Popular opinion has it that only three cars can win this year’s Great Race on Mount Panorama at Bathurst.
Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes of the Triple Eight Racing team are the deserved favourites, aiming to become the first Ford drivers to win three straight Bathurst 1000 titles in over 40 years.
Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards are the next best bet, with great speed, talent and a good showing at last year’s event.
And then there’s the Commodore of reigning V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander and five-time Bathurst winner Mark Skaife.
The Holden Racing Team pair banded together to win the inaugural Phillip Island 500 last month, breaking a Ford stranglehold at the endurance events dating back to 2005 when Skaife won his fifth Bathurst crown, alongside Todd Kelly.
“Realistically there are only three teams in the running and we’re one of them. We’re going to give it everything we’ve got,” Richards said.
But there’s an interesting dynamic involving all three teams which could become a factor, with one driver from each well and truly in the running for the V8 Supercars championship.
Should a 50-50 situation arise late in the race, these teams could just take the cautious option, leaving the door ajar for their less fancied rivals.
Tander (2096 points) leads the championship standings from Winterbottom (2043) and Whincup (2016).
Skaife, Richards and Lowndes are more or less out of the running but still have to think about the team.
“I’m definitely championship motivated and it’d be fair to say that Craig’s Bathurst motivated,” Whincup admitted.
“Of course we both we want to finish as high up in the championship as possible and of course I’d love to win Bathurst again, being the holy grail of our sport, but we both have different priorities at this stage.”
Lowndes, nine years Whincup’s senior at 34, insisted he wouldn’t be doing anything stupid if it meant hampering his teammate’s championship title shot.
“I think everyone agrees that if you’re not in contention for the championship then you definitely want to win one of the endurance races. It does make a year of poor performances or mechanical issues a lot brighter, that’s for sure,” said Lowndes.
“But it’s one of those things. You always want to finish and score points, more importantly for Jamie because he’s right up there in the championship.
“Bathurst can either make or break your championship, we’ve seen that many times.”
When Tander was asked which he would prefer this year, a Bathurst or championship win, the West Australian said: “Both. To be honest it would be fantastic to do both in one year.
“Having won the Phillip Island race, if we could pull all three off it would be awesome. One or the other or both would be ideal.
“We didn’t have any dramas mechanically or crash-wise in Philip Island so the lead into Bathurst is really good.
“For me, I just can’t to wait till it gets here. It’s the world’s best touring car race, there’s no two ways about that now.”
With the pace Ford have shown this year, Tander believes the Dick Johnson Racing and Stone Brothers Racing cars are also sure to be thereabouts.
“I think the Fords will be very, very strong in the straights. There’s no doubt there’s some inconsistency there but that’s ongoing, the parity thing,” said Tander.
“We’re very mindful of the fact the Fords will also be very, very strong up and down the mountain. We just have to make sure we do the best job we can so that our package is as competitive as it can be.”
Winterbottom and Richards led last year’s Bathurst with 13 laps to go when the rain came and “Frosty” made a major misjudgment and ended up hurtling across the chase.
“The fact that we were going to win the race is the worst part of it. I felt terrible,” said Winterbottom.
“You go back to the pits and see all the people who’ve worked hard. That was the hardest part. Seeing Richo, seeing the engineers, seeing all the mechanics and apologising for costing them the race. After I did it I went and stood in the motor home for 20 minutes just to get away.”
Richardson was eager to put the bad memory behind them.
“Sometimes you can over-analyse things,” he said. “We’ve spoken about that moment so much over the last six months that at some point you’ve got to let it go.
“The team did everything right last year even though the end result doesn’t reflect that.
“We dominated the round and we’re in better form this year.”
For Holden, HSV’s Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell, Tasman Motorsport’s Greg Murphy and Jason Richards and the veteran pairing of Paul Morris and Russell Ingall could all potentially surprise.
“There are plenty of people both within and outside of the sport that believe we are contenders, and I think they are right,” said Murphy, a four-time Bathurst champion.
“We can win but a lot has to go our way for it to happen.
“Bathurst is a long day of racing, but you still need a competitive car and you need to start as close to the front as possible to stay out of trouble early on.
“Keep it straight, stay to your plan and then you could find yourself spraying the champers late on Sunday afternoon.”
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