If he doesn’t already hold the record, he’s never too far away.

And V8 Supercars veteran Craig Lowndes is hoping to again make history in Perth this weekend as he fights to snatch back the championship lead from Ford rival Mark Winterbottom.

Lowndes has won 14 races at Barbagallo Raceway – just one shy of Mark Skaife’s all-time record for most victories at a single track at Sydney’s now-defunct Oran Park.

While only two of those triumphs have come since 2000, history remains on Lowndes’ side.

Between he and teammate Jamie Whincup, the Holden-backed Triple Eight outfit have claimed seven of the last 11 races in Western Australia – including all three last year.

Lowndes is banking on that impressive record to claw his way back to the top of the championship leaderboard after a disappointing round in New Zealand a fortnight ago.

The 39-year-old went into the four-race weekend with a small buffer on Ford’s Winterbottom, but walked away with a single podium and 107 points in arrears.

“Obviously we’re going to have bad weekends throughout the year – hopefully we’ve had ours now and we can move forward,” said Lowndes, who was last crowned V8s champion in 1999.

“We’re not slitting our wrists at the moment but it’s important that we turn things around quickly.

“Barbagallo was good to us last year, and I’m looking forward to starting my fight back.”

Five-time defending champion Whincup, meanwhile, is languishing in unfamiliar territory at sixth on the drivers’ standings thanks to similarly poor showings in Auckland and earlier in Winton.

At 166 points adrift of Winterbottom, it’s the furthest behind the championship leader he has been since September 2010 – the year he lost the title to James Courtney.

“We put high expectations on ourselves at Red Bull Racing Australia and we haven’t quite lived up to them at this stage,” Whincup said.

“It’s not all bad though. Historically we’ve had a good run in Perth; it’s been a happy hunting ground and hopefully by the end of the weekend we’ve moved back up the championship ladder slightly.”

Winterbottom will no doubt be hoping that’s not the case, with this weekend marking the first time in nearly six years that he has led the championship heading into an event.

He will get his first crack at extending that advantage on Saturday with two 100km sprints, followed by a longer 200km race on Sunday.