Shop
Wow! There’s so much potential content from the weekend at the Mountain I hardly know where to start. So, whilst I might come back to some topics in future columns (especially given the overly big gap to the next Supercars event!), I’m going to use my favourite shorthand style to summarise the Good and the Bad – bullet points.
The Good:
- If you don’t like the way that these Gen3 cars look on track, especially somewhere like Mount Panorama, then please move on. The chances are that you’re not a real motorsports fan, so find another sport. The cars look fantastic. The teams, without exception, have done a great job of their warpaint this year as they’ve worked with the shapes of these cars. I reckon Peter Hughes, ex GM exterior design manager but brand agnostic these days, must have had a very busy off-season! In fact, the turnout of pit lane as a whole is a testament to the commitment of the teams. Massive tick.
- The Hard Tyre proved what most sane people knew already. The Soft Tyre may have its uses, but the HT is (in the absence of a new 21st century tyre) far better suited to racing at Bathurst than the ST. There’s still degradation but it’s of a reasonable order and doesn’t produce the huge volume of marbles that makes racing all but impossible.
READ MORE: Support for hard tyre for Bathurst 1000
- The television pictures, and the direction, were superb. The TV team captured the cars moving around beautifully across the top of the racetrack, in particular. No more constant replays and no more endlessly watching cars trundle down pit lane at 40 km/h. Someone must be reading the column! Bravo.
- Watching the trade-offs between different set-up approaches on the Triple Eight cars and the WAU Mostert car. It’s classic Bathurst. Quick over the top, or quick up and down the hill. It was awesome to watch Chaz maximising the former approach, less awesome to hear him moaning about straight-line performance when they’d chosen that route. Well done to Larko for making it very clear to viewers that those are the choices teams make, and have done for years. Long may it continue.
- The Boost Pole Award. The marketing master sniffed an opportunity and swooped. Well done Pete, the sponsorship has enhanced the qualifying show.
- Top 10 Shootouts. They never fail to work at Bathurst. I think that they’re overused elsewhere, and should be kept for the big events, but there’s no doubt as to their value at this venue.
- Race 2. A great strategic battle. Whilst we don’t need a minimum drop for fuel (assuming that the respective model to model fuel economy is as close as I’ve been told), we do need a minimum of two stops. That gave us a real battle for the lead and the intensity was clear from the sector and lap times. DJR proved how to get strategy wrong, by running ‘fat’ cars in the middle of the race when others were lighter. A big error at a highly weight-sensitive track.
- TV ratings. I don’t know all the figures, but the initial ratings for both the Bathurst 12 Hour and the Sunday of the 500 look terrific. Long may this continue.
The Bad:
- It doesn’t matter which way you spin in, or how much Supercars try to get the inhouse media and drivers to tell the audience that it’s all good, Bathurst twice a year doesn’t work. The crowd was visibly pitiful and, equally visibly, down on the 12 Hour the weekend before. Admit the error, don’t put talk out there about doing it again, and move on. With corporate attendance at Bathurst at an all-time low, it’s time to establish the season opener at SMSP under lights before football season gets under way. Commit to it long term.
READ MORE: Supercars casting a wide net for 2025 season-opener
- Brodie Kostecki wasn’t there. Supercars needs to look at F1 at the moment. F1 itself, has made it abundantly clear that the Christian Horner matter must be resolved, one way or another, without delay. The same goes for the Brodie affair. Sort it, whether he comes back to race or moves on elsewhere. Interviews that say absolutely nothing help no one and don’t deflect responsibility.
- Motorsport Australia proved how not to operate a Full Course Yellow. The loose wheel on the Waters car in Race 1 was a perfect FCY scenario, but MA got it totally wrong. Literally, the second that the loose wheel was apparent on the TV pictures (and race direction may have been aware of it before then from marshals), a FCY should have been called, especially given the nature of the track at that point. Instead, they waited over a minute and, by the time they did actually call FCY, it was almost time to end it! I watched it unfold in sheer disbelief, and I wasn’t alone, as my phone can bear witness to.
- TV commentary. It was really clear over the weekend as a whole that the default base product in the box is simply tired. As soon as Garth Tander was in there with Neil Crompton, the dynamic changed completely, and for the better. Moreover, the interactions on the desk between Garth and Jess Yates were excellent. Garth knows the cars, has driven them and, when he’s in the box, NC doesn’t try to compete with him as the ‘expert’ commentator. Someone needs to grow a pair and make the change. Then, when GT is racing in the endurance events, put Greg Murphy in there.
- The Supercars website/app. When I called these out late last year, I was told that I’m not the audience and that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Really? Well, plenty of far more youthful folk have told me they share my view. Putting aside the questionable look, feel and content of the site, why, oh why, make it so hard to get decent live timing? Jumping through hoops and making it so hard to find the ‘classic’, free, view, is not going to help expand the fan base. Accessibility is vital.
- Race 1 Safety Car finish. It’s not ideal. But once in a Blue Moon it can, and will, happen. Get over it and move on. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel for such an irregular occurrence. The long-term answer is Slow Zones, like World Endurance for instance, but when folk are struggling to operate FCYs properly, it’s best left for now.
And now for the Ugly:
Despite the ‘Christmas twice a year doesn’t work’ issue around going to the Mountain at this time of year, there was much that was great at the weekend. So, it really pains me to have to draw attention to an otherwise unnoticed, disgraceful, issue that emerged from running the Bathurst 12 Hour and the 500 back-to-back.
The practice of banning weaving behind the SC, once the lights are out prior to a restart, has been a contentious part of the rules here in Australia for years. Elsewhere in the world, the practice is allowed, quite sensibly, on the basis that the cars cannot overlap so no harm can be done by moving laterally. And each year, overseas drivers come here for the 12 Hour and are tripped up by this unjustified local rule.
During the very late stages of the 12 Hour race, Car #27, the Heart of Racing AMG GT3 car running in Pro-Am, was given a drive through penalty for weaving behind the Safety Car.
The driver of #27 was caught out and lost the class win as a result of said drive through. The team and car owner had spent $500k to come and compete here. Imagine their disgust when, just a week later, they see that the rule they’d broken no longer applies in Australia’s premier local category!
Why on earth, for the biggest international event of the year (F1 apart), didn’t Supercars and Motorsport Australia alter the 12 Hour rules to align with the not only international norms but also their own latest Supercars Operations Manual? Questions need to be asked as to why there was a total lack of lateral thinking applied.
I only hope that the 12 Hour team go back to the Heart of Racing team and, at the very least, apologise and offer them some substantial incentives to return in 2025.
