Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series drivers will have one all-important final fling during the Super Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000 this weekend, before aiming up for a return to the single driver format at this year’s Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast a fortnight later.
Two-driver pairings will tackle the famous Mount Panorama circuit in the hope of capturing the holy grail of Australian motorsport.
The Mount Panorama circuit is steeped in tradition and has long been the scene of many historic moments that have become folklore in Australian sport.
The 6.213 kilometre anti-clockwise track is normally a public road and was first used as a racing venue during an Easter Sunday motorcycle meeting in 1938. World War II intervened, and racing didn’t resume until 1947, with the Australian Grand Prix which was again held in Bathurst in 1952 and 1954.
Since 1963 the feature event for touring cars has continually been held in the traditional October timeslot. Originally known as the Armstrong 500, the first endurance race saw Bob Jane and Harry Firth victorious when campaigning a Ford Cortina GT.
Over the past 43 years the event has evolved into something more than just a motor race, it is now an iconic Australian tradition. It is the race which placed drivers such as Jane, Firth, John Goss, Allan Moffat, Jim Richards, Colin Bond, Dick Johnson and of course the late Peter Brock as household names.
During the period 1963 to 1972 the race was run over 500 miles with the first 1000 kilometre race, the Hardie Ferodo 1000 held in 1973. It was won by Allan Moffat/Ian Geoghegan in a Ford Falcon GT.
Throughout the years 50 drivers have etched their names in history by claiming the ‘holy grail’ of Australian Motorsport. The defending champions for this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 are Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering pair claimed an emotional victory in last year’s race ahead of Toll HSV pair Rick and Todd Kelly.
Lowndes and Whincup will debut a brand new TeamVodaphone Falcon this weekend and on the strength of their more recent Just Car Insurance 500 win at Sandown they’ll be looking to snare an elusive endurance race double.
If successful the duo will also become the first drivers to have successfully defended their Bathurst title since Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly won back-to-back races in 2003 and 2004.
In this year’s field of 31 cars, driven by 62 drivers from 17 teams, there are no less than 12 former winners.
While the Super Cheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is the tenth round of the 2007 Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series, the focus is more on becoming the King of the Mountain as opposed to an all-out points chase.
That being said, a solid result by Rick Kelly and Garth Tander of Toll HSV will enable the pair to maintain their stranglehold at the top of the points standings ahead of Whincup and Lowndes.
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