The Conditions
The forecast in Bathurst for the weekend is for clear, warm conditions, topping out at almost 30 degrees Celsius on race day. This is in stark contrast to last year’s rainy and foggy conditions, as well as the 2020 event which was held in the scorching heat. The early mornings have been cool, so lap times before sunrise on Sunday should be very quick!
New Tyre from Pirelli
Pirelli are bringing the P-Zero DHF tyre compound that was introduced in global GT racing last year for its first shot at The Mountain. This weekend is the first event in Australia to use the new compound, which is suspected to be quicker and more durable than the previous spec tyres.
Most Australian-based teams had a chance to test the tyres ahead of the weekend at Phillip Island, but that pales in comparison to the season of experience teams like GruppeM and WRT have with these new tyres.
Track to Town
The fourth edition of Bathurst Track to Town occurred on Thursday, with all 26 cars taking a parade lap of the circuit, before turning off at Murray’s Corner, being escorted into Bathurst, and parking up on the main street, in front of the town hall.
“It’s really nice to drive the cars from track into town,” Craig Lowndes told the host broadcaster. “The line of people on the sides of the street were unbelievable.”
“This event keeps growing and growing!”
The Track to Town gave fans an opportunity to get up close and personal with the cars competing in this year’s event, with a signing session with the whole field part of the experience as well.
Support Categories
This weekend’s support running features two staples of the Australian motorsport scene as well as demonstration laps from the Red Bull RB7 Formula 1 car.
Combined Sedans returns to Bathurst, with a capacity 55 car field across Spaceframe, Chassis and Super Touring classes.
Spaceframe cars are purpose built race cars, featuring machines such as the MARC Cars Australia machines, while Chassis machines are built up from roadgoing cars turned into race cars. Finally, the Super Touring machines feature old-spec V8 Supercars from the Project Blueprint era or earlier. With 55 cars and a wide variety of machines through the field, the Combined Sedans will be one to watch.
Also on the support bill is the Formula Ford Challenge, combining modern and historic Formula Ford machinery in a 52 car grid. Chassis as early as 1970 will be in the field, which includes current Tickford Super 2 driver Elly Morrow.
Finally, the 2011 Red Bull RB7 Formula 1 car will complete demonstration laps at the hands of New Zealand rising star Liam Lawson across the weekend. The RB7 demonstration will split the two Qualifying sessions on Saturday.
The last time an F1 car ran around Mount Panorama was in 2011, when Jensen Button piloted the 2008 MP4-23, as part of a Team Vodafone promotion with Craig Lowndes. On that occasion, Button set an eye-watering 1:48.8s lap, but as the session was not an official race session, the lap does not count as a Bathurst Lap Record.
Support categories will be broadcast as part of the worldwide live stream from 12:45 local time (AEDT, UTC+11) on Saturday, with the RB7 demonstration, race 3 for Combined Sedans, and race 3 for Formula Ford interspersing the Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying and shootout.
Qualifying and the Shootout
The Qualifying and Shootout formats have changed slightly from last year, with a focus on team performance and giving the Am driver a chance to shine.
Qualifying is split into two sessions, with the 25 minute Q1 session opened to all cars except the Pro class, before the 40 minute Q2 is open to all cars. An aggregate of two driver’s laps will decide who progresses to the top 10 shootout and the grid positions 11-26. This means that for the Pro-Class cars, teams have to squeeze two drivers into the 40 minute Q2 in order to get an aggregate time.
The Shootout will run similarly to last year’s event, with two 15 minute sessions where the focus is outright pace. The first session will feature cars from positions 6-10, with the final session for the top 5 cars. While it isn’t the traditional one-lap dash, the updated format proved to be an exciting change in last year’s event, with Chaz Mostert pipping Kelvin Van Der Linde by 0.0838s last year to claim the Allan Simonsen Pole Award.
Milestones and Records
There are a number of impressive milestones and records on the cards through the course of this year’s event.
Firstly, Marc Cini and David Russell will each hit 12 starts in the Bathurst 12 Hour this edition, which equals the record set by John Bowe. For Cini, it will be his 6th start in the Audi R8 201700088 chassis, the same that he has raced in each edition since 2017.
There are 10 previous overall winners racing in this year’s event, which equals the record of the 2017 and 2018 events. Among these are 2-time winners Christopher Mies, Craig Lowndes, and Jules Gounon. No-one has won the event three times yet, and if Gounon manages to take victory this weekend, he will be not only the first to win three, but also the first to win three in a row.
SIN becomes the 39th marque to be represented in the 12 hour thanks to the Daytona Sportscars entry. They were also responsible for the previous new addition in 2017 which saw Dodge entered for the first time, alongside KTM’s first entry in 2017 as well.
Finally, there are 16 drivers making their debut at the 12 Hour this weekend, which is a relatively low number compared to previous editions. Rookies have traditionally had a strong showing at the Bathurst 12 Hour, with the best-placed rookie finishing off the overall podium in only 1 of the 19 editions to date. With rookies in a number of pro entries including Patrick Niederhauser, Sheldon van der Linde, Phillip Ellis and Valentino Rossi, that tradition could well continue
Thank you to David Greenhalgh for his contribution to this story!
Friday Running
Track action kicks off with Practice 1 for all drivers at 9:45am AEDT (UTC+11), before a Bronze-Only Practice 2 at 11:05. Practice, again for Bronze drivers only, starts at 14:00, before the final session of the day at 16:10 for all drivers.
Radio commentary will be available via radiolemans.com.
