A decade is a long time in motor racing but, in the land of Supercars, it’s maybe a little bit difficult to acknowledge that the 2014 Bathurst 1000 did not happen just yesterday. Even for an event known for its great finishes, the 2014 edition was possibly the greatest. At a minute less than eight hours in length, it was certainly the longest, due to an unprecedented number of crashes, 10 safety car appearances and a 63-minute red flag period to repair a damaged racetrack.
Think of the unlikeliest of final laps storyboards you may have seen in Formula 1 history. Jenson Button winning from dead last in Montreal in 2011? Not even close. Riccardo Patrese spinning away a maiden world championship grand prix win and then reclaiming it in Monaco in 1982? Humbug.
What we saw a decade ago was the two cars that started last and second-last on the grid fighting tooth and nail for the win, with just two of the 1000 kilometres remaining – one of the teams begging, then cajoling, its star driver, after coming from a lap down, to ease off and save fuel. Right behind him, having driven from last not once but twice after the car was crashed by a co-driver twice his age, was a 22-year-old rising star, asking his team when the car in front was going to run dry. And the car that eventually did come second – which itself was crashed twice – took the flag looking more like race tape than automobile.
Times change but many of the players have not. Jamie Whincup was the man at the point of that race 10 years ago; he will be back this year, with the same Triple Eight team of which he is now a co-owner. The man who snatched the win away from him, Chaz Mostert, will be there too, now in a Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang. Second on that day, way back when, was James Moffat, then in a Nissan but now a Tickford Ford co-driver. Third place a decade ago went to Walkinshaw driver Nick Percat, who will race this time around for Matt Stone Racing.
For all those changes, and even if 2023 race winner Shane van Gisbergen has moved on to NASCAR, the name of the game remains the same: beat Triple Eight and you will likely be in the hunt for a win.
That was exactly the case at Sandown last month when the team’s Chevrolet Camaros dominated the 500km race, Will Brown and new co-driver Scott Pye edging out Broc Feeney and Whincup for a 1-2 finish. To rub salt into the wounds of the opposition, T8’s wildcard entry, piloted by the now 50-year-old Craig Lowndes and rising star Cooper Murray, finished fifth.
Mistakes will be crucial. Some of the fancied runners – Mostert, both Erebus Motorsport and Dick Johnson Racing entries – took themselves out of contention for the win at Sandown with self-inflicted mistakes or mechanical dramas, while the previously unfancied PremiAir pair of James Golding/David Russell took third place. Youth is all well and good but, sometimes, there is no substitute for a safe pair of hands.
There will be other curveballs. This will be the second Bathurst 1000 for the Gen3 Chevrolets and Fords, introduced at the start of last season. But at Bathurst a year ago the cars raced on the softer of Dunlop’s control tyres, which led to a build-up of marbles from mid-race and a one-line race track. This time the cars will be on Dunlop’s sturdier control rubber, but there will be another variable – a new, softer wet tyre – so if it rains, the teams will be driving into the unknown.
Most teams will have to take into account new driving combinations; of the 26 cars entered only seven will feature the same pair of drivers as a year ago
Likewise, there is a new Virtual Safety Car regulation to deal with. Even though it has featured widely in other forms of the sport, the VSC for Supercars was introduced only at Sandown, and it took some of the teams time to adjust their race strategies; how will they cope on the longest track on the calendar?
And then most teams will have to take into account new driving combinations; of the 26 cars entered only seven will feature the same pair of drivers as a year ago. Those are just the known unknowns, rather than the unknown unknowns, which Mount Panorama always seems to throw up.
Perhaps we will give the last word to the co-driver who took third place in 2014. Asked if he had ever seen a race like that one, he replied: “I’ve never even heard of a race like that one!” That driver was Oliver Gavin who, in his long career, had seen just about everything there is to see in motor racing. Bathurst can be like that – roll on this weekend’s 2024 edition.
