Shock! Supercars star stays with Bowtie

For more scoops from Foges click here to listen to the Race for the Championship podcast.

V8 legend Craig Lowndes is to leave Triple Eight and stay with GM next year.

Lowndes will also continue co-driving with a Chevrolet team.

SupercarXtra has learned that the superstar’s impending split with Triple Eight will be announced as soon as tomorrow (Tuesday March 11).

Lowndes’ decision to remain with GM is the latest repercussion of Triple Eight’s return to Ford from next year.

The switch has already cost the powerhouse team its longtime alliance with engine-builder KRE – also sticking with GM – and technical director Jeromy Moore, moving to a senior racing role at GM in the USA.

Lowndes has been a fixture at Triple Eight since 2005, winning six Bathurst 1000s in Falcons and Commodores until his fulltime retirement in 2019.

He then co-drove in the enduros with Jamie Whincup for three years before heading the Supercheap Auto-backed wildcard entries from 2022.

Now 50, Lowndes remains the most recognisable and popular figure in Supercars, acclaimed for his fan-friendly personality as well as his achievements over nearly two decades.

He won ATCC crowns with HRT in 1996/98/99, plus the Bathurst 1000 in ’96, then triumphed a further six times in The Great Race with Triple Eight (’06/07/08/10/15/18).

Lowndes has been a Holden/GM ambassador for several years and has re-signed for an extended period.

He will also continue as a Supercars enduro co-driver, shutting down speculation of an imminent retirement from racing.

The hot tip is that he will join Premiair Racing, favourite to become the GM homologation team and lately advised by ex-T8 boss Roland Dane.

Dane is still a big fan of Lowndes, who he lured from FPR in ’05 and has often credited with securing the commercial foundations of Triple Eight.

Losing Lowndes also casts into doubt Supercheap Auto’s backing of T8’s wildcard program after this year.

Lowndes’ decision to stick with GM, while unsurprising, is just another blow to the Jamie Whincup-run Supercars superteam.

What Whincup expected would be a seamless, uncontentious transition from racing Camaros to Mustangs has become a major battleground, inciting GM to fight back with increased commitment and investment.