Bathurst 1000 Ready to Rage
Posted on October 6, 2022 Tags: Bathurst 1000
Perth’s GT Tops Time in P2
Wild Weather Forecast for Sunday
Images courtesy Supercars Australia
MOUNT PANORAMA: The 2023 Mustang GT Gen3 Supercar has come out on the Bathurst 1000 stage, with its pitlane debut Thursday ahead of action for Australia’s Great Race Sunday, with heavy weather set to lash the spectacle.
Three-time Bathurst 1000 champion Dick Johnson demoed the white-liveried beast in full racing trim, sporting his legendary #17 in fine style and showing he’s still got what it takes!
A 28-car field will contest the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000, the sole endurance race of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship, featuring 19 Holden Commodores and nine Ford Mustangs tackling Mount Panorama, possibly the country’s best-known mountain.
BATHURST, NSW
Two-time Bathurst winner Will Davison gapped the field in opening practice at the Repco Bathurst 1000, completing the entire session behind the wheel of his #17 Ford.
Davison clocked a 2:04.369s in the closing minutes of the hour-long hit-out. The 40-year-old is sharing his Shell V-Power entry with older brother Alex.
James Golding – who only rejoined Supercars in July – was a standout second aboard his #31 Subway PremiAir Holden, just 0.01s down on Davison’s flyer.
Thursday’s 60-minute Bathurst1000 session was held in dry yet greasy conditions, which was a far cry from Wednesday’s weather.
Andre Heimgartner completed the top three, with the Brad Jones Racing recruit 0.28s behind Davison.
Follow the links below for results:
Practice 1 (All Drivers) – Supercars
Practice 2 (Additional Drivers Only) – Supercars
Perth’s Bathurst 1000 Champ Garth Tander #97 Tops P2
| Garth Tander › #97 Red Bull Ampol Racing – Holden Commodore ZB | 02:04.1359 | 4 | 16 |
Every session of the Repco Bathurst 1000 is broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 503) and streamed on Kayo, with free-to-air coverage on the Seven Network.
The seventh-generation Mustang – on show during the Bathurst 1000 this weekend – will race the Chevrolet Camaro when the Supercars Gen3 era begins next March 11, on the streets of Newcastle with 11 Fords on the 2023 grid, up from nine this season.
Like the Camaro, the Gen3 Mustang Supercar closely resembles its road-going counterpart, and the new Ford model – powered by a production-based Coyote V8 engine – hits Australian roads late 2023.
Mustang has been an iconic brand on and off the track for 58 years and its legend will continue racing in GT3, GT4, NASCAR and NHRA competition globally, according to Ford Performance Motorsports Global Director Mark Rushbrook.
Suzuka – Always a Driver Favourite
“The only circuit that features a figure of eight, where demands on tyres are equally balanced.
“Ask the drivers which are their favourite circuits and Suzuka will always be high on the list: it contains demanding corners like nowhere else, such as 130R and Spoon, as well as a truly special atmosphere and history with incredible fans.
“There’s a roughly equal number of left and right corners in the unique figure of eight layout, which means that the circuit demands are evenly balanced.
“The sustained energy loads through the tyres are some of the highest we register all year, and the track layout means that we bring the three hardest compounds in our range because of the high levels of tyre duty.
“With the latest generation of cars being heavier than before and the limits of performance constantly being pushed, that challenge is bigger than ever now.
“An innovation for this year is the fact that we will be testing some 2023 prototype tyres during an extended free practice session on Friday afternoon, as we finalise the specification for next year with the end of this season approaching.”
The trio of hardest compounds return in Japan: C1 as the P Zero White hard, C2 Yellow medium, and C3 Red soft. And, according to Mario Isola, it’ll be the final outing this year for the hardest C1 compound.
The second free practice session in Japan has been extended to 90 minutes to allow 2023 prototype slick tyre testing (with the same arrangement in place for the United States Grand Prix).
