It’s a big weekend of racing as the Supercars teams descend on Mount Panorama for the Repco Bathurst 1000 and the action is not far away from commencing.
The activations off-track at Bathurst have been covered on The Garage here, as the Repco Supercars Championship action begins with practice sessions on Thursday as Holden bids farewell to the Mountain.
An all driver session kicks off proceedings at 11:00pm on Thursday before the co-drivers take to the Mountain for second practice at 3:55pm as their preparations continue.
Both drivers will share their entries in a further two practice sessions on Friday, before qualifying takes place at 4:15pm in a 40-minute battle to make the Top 10 Shootout.
Another two practice sessions occur on Saturday prior to the Top 10 Shootout in the twilight, as teams will undertake race running.
Of course, the always spectacular Top 10 Shootout heads into the twilight at 5:05pm.
Campers will be woken up by the sound of Supercars, with the traditional warm up taking place at 8:00am-8:20am before the main event gets underway at 11:15am.
The Repco Supercars will also be supported by five categories headlined by the second-tier Super2 Series, Paynter Dixon Porsche Carrera Cup Australia Championship, Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 Series, Haltech V8 SuperUtes Series and Heritage Rival.
Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Declan Fraser leads the Super2 standings heading to the Mountain by 114-points though a chasing pack consisting of Tickford Racing’s Zak Best, Matthew Payne in the Grove Racing Nissan Altima and the leader’s teammate Cameron Hill will aim to bridge the gap.
It’s a battle of the young guns in Super3 as Kai Allan and Brad Vaughan battle for supremacy in the third-tier class, while many drivers have spiced up their entries by returning to retro liveries.
The form driver in Paynter Dixon Porsche Carrera Cup Australia is Sonic Motor Racing Services’ Aaron Love after winning the previous two events. Harri Jones continues to lead the standings by 68-points from category stalwart David Wall, while Dylan O’Keeffe sits a further 16 behind and Love is another eight in arrears.
Zach Bates continues to impress in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Toyota 86 Series, but the likes of Jarrod Hughes, Lachlan Gibbons, Jobe Stewart, Campbell Logan and Bailey Sweeny will aim to finish on the top step at Bathurst.
Holden is not only represented on the Supercars grid, but the two leading contenders in the Haltech V8 SuperUtes Series drive Colorados. Aaron Borg and George Gutierrez will fight off rivals representing Mitsubishi, Toyota, Mazda, Isuzu and Ford.
Finally, the Heritage Rival will bring nostalgia to the Mount Panorama as Groups C, A, N and S will do battle representing the history of Australian motorsport from various eras. Group C will be the highlight as for the first time in nearly 40 years, the two factory Nissan Bluebirds will race together at the hallowed circuit.