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Traditionally in this country, it’s the October pilgrimage to our most famous race track, Mt Panorama at Bathurst, that has been the biggest jewel in the Australian motor racing crown. But that might be changing.
It’s fair to say that, although the fabled 1000-kilometre race attracts the attention of Australia and New Zealand, it’s not one of those big races that happen around the world – think Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring, Spa, Monaco or Indianapolis – that legitimately attract the eyeballs of the entire motor racing world.
In fact, the man in charge of Audi customer racing, Romolo Liebchen, said this week that he rates the Bathurst 12 Hour as one of the five most important endurance races in the world, naming it alongside the 24-hour contests at Le Mans, Daytona and Spa-Francorchamps.
Despite what the spin-happy V8 SuperCar people might have you believe, the Bathurst 1000 isn’t quite on the same level.
Liebchen’s words can be construed as massive high praise, especially given they were spoken by a veteran of this sport, a man who has seen many of these endurance events, and a massive pat on the shoulder for the Bathurst 12 Hour organisers. They opened the race up to include GT3-spec machinery a few years back, allowing the race to flourish on a more global stage. Ever since, we’ve seen the best cars and drivers from around the world coming to Mt Panorama.
It’s been a meteoric rise for the event, and a giant shot in the arm for Australian sports car racing. Radio Le Mans broadcasts the race all over the world, bringing instant legitimacy to the event, and a scroll of their Twitter feed reveals listeners tuning in from all over the globe.
Now, there’s a Bathurst event that might well be creeping up into that upper echelon. The Bathurst 12 Hour happens about 10 months earlier than then 1000-kilometre, and runs for about twice as long, starting in the pre-dawn hours, racing through sunrise, into the heat of the long summer day, before the chequered flag falls in the late afternoon. And it attracts a field of incredible sports car machinery from around the globe.
Those beautiful GT3-spec cars – Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Audis, Nissans, Aston Martins and Bentleys – come from all corners of the globe, with some of the best sports car drivers in the world strapping themselves in to test their machinery and their ability behind the wheel against a flock of Australia’s best drivers.
Last year’s thrilling finish, with V8 star Craig Lowndes battling Maxi Buhk at the end – an us versus them scenario, if you will – did wonders to raise the profile locally. A few years ago, the race was streamed online, then there was a live television broadcast of the last four hours and now, in 2015, every lap and every minute comes to us live via 7Mate (for the first eight hours) and then the Channel Seven mother ship for the run to the flag.
Despite the controversial absence of V8 SuperCar drivers, who are contractually obligated to be at a curiously-timed SuperTest weekend at Eastern Creek – the V8 people say it was a necessary clash due to the one-weekend gap between the Asian Cup ending and the Cricket World Cup beginning – there is a stack of brilliant talent on offer this year.
We have ex-Formula One star Mika Salo, American factory Porsche driver Patrick Long, a multi-time winner at Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring, another Le Mans champion in Guy Smith, daredevil Felix Baumgartner, Finnish ace Toni Vilander, former Bathurst 1000 champion Steven Richards, Australian-born Le Mans champ David Brabham and Australian Touring Car and Bathurst winner John Bowe.
That’s a pretty nice line-up, and that’s without naming many other European aces out here aiming to try and tame the mountain.
It’s anyone’s guess who might win this race, though the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS-Ultra of Laurens Vanthoor, Marco Mapelli and Markus Winkelhock sit atop the starting grid for the green flag Sunday morning at 5:50am. It was Vanthoor, a factory driver, who hammered out a stunning lap of 2:02.550 with less than five minutes left in the session. It was a time recorded just before red flags brought an end to the session.
Don’t discount the NISMO Nissan squad, who don’t arrive at these races without the tools to win. The lead Nissan GT-R will start from third, one spot behind the Lamborghini Gallardo of JBS Australia. Lead driver David Wall barely missed pole, and showed signs of great speed. There are two Ferrari 458 Italia machines in the top six, and don’t forget the Mercedes SLS AMGT3 machines of Erebus Motorsport. Nor the spectacular McLaren MP4-12C of VIP Petfoods czar Tony Quinn.
Impressively, we have five brands in the top five starting positions – Audi, Lamborghini, Nissan, Ferrari and Aston Martin. It’s a sensational stat, and the array of cars we’re going to see at the pointy end tomorrow are, quite frankly, mouth-watering.
Due to the length of these races, and the sheer number of things that could go wrong, picking a winner is a difficult thing to do, but you’d be hard pressed to look past the Audi squad. They have maximum speed, and if they can stay out of trouble, the most successful marque in Bathurst 12 Hour history might well earn another trip to the top step of the Bathurst podium.
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