Lowndes out of contention

Defending Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 champions Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards are almost certainly out of contention for this year’s race because of a gearbox issue.

Richards was left jammed in gear because of a broken selector rod on lap 34 in the TeamVortex Holden Commodore VF.

"We had no issue or feeling of the problem until it broke, the guys did a pretty good job to get it out," Lowndes said. 

"Ludo's disappointed, we're all disappointed we just wanted to finish the race for the championship." 

Richards limped back to pitlane and the car was immediately wheeled in to pitlane to so repairs could be made.

The drama came just one lap after a pit stop which had dropped the car from 11th to 21st place, where it had originally qualified.

At the same time the BOC Racing Commodore of Jason Bright and Andrew Jones was wheeled into the Brad Jones Racing garage to have a gear position sensor fixed.

Jones lost one lap while the issue was fixed.

The drama will also have ramifications for Lowndes’ championship chances, as he runs third in the title behind the front-running Red Bull Commodores of Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen.