When the Repco Supercars Championship made the long trip north to Hidden Valley Raceway in 2015, Craig Lowndes had spent two rounds stuck on 99 career championship race victories.
The series’ most popular driver spent eight agonising races just one win short of triple figures, an agonising wait akin to when a cricketer is on 99 not out and is stuck at the non-striker’s end.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering star finished in a disappointing 18th position in the weekend’s opening 60km race, but after qualifying fifth for Saturday afternoon’s second 60km sprint, was poised to finally take the elusive 100th victory.
As the field took the green flag for the afternoon race, the front row pairing of Rick Kelly and Fabian Coulthard battled hard down Hidden Valley’s signature long main straight, with the Kelly Racing Nissan Altima tagging the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore into a spin, allowing Lowndes to sweep past the pair of them and into the lead.
The Red Bull Holden Commodore, with the sport’s most experienced driver behind the wheel was able to comfortably lead the entire 21 lap race and win by 1.8 seconds over Tim Slade’s Walkinshaw Racing Commodore.
“It’s quite incredible – we’ve been close a number of times the last couple of rounds, but this one is obviously very special for me,” an emotional Lowndes said post-race.
“Credit to these guys – it’s been a fantastic career, amazing to work with these guys [Triple Eight], all the stars aligned, it’s an amazing feeling.”
“We had a bad run in Race 1, and I didn’t think it would happen, but all the stars aligned.”
Symbolically, Lowndes took the milestone victory aboard car #888 in the 888th race in the history of the Australian Touring Car Championship/Supercars Championship.
After bursting onto the scene from Formula Ford competition in 1994 with the Holden Racing Team, Lowndes, affectionately known as ‘The Kid’ raised eyebrows at Bathurst when he passed John Bowe’s Dick Johnson Racing Falcon around the outside of Griffin’s Bend, prompting high praise from the commentary team of Mike Raymond, Doug Mulray and Mark Oastler.
“This kid is dynamite!” an elated Oastler exclaimed.
He debuted full time in the category in 1996, and went on to win 16 races on his way to the championship in his rookie season.
Lowndes paired with Greg Murphy for the endurance events and the pair won the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 of that year, becoming the youngest pairing to win the Great Race at that time.
Lowndes currently heads up the Triple Eight Race Engineering wildcard programme, having overseen drivers such as Declan Fraser, Zane Goddard, Cooper Murray and now Zach Bates.
As of 2025, Lowndes has the greatest number of championship race starts in the history of the series, with 675, and sits second on the all-time winner’s list with 110, second only to longtime teammate Jamie Whincup on 124.