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V8 star Lowndes here for Safari fine tune

Posted on September 16, 2011

TEAM WORK: Craig Lowndes and navigator John Panozzo during a break in testing this week

By BEN PISCIONERI

V8 Supercar star Craig Lowndes was in Mildura this week finalising preparations for his Australasian Safari defence later this month.

Lowndes, who is better known for his exploits on bitumen with three V8 Supercar championships and five Bathurst 1000 wins among a long list of achievements, won last year’s Safari at his first attempt, racing a Holden Colorado with PWR owner and team boss Kees Weel.

The team, which has been expanded to two cars this year, was in Mildura on Monday morning for some final testing before loading up the race trucks for their trip to Perth.

The visit also provided a chance to seek further guidance from Sunraysia’s John Hederics and John ‘Yap’ Williams and his team, who are the most successful Australasian Safari proponents ever, winning a record nine Safaris, including six on a bike.

Lowndes said the switch to off-road racing and the Safari last year provided several new challenges.

“I’ve never actually raced with someone sitting beside me and I’ve never had directions called at me as well, so there were a lot of new ‘firsts’ for me last year,” he said.

Australasian Safari Auto (cars/trucks) competitors feature a driver and navigator.

And unlike racing multiple laps of the same course – such as Bathurst or this weekend’s Phillip Island circuit, Safari competitors are constantly dealing with new and changing terrain.

“Not knowing the track or the terrain that we’re going into, that was quite exciting because it’s one of those things – as Kees used to keep telling me – you’ve just got to keep driving to what you can see and that’s all we did last year,” Lowndes said.

The 37-year-old said he didn’t expect to win last year’s Safari at his first attempt.

“No, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said.

“Kees kept telling me the truck was fast enough to win, it was just a matter of us looking after it and that’s all we did. We didn’t have to over-drive the car at all.”

Lowndes, who in 1996 at 22-years-old became the youngest driver to win the V8 Supercar championship, in his rookie year, said a single day in the Safari proved more gruelling than his usual ‘office’, including the marathon Bathurst 1000.

He said the Safari required 110 percent concentration 100 percent of the time.

“With V8s, at Bathurst, even at Phillip Island this weekend, you can sort of get a bit of down time because you know the track so well you can sort of mentally shut down for little bit.

“You’ve got to train yourself to start up again, but with the Safari you can’t afford to do that.

“Something can always step out and bite you, whether it’s a tree or a stump, something laying in the grass, so you just have to be concentrating 110 percent on just driving the car.”

Lowndes will defend his title with navigator John Panozzo beside him while Kees Weel will navigate for his son, former V8 Supercar driver Paul Weel, in the other PWR Holden Colorado.

This week has been a hectic one for Lowndes. After Monday’s test session in Sunraysia it was back into V8 Supercar mode as he prepares for this weekend’s L & H Philip Island 500 – the first of this year’s endurance races.

Meanwhile, as the reigning Australasian Safari-winning team make its final preparations, Sunraysia’s only Auto team is also finalising its plans.

Boundary Bend’s Terry ‘Tangles’ Connor and his daughter Jodi will once again make the trek to Western Australia to take on the nation’s best off-road racing teams and drivers.

Connor has been racing the Australasian Safari since 1987, campaigning a 1995 Nissan utility.

His daughter took over navigational duties in 2009 making for a successful father/daughter team.

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