Is a 28-car field acceptable for the Bathurst 1000?

Three wildcard entries will be added to the Bathurst 1000 field in October, avoiding the unwanted record of the lowest entry list in the history of the Great Race.

With 25 full-time V8 Supercars entries in 2014, it looked as though this season’s Bathurst could have fewer cars on the grid than the record-lowest of 27 entries in the 1997 Super Touring Bathurst 1000.

However, V8 Supercars has been spared that embarrassment after this week giving the green light to New Zealand-backed Super Black Racing entering one Ford Falcon FG and Dragon Motor Racing entering two Holden Commodore VFs at Bathurst.

This low was to be expected with the recent change over to the new-generation cars, limited spares and economic hardships decreasing the number of full-time championship entrants.

But even still, a 28-car field and recent entry lists have been far off the 50 to 60-plus grids of the Bathurst glory years, when privateers would help to expand the grid to far greater numbers than at championship events.

The reduction over recent years can be contributed to the inclusion of the Bathurst 1000 into the V8 Supercars championship and increased professionalism of the series, in terms of expense and technology.

The license system (Racing Entitlement Contracts) means the value of an entry would be devalued if wildcards were allowed in en masse, while smaller operations are encouraged to run in the second-tier Dunlop Development Series instead.

The result is that Bathurst is missing the wild and unpredictable “weekend warriors” attacking Mount Panorama alongside the regular entrants, creating the inevitable thrills and spills that would add to the overall entertainment value of the race.

It’s created an event that, as a result of so few wildcards and privateers, is in essence a long championship race that only comes to life in the final stint.

V8 Supercars needs to reinvigorate Bathurst and can only do so by incorporating the Dunlop Development Series into the main game, when the second-tier series eventually migrates to the latest generation cars.

In such a difficult economic climate, V8 Supercars cannot sustain two levels of categories.

It needs to return to the days of the two-tiered entry system, whereby the level one entrants complete the whole season under the current Racing Entitlements Contracts and the level two Development Series or other entrants compete at the odd events and Bathurst.

Getting the Bathurst 1000 grid back up to 30 to 40-plus numbers is essential, at a time when the Bathurst 12 Hour sportscar race has a growing grid across multiple classes and is emerging as a real threat with a new commercial free-to-air television deal from 2015.

Like the other great motorsport events such as the Le Mans 24 Hours or Indy 500, a healthy car count is a must to ensure the legend of the Bathurst 1000 lives on. And 28 entries just isn’t enough.