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The biggest motorsport weekend of the year is upon us. The Bathurst 1000 is here to stop the nation.
Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards are the defending champions for the race, but they won’t be competing together this year.
Richards is now driving with Craig Lowndes after defecting to Red Bull Racing at the start of this season.
Winterbotttom is now driving with Steve Owen and will be looking to win his second Bathurst 1000 in a row.
After winning the Sandown 500 last month, in dominant fashion, Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell are the favourites for the Great Race.
They face some stiff competition with up to 12 combinations a realistic chance of taking out the Peter Brock Trophy this weekend.
Here is what you need to know about the weekend.
Key race information
Venue: Mount Panorama, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia
Race Length: 161 laps (1000.3 kilometres)
Lap Record: Craig Lowndes 2:06.801 (2010)
Race Record: Jamie Whincup 2:08.4651 (2007)
Previous Winners: 2013 – Mark Winterbottom/Steven Richards, 2012 – Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell
TV: Channel Seven (Check Local Guides)
Start times and weekend schedule (local time)
Practice 1 (Thursday, 11:05am to 11:55am)
Practice 2 (Thursday, 1:15pm to 2:00pm)
Practice 3 (Thursday, 3:10pm to 4pm)
Practice 4 (Friday, 9:30am to 10:15pm)
Practice 5 (Friday, 1:10pm to 2:00pm)
Qualifying (Friday, 3pm to 3:40pm)
Practice 6 (Saturday, 10:20am to 11:10am)
Top Ten Shootout (Saturday, 5:10pm to 5:55pm)
Warm-up (Sunday, 7:50am to 8:10am)
Race: (Sunday, 10:30am to 6:00pm)
TV schedule and live stream (check local guides)
Friday – Channel Seven – 1pm–4pm
Saturday – Channel Seven – 12pm–5pm
Sunday – Channel Seven – 7am–6pm
Current Championship standings
1. Jamie Whincup 2325
2. Craig Lowndes 2052
3. Mark Winterbottom 2046
4. Shane Van Gisbergen 1982
5. James Courtney 1964
Current Endurance Cup standings
1. Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell 300
2. James Courtney/Greg Murphy 276
3. Garth Tander/Warren Luff 258
4. Craig Lowndes/Steven Richards 240
5. Scott Pye/Ash Walsh 222
Will the race record, and the lap record, be broken this year?
A resurfaced Bathurst track promises fast times for the V8 Supercar field this year. Just how fast they will go is anyone’s guess.
Some drivers are predicting they will go more than two seconds quicker than last year. Last year, pole position, was won with a 2:07 by Jamie Whincup.
This means that 2:05 times are a possibility this year. If that happens, records are being broken.
For the first time in a long time, practice and qualifying, will be something to look forward too. It could provide another big moment in V8 Supercar folklore at the mountain.
Can anyone beat Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell?
Since becoming a combination in 2012, Whincup and Dumbrell have had the following results at Bathurst and Sandown.
3rd (Sandown 2012), first (Bathurst 2012), first (Sandown 2013), second (Bathurst 2013) and first (Sandown 2014).
They have finished on the podium in each of the five races and have won 60 per cent of these races. When it comes to endurance racing, this combination is one of the best.
If someone else is going to win the Bathurst 1000 this year, they will have to beat this team on their own right. Mark Winterbottom did that last year; can he or someone else do it again this year?
Up to 12 combinations are in contention for the win this year.
Beating Whincup and Dumbrell will be one of the challenges those combinations have to face in order to win.
Can one of the new manufacturers win the Bathurst 1000?
It has been 22 years, this year; since Nissan won the 1992 Bathurst 1000 after a red flag stopped the race after 143 laps.
Taking away the super tourer era – with their two races in 1997 and 1998 – they are the last manufacturer to beat Ford and Holden to the top step at the mountain.
With the addition of Volvo this year, three manufacturers are now in contention to break that record.
The big question remains though, can they actually upstage the big manufacturers, and win the Bathurst 1000. Out of the three, Volvo looks likely to break the drought.
They have shown pace this season and can match it with the best teams. With Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat they also have a strong combination.
Reliability is their big problem with the team suffering problems throughout the season which has hampered them at crucial times.
Mercedes and Nissan look to be behind the Volvo in pace but anything can happen over a Bathurst weekend.
It will be interesting to see if these three manufacturers can surprise this weekend.
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