Bathurst 500 schedule breaks cover

Supercars has now published Supplementary Regulations for Event 1 of the campaign on February 23-25 which, along with the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, forms the Bathurst SuperFest.

As was the case for the Mount Panorama 500 of 2021, both races will be 40 laps long, the two practice sessions will run for an hour each, and a 20-minute qualifying session eventually leads into a Top 10 Shootout to determine the grid on each of the Saturday and Sunday of the weekend.

Of note this time around, though, is that there is a dedicated ‘SC Procedure Check Session’ on Friday morning, and another such hit-out immediately at the conclusion of Practice 1.

That would seem to be a sign that the Full Course Yellow system which was trialled at last year’s Gold Coast and Adelaide events, and generally well-received, has indeed made it into the 2024 Operations Manual.

Next month’s Bathurst 12 Hour had long been confirmed as also adopting the FCY, which, like a Virtual Safety Car, is designed to ease drivers into Safety Car conditions.

As for the Bathurst 500 schedule, there are few other ‘surprises’, although the window for the two Repco Supercars Championship races is shorter than it was three years ago, when Mount Panorama last hosted a non-enduro event.

Time-certainty kicks in one hour and 37 minutes after the official start time, 10 minutes less than in 2021.

Then, however, the longer-running of those two races was won in 1:30:57.4794s despite including a Safety Car period.

The event also features Round 1 of the Dunlop Super2 Series, which is comprised of a pair of 40-minute races.

A fully time-certain format, with longer race windows, was introduced to Super2 early last year although, ironically, the round which supported the Bathurst 1000 retained dual 100km races.

The undercard is rounded out by Touring Car Masters, Aussie Racing Cars, and V8 SuperUtes.

2024 Bathurst 500 schedule

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