V8 Supercars stars share their memories of Craig Lowndes's huge crash at Calder Park, 1999 1999's V8 Supercar round at Calder Park will be remembered for one of the biggest crashes in Australian motorsport history. You can re-live the action this Tuesday at 7:30pm EDT on SPEED. Lowndes's Calder Park crash is one of the most memorable moments from V8's modern era. Pic: James Baker Source: AAP TONIGHT'S episode of SPEED's V8 Supercars Classics is one of the most requested and most infamous race meetings in V8 history. Calder Park, 1999. Craig Lowndes's spectacular crash at the start of race two had a nation of fans holding their breaths. Remarkably, his worst injury were torn ligaments in his left knee. SPEED talked to several of the key players that day, who shared their memories of the start and the drama that unfolded. Relive all the drama from Calder Park 1999 on SPEED's V8 Supercars Classics, tonight at 7:30pm EDT on SPEED (Foxtel channel 512). Lowndes aboard a brand-new HRT car at Sandown. Craig Lowndes arrived at Calder Park for the ninth round of the 1999 Shell Championship Series heading the championship by over 100 points. A strong start to the season was headlined by weekend sweeps at the inaugural Adelaide 500 and at Barbagallo. Rising Ford star Jason Bright took pole at Calder, but it was Lowndes who got the jump for the start of race one, leading all the way to head home teammate Skaife. As the field lined up on the grid for race two, it was looking like another rosy day for the Holden Racing Team. Craig Lowndes. 1 Mobil Holden Commodore VT Holden Racing Team "The car itself was a meeting and a half new, you're talking about a half a million dollar racecar. In the team, we were all thinking 'this is going to be great, it'll be another great weekend, Skaife and I will be battling again.' We're on the front row, we're on pole position ... and of course I got a dud start. 34 Valvoline Holden Commodore VT Garry Rogers Motorsport "I was in the VS Commodore then. Everyone else was in the later generation cars, and the VS was an absolute rocketship off the line! So I got a good start, we were about 10-wide going down into turn 1, and then all of a sudden I see Lowndes go across the front of my car. 2 Mobil Holden Commodore VT Holden Racing Team "My memories of the day are still very clear. I looked in the mirror after the start, and all I saw was Tander, Steve Richards, Ingall and Craig all bumping. It was all dodgem car stuff. The last thing I saw was Craig turn hard left, and I just saw the roof of the car. I thought 'wow, this is going to be a big accident.' LOWNDES "I saw Skaife go by, then Brighty went by. You're plucking gears as quick as you can getting through the gearbox. I got to third gear, was just about to pluck fourth gear, and then I got a huge impact in the rear quarter panel. You could win a SPEED helmet signed by every V8 Supercars driver from 2013 by watching V8 Supercars Classics, Tuesdays 7:30pm EDT. As the car went up popped the right rear tyre off the rim. The car went up onto its roof, shattered all the windscreen, and at that point, I was in a bit of trouble. I was upside down, skidding on my roof. If you have a look at photos you'll see the brake lights were on. I'd taken my foot off the throttle, put my right foot onto the brake pedal, taken my hands off the steering wheel and put them onto my helmet to protect my neck. But what I didn't do was protect my left leg. As the car's skating down the road on its roof, I can remember hearing all the grinding and seeing all the sparks. Then all of a sudden that went quiet. Then it started to barrel roll. Lowndes begins a sickening series of rolls. The only thing I could think of was my neck, bracing myself. I didn't know where I was. I knew the car was strong, I knew the rollcage was incredibly sophisticated. I braced myself with my right leg which pushed me into my seat, the harness did its work, and then I protected my neck. The only thing I didn't protect was my left leg, and that's where the damage was done. Tander's car is off on the grass as Lowndes car mounts the tyre wall. Pic: James Baker Source: Supplied TANDER "I ended up [spinning] backwards with the whole field coming at me, but by the time my car had spun around a full 360, there's Craig going over and over and up the earth bank. My car pulled up straight, and as I was stopping I could see Murph was running over. Lowndes's car ended up behind the barrier. LOWNDES "My first reaction was to radio to the guys. Of course, I'd ground the aerials off, so that wasn't going to work. Then I could hear Murph, Crompton, John Faulkner, all those guys. I could hear the voices of the other drivers. That was humbling. We go out there, put our helmets on and do the best for ourselves, our teams, our sponsors; those guys put a human life in front of all of that. TANDER "I jumped out and remembered to turn my car off. Murph actually told me he left his car running and it was about 400 degrees by the time he got back to it! I