LOWNDES VAULTS BACK FOR THE FUTURE

Track laps and time travel will be Craig Lowndes on-air life in the new-look Supercars television package for 2021 and beyond.

The Supercars legend will drive the course car to report on track details before each round of the championship but his biggest role will be as the head of a new time team.

Partnering with the Seven Network has given Supercars Television access to the network’s vast back catalogue of race coverage since the 1970s and Lowndes will be the host and interviewer for a string of historical features using the old footage.

“Now we’ve got the vault from Seven we can go back in time. That will be my job,” Lowndes revealed to Race News.

“We’ll look at the big moments. I’ll be the vault man – I’ll wear a rope and lower myself down into the vault.”

Lowndes will also become a cold case investigator as he dives into some of the biggest controversies in Supercars history.

There are obvious topics, from the Mark Skaife-Russell Ingall incident at Sydney Motorsport Park to the big hit at Bathurst when Greg Murphy and Marcos Ambrose collided.

“We can get the film, then ask what happened and why. It will be good to go back in time,” Lowndes said.

“We can look at the big moments. Interview the drivers who were involved.

“Think about Ambrose and Murf at Bathurst. Skaife and Ingall at Eastern Creek.”

Lowndes, who turns 47 in June, has also had a number of high-profile incidents that could benefit from an investigation and some updating.

“Like my crash at Calder. Or maybe not that one,” he laughed.

Even if he is reluctant to get forensic on the Calder crash, where he suffered his only significant injury during his racing career, he is clear on his new television focus.

“The angle I use is trying to get a bit of history back into the sport,” Lowndes said.

Cover Image credit: John Doig