With the grid determined and the anticipation built, the time has come to at last go racing at Mount Panorama for the biggest motorsport event on the Australian racing calendar – the Bathurst 1000.
Defending race winners in David Reynolds and Luke Youlden will line up their Erebus Motorsport Commodore on pole position, with the sole intention of going back-to-back at the Mountain. Out to stop them, will be a plethora of drivers – all with their own narratives to sow at the fabled 1000.
The last back-to-back winner of the event will start the Great Race from second, with Jamie Whincup eyeing off a fifth Bathurst victory and a second with co-driver Paul Dumbrell, who both last won for Triple Eight in 2012.
Since then, it has been agony for the reigning Supercars champion, who has had several moments of controversy which had cost the Holden driver opportunities for further wins.
Though that is the cruel reality of the Mountain, as it determines who will win the Great Race, regardless of a team or driver’s feats across the weekend or the Supercars season. Ask the title contending rivals in Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, who despite their speed over the years – are yet to win at Bathurst.
Shane Van Gisbergen – Bathurst virgin. (Photo by Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images)
Despite the allure of the Bathurst 1000, Van Gisbergen who leads the championship by 55-points over his compatriot, has already stated his intention of focussing on the title fight at hand rather than the individual victory – even though a handy 300-points are on offer.
In title terms, the emphasis will be on being a classified finisher at the end of the 161-laps or 1000km, given that in Supercars there are points awarded all the way down to last place. Those vital points that possibly cruelled McLaughlin after his DNF here in 2017, when he lost the title to Whincup at the final race in Newcastle.
Bathurst is also the second portion of the Enduro Cup, which kicked off with the Sandown 500 which was dominated by Triple Eight and its three cars. Whincup and Dumbrell lead from their teammate Van Gisbergen and Earl Bamber, with the Gold Coast 600 still to follow.
For many tuning in however, Bathurst will feel like a standalone event. Compared to an AFL or an NRL grand final, the 1000 is a spectacle that will see a clash of old clans in Holden, Ford and Nissan all fighting for the top honour in Australian motorsport.
There will be great significance too for Ford, given that it is the final flight of the Falcon which has raced at Bathurst for over half a century, in many different iterations. All in all 12 wins have been recorded by the Falcon for various Ford teams over the years, with the most recent having come in 2014 from Tickford in the FG Mark II.
With McLaughlin flying the flag for the Blue Oval at the pointy end of the grid, former Bathurst champions in Chaz Mostert and Mark Winterbottom for Tickford will look to make an assault from outside the top ten.
Racing in his final Bathurst as a full-time driver, there will be a lot of emotion around Craig Lowndes, who will start his 25th attempt at the 1000km enduro from ninth on the grid. A seventh win for the evergreen veteran will tie him with the great Jim Richards and put him within two wins of his mate and Australian sporting icon in Peter Brock.
Craig Lowndes driving out of The Chase during practice on Thursday at Bathurst. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Clear conditions will mean that there won’t be repeat of the chaos from the 2017 rain-affected race, however with six-plus hours of racing – there is plenty of room for errors to be made.
Pit-stops, which will include tyre changes, refuelling, brake pad changes and for the first time, mandatory disc changes – are all things that would have been rehearsed ad-nauseum throughout the year, all to make sure the crews perfect their pit-stops.
Little things such as all the facets comprising a pit-stop, as well as driver discipline on-track will go a long way to determine who will be the contenders and who the pretenders. Surviving the first 75 per cent of the race and not trying to win in the initial stints is the key and buying a ticket into the final stint, where the drivers go hell for leather.
So, when the light goes green at ten past the eleventh hour on race day, another chapter in the enriched folklore of Bathurst will commence. What outcome awaits on the other side of a gruelling 161-laps?
Let only a thousand kilometres of the best racing in Australia, on the best circuit in the world give birth to that.
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