ZANE Goddard will enter rare territory when he makes his Repco Supercars Championship return in Darwin.
Goddard will become just the fourth steerer in championship history to don #888 at a single-driver event.
The number has been associated with Craig Lowndes ever since he joined Triple Eight Race Engineering at the start of 2005, and it is with Lowndes that Goddard will contest the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 later this year.
But Lowndes was not the first to sport the iconic number.
Max Wilson was Triple Eight’s first #888 driver, used throughout the 2004 season.
Wilson was the German-born Brazilian who raced against Lowndes in International Formula 3000 in 1997, and also featured in DTM and Champ Car.
The first #888 driver of all, however, was none other than 1995 champion and two-time Bathurst 1000 winner John Bowe.
Bowe ran the number in his first two seasons at Brad Jones Racing (2002-03) before switching to #12 in 2004.
Bowe had adopted #888 at BJR after using it while competing in the GT scene for PHR Scuderia.
Goddard has completed his one and only pre-Darwin test in preparation for the June 16-18 race weekend at Hidden Valley, where he’ll debut the newest Chevrolet Camaro Supercar.
