Craig Lowndes should have his future in his own hands

At 42-years of age, Australian touring car icon Craig Lowndes has entered his 24th full-time season in the Supercars category under a cloud of uncertainty over his future.

A veteran of over 600 race starts, including three championships and a century of wins for the perennial fan favourite, Lowndes remains one of the most decorated drivers on the current grid.

While the title count has not ticked over since his third triumph back in 1999, the Holden driver has consistently been a force to be reckoned with in the ultra-competitive touring car category.

In fact Lowndes has finished runner-up on six occasions since 2005, the most recent occasion being in 2015 when he lost to Ford’s Mark Winterbottom by 136 points, and over the last decade spent with juggernaut Triple Eight Race Engineering Lowndes has never concluded a season without achieving at least one race victory.

During this fruitful era for Triple Eight a total of five Bathurst 1000 wins have been accumulated, including the emotional 2006 triumph following the tragic death of his friend and mentor the legendary Peter Brock.

Now three rounds into the 2017 season, it is disappointing to see a driver of Lowndes’ calibre not immediately troubling the leaders as he has so consistently done in the recent past.

A season-best result of third was earnt at an incident-marred first race in Tasmania, though it was confirmed later that no points would be awarded for the shortened sprint. Fourth is the next highest result for Lowndes so far.

The most recent weekend at Phillip Island saw the veteran endure a nasty crash during Friday practice before suffering from a mixture of penalties and tyre failures across both races on Saturday and Sunday, which delivered 12th and 23rd finishes respectively.

It would be an injustice to conclude, however, that Lowndes has had it and is at the end of his tether.

The difficulties during this campaign could be attributed to a critical change in engineering for the veteran following the acrimonious departure of Ludo Lacroix to DJR Team Penske at the end of 2016.

Adjusting to a new engineering philosophy can sometimes be an issue for drivers, though someone as experienced as Lowndes should soon be on the right path with the young John McGregor in his corner.

It’s difficult to fathom a winless season for Lowndes, but in the Triple Eight-designed Team Vortex Holden at least one victory will be likely be attained in 2017, if not more.

When an athlete is as adored as Lowndes, who remains competitive and an asset for the image of the sport, their future should be squarely in their own hands.

The entire purpose behind Triple Eight expanding to three cars following their Shane van Gisbergen coup in 2015 was to be able to continue to accommodate Lowndes, who has been loyal to team owner Roland Dane.

In announcing the exapansion Dane elucidated that the third car would never have been thought of for any driver other than Lowndes. Thus it would be apt for one of Triple Eight’s favourite sons to see out the balance of their full-time career in one of their cars.

Beyond that, which could easily mean through to the end of the decade, Lowndes has the capacity to drive on as an endurance co-driver.

The thought of seeing the six-time Bathurst 1000 champion equal Brock’s great untouched record of nine wins is truly fascinating, especially as year in and year out Lowndes is a contender for the Supercars’ most coveted race.

So while obtaining that elusive fourth championship may be a little out of reach for the evergreen veteran, there is still plenty yet to write in the Lowndes mythos, which would be all the more compelling a tale if it concluded with Triple Eight.