Lowndes says g’day to Roary

Craig Lowndes, the three-time Australian V8 Supercar Champion and four-time Bathurst winner, is the latest star to be recruited by Roary the Racing Car.

The popular children’s television show is narrated by Sir Stirling Moss and also features the voices of Murray Walker and Peter Kay, but the producers were keen on finding an Aussie to voice its new character, Conrod.

“I was approached by the Roary team at the Australian Grand Prix this time last year,” says Lowndes. “At that point they had a concept that they wanted to introduce an Australian character and [bring] Conrod into the episodes, but they were looking for someone to voice it.

“I was lucky to have some good results [in the V8 Supercar race] at last year’s Australian GP, which at least made them aware of who I was. I’ve never done anything like this before; we’ve done some stuff here on TV commercials for sponsors, we’ve done some radio recordings for sponsors, but this was new to me.”

Added Lowndes: “When we recorded the three episodes they hadn’t actually finalised the drawings of the cartoon character, but I suppose I didn’t make it too easy for them because I was still with the Ford team when we did the recordings, but this year I’m campaigning the Holden car. They’ve made some modifications to the car in the cartoon and made it more neutral, rather than just a Ford or a Holden.”

Having finished the three episodes Lowndes is now fully focused on the V8 Supercar Championship and winning another title. “At the moment we’re in a mad rush trying to build cars as our season starts soon,” he says. “We’ve got to have our cars on a plane heading to Abu Dhabi on February 14, ready for our first championship race.”

From the recording studio to the cockpit of a V8 Holden. Talk about different ends of the spectrum…