KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Bathurst isn't just a race. It's the race.
And motor sport will again take centre stage on Sunday as enthusiasts the world over switch their attention to Mount Panorama.
For Ford hero Craig Lowndes, winning Bathurst is more important than the entire V8 Supercar Championship.
"For me Bathurst is the grand final. It's the ultimate victory," the two-time Bathurst winner and three-time V8 Supercar champion said.
"I prefer endurance racing so, definitely for me, this is the ultimate goal.
"The championship, fair enough you have to have 14 rounds go your way, it's not just about getting lucky in one race. You have to be consistent, there are different aspects.
"But for me Bathurst is the ultimate because of the length, you drive with your teammate and you put all your trust in that teammate and it's just a long, gruelling day."
That teammate is Jamie Whincup, who at 24 is 10 years Lowndes' junior but 16 points ahead in the championship.
The Triple Eight duo are the defending Bathurst champions - and inaugural Peter Brock Trophy winners - and go into the famed race as favourites on the back of both their triumph on the mountain last year and their win at Sandown last round.
"Well, Sandown was the perfect lead-up," said Lowndes, whose first and only other Bathurst win came in a Holden with Greg Murphy in 1996.
"We had a good lead in to last year's Bathurst as well. We had a strong car at Sandown, we didn't quite get the same result as this year [finished third in 2006] but then we went to Bathurst with a lot of confidence and we're the same this year.
"But, at the same time, I suppose we go there with a great deal of pressure on our back because we won last year."
Last year's emotional victory will always be Lowndes' career highlight, he says, because it came barely a month after the great Peter Brock's death.
Brock, a record nine-time Bathurst winner and the undisputed king of the mountain, died aged 61 after crashing into a tree during the Targa West Rally in September 2006.
"Last year was definitely the special one. It was the one that everyone wanted to win," said Lowndes.
"It was fresh in everyone's memories and minds what had happened, so last year was the ultimate one.
"I think it always will be the single best victory I've ever had."
Whincup, without meaning any disrespect to Brock, hoped his career highlight was still to come.
"It's definitely the highlight of my career, it's the best win I've had but I hope it doesn't end up to be the best of my career. Hopefully I've still got a lot more to deliver in the future," he said.
"But to date it's definitely the highlight and it just makes you hungrier and makes you want to do it all again."
And in contrast to Lowndes, Whincup felt winning the championship was a greater achievement than winning Bathurst.
Going into the race Whincup is third overall on 389 points, with Holden's Rick Kelly (443) top and his Toll HSV Dealer teammate Garth Tander (434) third.
Lowndes (374) is fourth.
"It's a very tough question to answer because Bathurst is huge but for me the championship is more important," said Whincup.
"I haven't won a championship before and I believe the winner of the championship is the best package overall for the year."
In recent times Bathurst has lost its title of being the most brutal race of the year to the season-opening Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.
Lowndes, too, believes the two-day, 500km Clipsal is the toughest because of the demanding street circuit and the soaring heat, but said Bathurst was a close second.
"Bathurst is still quite a physical race because of the length and obviously the endurance we need to have to do the six-plus hour race," said Lowndes.
"I just think the drivers are much more conditioned now than what they were probably 10 or 15 years ago and I still classify Adelaide being the hardest race, because of the nature of the circuit, because of the length. It's a street race, has concrete walls, you have to be millimetre precise."
AAP
