{"id":183960,"date":"2025-10-02T02:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T02:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/183960\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T02:02:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T02:02:12","slug":"how-triple-eight-could-have-won-15-straight-bathurst-1000s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/183960\/","title":{"rendered":"How Triple Eight could have won 15 straight Bathurst 1000s"},"content":{"rendered":"

AS enviable as Triple Eight\u2019s 10-from-22 Bathurst 1000 record is, there\u2019s a persistent feeling it could have been even better had it not snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on many an occasion.<\/p>\n

Craig Lowndes<\/a> and Jamie Whincup<\/a>\u2019s bid for a four-peat in 2009 was trucking along well until a clutch problem reared its head while the #888 Falcon was leading.<\/p>\n

Compounding that was a final pitstop in which the roll centre was dialled the wrong way, leaving them to settle for fifth as Holden snapped its drought with a 1-2-3-4.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Come 2011, Lowndes and Mark Skaife<\/a>\u2019s victory defence got off to a shaky start when the latter ran off in the opening stint, losing crucial track position that forced them to keep double-stacking behind the sister #88 car of Whincup and Andrew Thompson.<\/p>\n

The #88 dominated the race before being brought unstuck by an alternator failure.<\/p>\n

Two years later, Paul Dumbrell speared off at the Chase during his final stint, handing an advantage to Ford Performance Racing\u2019s #5 Falcon that it would never cede \u2013 despite Whincup\u2019s best efforts to overhaul Mark Winterbottom<\/a> on the last lap.<\/p>\n

Then came a trio of years where Whincup and the Mountain did not see eye-to-eye.<\/p>\n

The now-seven-time champion infamously ran out of fuel in 2014, was penalised for illegally passing the Safety Car in \u201915 (although Triple Eight still won through Lowndes\/Steve Richards), then crossed the line first in \u201916 but with a time penalty hanging over his head for that unforgettable redress mess with Garth Tander<\/a> and Scott McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

More Triple Eight heartbreak followed in 2017 when Shane van Gisbergen blotted his copybook at Murray\u2019s Corner while leading the field to a late restart.<\/p>\n

Then in 2019, Whincup\/Lowndes led with 10 laps remaining before blinking for a splash-and-dash, only for another Safety Car period to come that maybe could have got them home on fuel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very much a game of ifs, buts and maybes, but a case can be made that had the stars aligned, Triple Eight could genuinely have won 15 Great Races on the trot from 2006 to 2020!<\/p>\n

This excerpt is from a comprehensive feature looking at Triple Eight Race Engineering\u2019s final Bathurst 1000 with General Motors, with the full story available in the official program for the 2025 Repco Bathurst 1000.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can secure your copy via the V8 Sleuth Superstore<\/a>, or via your local newsagency \u2013 a full list can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AS enviable as Triple Eight\u2019s 10-from-22 Bathurst 1000 record is, there\u2019s a persistent feeling it could have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-183960","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}