Iron man Lowndes set to equal Brock

The upcoming Repco Bathurst 1000 will be another milestone outing for Craig Lowndes, who will make his 30th consecutive Great Race start.

Lowndes hasn’t missed a Bathurst 1000 since he debuted as a 20-year-old for the Holden Racing Team in 1994.

The Supercars Hall of Famer will match mentor Peter Brock on 30 consecutive starts. Only Jim Richards, who made 35 straight starts between 1974 and 2006, made more starts on the bounce.

Lowndes is set to reach at least 32 straight, having signed a deal with Triple Eight Race Engineering that will take him through to 2025.

Richards and Lowndes are seven-time winners, with Brock leading the way on nine. Richards’ 35 starts include the two AMP Bathurst 1000s in 1997 and 1998. Lowndes won the Great Race twice with Richards' son Steven, in 2015 and 2018. Steven himself made 27 straight starts.

Brock made made 30 straight starts between 1969 and 1997 before retiring, but returned to record two more starts for his own team in 2002, and for HRT in 2004.

Lowndes has set several Bathurst benchmarks, headlined by his record 14 podiums. He first won the Great Race in 1996, and won four times in five years between 2006 and 2010.

When Lowndes made his Bathurst debut in 1994, a staggering 25 drivers on the 56-driver grid hadn’t been born. That includes co-driver Zane Goddard, who was born in 1999.

Brad Jones Racing driver Macauley Jones, son of Lowndes’ debut co-driver Brad, was born six days after the 1994 race.

Anton De Pasquale, Andre Heimgartner and Todd Hazelwood were all born in 1995. Thomas Randle, James Golding, Cameron Hill and Jason Evans were all born in 1996, and Brodie Kostecki and Jordan Boys in 1997.

Will Brown, Bryce Fullwood, Dylan O’Keeffe (1998), Goddard, Jack Smith and Jayden Ojeda (1999) were all born in the years of Lowndes’ final two drivers’ championships.

There are nine drivers born after 2000, the most for a Bathurst 1000: Jake Kostecki and Declan Fraser (2000), Zak Best and Tyler Everingham (2001), Broc Feeney, Matt Payne, Aaron Love and Jaylyn Robotham (2002), and Kai Allen (2005).

Allen, aged 18, was born three months before Lowndes claimed his final Bathurst pole position.

Every session of the Repco Bathurst 1000 will be broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 506) and streamed on Kayo. The Seven Network will provide live free to air coverage of the event.

Most Bathurst starts in succession*

*Includes years the race was held twice (1997 and 1998)