a steering issue caused by the initial impact sent him straight into the wall, ending his race.
“It’s certainly been a yo-yo day of emotions with a lot of ups and downs,” Lowndesy said. “After being turned in to the wall by Car No.9 in the first race we came back to the pits and there ended up being a safety car so knowing we had a lap in grace to try and get some points I went back out.
“I went around turn three, over the crest and in to turn five and turned the wheel and nothing happened so I went straight in to the wall. It all happened very quickly but thankfully the tyre wall absorbed most of it and it probably looked worse than what it felt like.”
The team worked furiously to get Craig back on track for the second race, which saw him finish in the same position that he started in sixth after an epic battle in the dying laps with the FPR car of Chaz Mostert.
Having qualified in 10th again, J-Dub clawed back three places to finish seventh: “The second race I was a little more conservative off the start after seeing all the carnage in race one, so I went a little easy and lost a few spots.
“As we settled in to the race we had good pace and it was more of a ‘get to the end’ kind of drive as opposed to going hell for leather and we still managed to make up three spots so we’re happy.
“It’s going to be a long race tomorrow with the 250km stint and after long day today I think it’s going to end up as survival of the fittest.”
Qualifying for tomorrow’s 250km mini marathon starts at 11:00 local time, with the race at 15:55. Check out the telecast schedule here.
