Lowndes opens up on grisly pre-Bathurst injury
Supercars
30 Sep
Craig Lowndes opens up on grisly pre-Bathurst injury
Lowndes required stitches, physio after 1996 dirt bike crash
Lowndes and Greg Murphy then won historic Bathurst 1000
The first of Craig Lowndes’ seven Bathurst victories seemed improbable from the outset, after the then rising star suffered a grisly injury in a dirt bike accident.
Now a Supercars Hall of Famer, Lowndes was a star on the rise in the mid-1990s, and swept all before him in 1996 with a then record 16 wins and an Australian Touring Car Championship win.
Lowndes and Greg Murphy combined to win the Sandown 500, setting the former on an historic path to follow mentor Peter Brock’s 1978 and 1980 efforts of winning Sandown, Bathurst and the title in the same year.
Then, Lowndes — in the lead-up to the Great Race — suffered an accident on a dirt bike, which left the 22-year-old with stitches in his head, and a pinched nerve that required physiotherapy.
Speaking on Supercars’ Drivers Only podcast, Lowndes said the stitches were only removed just days before track action at Mount Panorama, with then Holden Racing Team boss Jeff Grech left sweating over his star driver’s fitness.
“I split my head open, and had about 12 stitches in my head, which only came out on the Monday before the race weekend,” Lowndes said.
“Jeff Grech wasn't happy. Angry Jeff is an angry Jeff, and he was angry.
"I had to pass a physical on the Monday before we left to go up to Bathurst. The stitches came out, I finally passed the test, went up and I wore a hat the whole time."
As history would have it, an heroic Lowndes delivered a memorable victory, with rain unable to stop what remains the youngest ever pairing to win the Bathurst 1000.
"The worst part of it, was when I fell off the motorbike, I pinched a nerve in my neck,” said Lowndes, who will make his 31st consecutive Bathurst start.
“My left arm was paralysed. I couldn’t move it. I had to get physio on my neck to get my fingers working and my hand working to actually pull the gear lever.
“Jeff was more worried about the blood and everything that was in his car, when they were driving me to the hospital, trying to get my head stitched up.
“I happened to have Jeff’s car, and was with some mates, being an idiot, fell off it, and cut my head open. The worst one was Jeff telling John Crennan, that was the chain of command, that didn’t go down well.”
