The race has traditionally been held on the first Sunday of February, making it unrivalled on the GT racing calendar.
Typically, the race falls the weekend after the 24 Hours of Daytona, and this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour grid features 22 drivers who competed in the IMSA SportCar Championship opener.
The dip in competitor numbers can largely be attributed to the absence of Invitational class cars, most of which are entered in the Combined Sedans.
There are only three non-GT3 entries, which has also raised eyebrows.
Speaking with media ahead of Sunday’s race, BMW Team WRT boss Vincent Vosse said the Bathurst 12 Hour date presents logistical challenges but ultimately should not change.
Vosse said there was a misconception that moving the date away from Daytona would benefit Bathurst, given IMSA teams competing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge are slim to none.
IMSA also runs its own GTD formula, which differs slightly to GT3 in how it paritises cars with torque sensors.
“Having the race two weeks later will make a bigger impact on the logistics — worse, because you don’t have any team doing Daytona as a team with the [same] material,” said Vosse.
“Of course, everything which is later is getting more difficult to have everything back [in Europe] on time.”
The problem with moving Bathurst away from Daytona is that it would encroach on races in Asia, then returning cars to Europe becomes problematic.
“Once you are here once and you have the experience of doing the event, I think it’s like the other races,” said Vosse.
“The problem of course, compared to Dubai or the other races, is timing. It’s getting closer to the start of the European season. It’s getting more tricky not to air freight everything back.
“This is one of the issues, I would say.”
Even the presence of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi hasn’t been enough to attract more GT3 entries. However, fan interest in the BMW star remains high with long queues on Saturday for the day’s single signing session.
Asked about international competitor interest, Rossi offered an optimistic point of view for the event’s future.
“If you have more cars, especially if you have more cars, it’s better,” said Rossi.
“But already, the grid is not so bad. You have big names, you have a good part of the top GT3 drivers.
“For sure, if you have more cars, more factory [cars], more manufacturers, it’s also better. I hope in the future it can improve.”
Fellow BMW driver Raffaelle Marciello was complimentary of the Bathurst race but conceded it was “very far away” from anywhere.
“It’s not easy for the teams to come here,” he reasoned.
“As Vale said, it’s one of the best weekends of the year for me. If, in the future, we can have more cars and make it a bigger event it’s always better.
“It’s a race everyone wants to do. I believe every driver, if they have the chance, they will say yes and come here, for sure.”
The long-awaited arrival of the Ford Mustang and Corvette Z06 ultimately never materialised, something Vosse said would be good to change in future editions.
“Everyone would like to have some of the manufacturers that are not here,” Vosse added.
“As everyone said, it’s a special event. A very special one. It competes with the biggest events of the endurance racing world.
“It’s always an issue to select the drivers to come here because all of them want to do the race.
“We are always happy to come here and we will be happy to come in the future if we have the opportunity.”