got over to Craig, Neil Crompton was there, there were a couple of other guys, Larry Perkins came over but I think he was more interested in looking underneath the HRT car than getting Craig out. I certainly [stopped and hopped out] instinctively. I didn't even know if there was going to be a red flag or not, so realistically I'd just stopped and forgiven my race, Murph had forgiven his, and all the other guys had just stopped and jumped out of their cars. Medical crews attend to Lowndes after drivers extract him from the car. They pretty much had to red flag the race anyway because, not only was Craig's car upside down, it was like a parking lot down at turn 1 because we'd all stopped to help Craig! LOWNDES "I undid the seatbelts, turned myself up the right way, Murph had basically ripped off the passenger's side door and was helping me pull myself out through that side." TANDER "We actually came under a bit of criticism [for getting Lowndes out], but in all honesty anything could have happened, so getting him out of the car was the first priority." LOWNDES "My left knee was sore, but my right elbow was sore. On one of the rollovers my elbow had hit the bitumen. Luckily, we had window nets at that stage. Who knows what would've happened if we didn't. TANDER "You certainly don't have any fear seeing accidents like Craig's, or James's at Phillip Island. We obviously knew he was okay, he was sore but he was going to be alright. You don't think about those sort of things. It's like, 'righto, that's dealt with, it's done, Craig is okay, or James is okay. Now we focus on the race, and we worry about the details later. LOWNDES "Went to the doctors and returned to the track later that day. It was Skaife helped get me in to see a specialist, and I got my knee operated on the next day. The remains of Lowndes's seven race-old Commodore. Amid all the drama, there was still a race to be run. After a long delay while Lowndes was attended to and his car removed from the track, the field lined up on the grid for the restart of race two. TANDER "By the time we got my car back we realised there was a lot of damage to it. I actually did race two with Garry Rogers' belt holding my driver's door shut. It was around the B-pillar and the rear door, holding everything shut. 4 Pirtek Ford Falcon AU Stone Brothers Motorsport "I remember leading when Lowndes rolled, then after they'd cleaned up the mess and we restarted, I nearly had the exact same crash that Lowndes had. I got turned around by Russell [Ingall] and Skaifey going down into turn one, and our day was done. I wasn't too concerned about having the same accident. It was actually further down the straight, so that wasn't so much the concern. The Lowndes accident was very unique. It just happened to hit a little bump in the road at the right time, he was going backwards ... With mine, I was just disappointed that I ended up in the wall. I was actually more concerned that the officials didn't do anything about it. I felt as though I was far enough in front that that shouldn't have happened. That was the day that I decided to go back to America and have a crack at Indy Lights. HRT mechanics tear apart the destroyed No. 1 Holden. Lowndes's injury forced him to miss the next round at Symmons Plains, but hard work got him back in the cockpit for the Winton round just one month after his Calder crash. With his brand new racecar reduced to junk, he hopped aboard a venerable old VS Commodore - the same car he won the 1996 championship with. Lowndes wasn't too upset to miss the wet Symmons Plains round. LOWNDES "Cameron McConville filled in for me in Tasmania and it absolutely teemed down with rain, so I was quite happy sitting at home watching it, dry! One of the things going into the Winton weekend was having enough strength in my left leg for the clutch pedal. All it had to do was get me off the line. The team were being nice, trying to get a hand-clutch installed for me. But part of that process is to get approval from all the race teams, and none of them wanted to give me that! We had to do a heap of physio and rehab to get enough strength in my leg. Luckily it was only straight, so all I had to do was a leg press, not twisting or anything else. Right through practice, qualifying, even into the first race, I was quite uneasy about the whole thing. Being in a car, racing around trying to get fast lap times and pushing to the limit. But the biggest fear was when cars were around me. The little bumping and shoving and contact that we have, it took a little while for me to get my head back around that. But by the end of the weekend I was fine, I was back into the groove. It did knock me around more than I expected.  Lowndes, aboard a new car, tucked in behind Skaife at Oran Park. HRT had a brand new VT Commodore ready in time for the Oran Park round, and would seal a remarkable championship victory with a third place at Bathurst paired with McConville. A podium finish at Bathurst clinched the 1999 title for Lowndes.