Key Bathurst 1000 co-driver rule revealed

An important freedom with respect to co-driver rules has been revealed in the Supplementary Regulations for this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000.

That is, co-drivers are allowed to take starting duties for the Great Race.

It is a ‘rule’, or lack thereof, which has been thus ever since an official demarcation between primary drivers and co-drivers came into being in 2010, when teams were banned from pairing their full-timers.

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However, it became the subject of discussion after the chaotic opening to last year’s Bathurst 1000, when two Safety Car periods were triggered within the first two laps of green flag racing (five laps in total).

Brad Jones, who saw one of his cars wiped out in the chain reaction when then-Tickford Racing co-driver Zane Goddard ran off at The Chase, suggested co-drivers could be banned from starting in exceptional circumstances such as those which prevailed in 2022.

One of his former drivers, John Bowe, a two-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, went further, opining online that, “I honestly think that co-drivers should not be allowed to start the race…”

Speedcafe understands that such a rule was considered at Commission level, but it can now be inferred that it has not come to pass.

There is no rule contained within the event Supplementary Regulations stating that co-drivers may take the start, but that freedom has existed since 2010.

Notably, though, five minutes of track time has been allocated to practice starts at the conclusion of each of Practice 1 and Practice 2 on the Thursday of the event, the former of which is open to all drivers but the latter of which is restricted to “additional Drivers Only”.

As such, it is only the co-drivers who may perform practice starts immediately after the latter of those two sessions, a provision which can only exist because of the possibility that they may start the race.

There is no prescribed practice start time at any other point of the event.

As has become the norm, there are six practice sessions, each of an hour duration, over the course of the ‘weekend’, with two each on the Thursday, Friday (prior to Qualifying), and Saturday (prior to the Top 10 Shootout), plus the 20-minute Sunday morning Warm Up.

In addition to Practice 2, Practice 5 is also for co-drivers only, with every other session open to both drivers (noting that the minimum 54 laps applies to each driver during the Race, save for exceptional circumstances).

Team typically choose to start with their co-drivers for strategic reasons, with their primary drivers usually triple-stinting to the chequered flag.

However, that may very well change this year, given stints will likely become longer due to the 20 percent larger fuel cells in the Gen3 Supercars and their apparently superior fuel economy.

Testing takes place next week, with the Sandown 500 on September 15-17 and the Bathurst 1000 on October 5-8.