CRAIG Lowndes’ last full-time Supercars engineer has returned to the Mountain as part of Corvette’s highly anticipated Bathurst 12 Hour debut.
John ‘Irish’ McGregor is on deck as race engineer for the Pro class #2 Johor Motorsports Racing Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims, Nicky Catsburg and Earl Bamber.
It’s his first time at Mount Panorama since guiding Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards to victory in the 2018 Bathurst 1000, and he returns with a team that is comprised of many former Triple Eight staff.
John McGregor. Pic: Ross Gibb
“It strangely feels like home,” McGregor told V8 Sleuth. “You walk up and down pit lane and see loads of people I used to know. It’s very nice to be back.
“Between pitlane and the team itself, it feels like I’m back here with Triple Eight!”
McGregor took over as Lowndes’ Supercars engineer in late 2016 after DJR Team Penske-bound Ludo Lacroix was placed on gardening leave.
After a rocky 2017 in which Lowndes went winless in Supercars, the combination clicked in 2018.
Lowndes and McGregor celebrate after winning the Symmons Plains round in 2018. Pic: an1images.com / Scott Wensley
McGregor guided Lowndes to a solo race win at Symmons Plains and his Bathurst victory with Steven Richards, the team overcoming a persistent power steering problem to win Lowndes’ seventh and Richards’ fifth victories in the event.
McGregor remained with Lowndes through to the end of ’18, after which point the Brit headed to the United States to work with Porsche in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
“When I left Supercars, I went and did two years in IMSA with the Porsche factory team, and then I went back to Europe and went to Manthey,” he said.
“I was with them for two years, and then I was with Porsche Penske Motorsport the past three years.
“I was pretty much always with the factory stuff, just different teams that were running it.
“I’m back on the cans, race engineering this weekend. I’ve had a different role for a couple of years and haven’t done it, but it’s nice to be back here and doing it again.”
It’s been a circumspect start to the Bathurst 12 Hour campaign for the #2 Corvette, placing 23rd and 21st in the two all-in practice sessions on Friday and qualifying 25th and 26th for Sunday’s race.
The same can’t be said about the debut of GM’s archrival Ford; its Haupt Racing Team-run Mustang GT3 placed 18th and 17th in the corresponding Friday sessions, but qualified third-fastest for the Pole Battle.
Additional reporting by Connor O’Brien.