The Suzuka and Austin tests are there to fine-tune the compounds for 2023, with the entire FP2 session devoted to tyre testing.
If a team uses a young driver for FP1, it is allowed to run its own programme for the first 30 minutes of FP2, before concentrating on the tyre test for the remainder of the session.
The prototype tyres can easily be recognised as they won’t carry coloured markings on the sidewalls.
Suzuka, Japan
Like Singapore, the Japanese Grand Prix was last held in 2019. The challenge is made even greater with the teams having to approach the circuit, weather conditions, and set-up in a completely new way with the latest generation of cars and tyres.
Suzuka is all about lateral forces rather than traction and braking, but the loads are quite evenly balanced between the left- and right-hand sides of the car.
The cars and tyres are subjected to some of the longest sustained g force loadings seen throughout the year.
Turn 130R, for example, is a long radius corner (of 130 degrees) but it’s taken flat-out, as if it were a straight.
DANIELS’S DEN
Europe is abuzz with rumours Daniel Ricciardo is in advanced talks with Mercedes and hopes to cement his next position for the 2023 F1 season as reserve driver with the Silver Arrows.
According to Canal+ via Crash.net, the axed Aussie’s camp is now in ‘advanced talks’ with the Silver Arrows about taking on that reserve driver role behind Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
It could position the 33-year-old to take over from Hamilton when he calls time. The British superstar’s contract ends at the end of next season but he this week claimed he had “another five years left in me”.
The increased speculation comes after Ricciardo recorded a season-best fifth-place finish, powering through the field from 16th to finish just one spot behind his mate Lando Norris
Later that evening the rumour mill went into overtime when the axed Aussie was spotted making a surprise appearance in a Mercedes hospitality tent in Singapore.
Asked earlier about the prospect of taking a reserve role, Daniel said: “It’s certainly something that’s realistic, yeah. That’s the two realistic options. It’s not to be anywhere else. I love other disciplines of motorsport but I don’t see myself there.
“I feel as well if I jump into something like that, it closes the door on F1. It kind of feels like I’ve checked out, and I haven’t. So, I’m solely focused on F1.
“Let’s say my head space is in the same space, I’m still keen to be part of F1 and, of course, plan A would be to be on the grid, so nothing’s changed but I don’t want to just jump at the first kind of seat available.
“I know the landscape probably changes as well at the end of next year, with contracts and whatever, so I don’t want to say I’m remaining patient, but remaining open.”
If the two options open to the Perth superstar were sitting on the sidelines during ’23 or lining up as a reserve with Mercedes, my bet is Daniel would opt for the Silver Arrows every time!
Visser Wins from Powell and Garcia
BEITSKE VISSER took her first victory of the 2022 W Series season in a dramatic seventh race of the year in Singapore, where championship leader Jamie Chadwick retired for the first time from the popular women’s series.
The second win of the Dutch racer’s W Series career – and her first since the second race of the inaugural season in May 2019 – came after she took the lead at the opening corner, before holding off a strong challenge from Alice Powell. Pole-sitter Marta Garcia completed the podium at Marina Bay.
Beitske’s victory saw her take second place outright in the championship standings, seven points clear of Alice in third, and 50 behind leader Jamie with three races remaining and a maximum 75 points to be won.
Reigning double champion Jamie had the chance to seal her third straight title at W Series’ first-ever race in Asia but, having qualified in eighth, she crashed out of the race in the closing stages when running in sixth place.
The 2022 W Series season continues at the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, USA, on 22-23 October in support of the Formula 1® Aramco United States Grand Prix 2022.
Barcelona
The 2022 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup came to an end in Spain for Perth’s Jordan Love and teammates Jannes Fittje and Alain Valente in the #4 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3. During their campaign the team showed great pace, just missing out on a class podium at Paul Ricard and battling for podium places at Spa 24 Hour before an electrical fault ending in a DNF. They finished the season P10 in the Silver Cup class.
“GT World Challenge Endurance is done and dusted.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to finish the year; we simply just didn’t have the speed.
‘I want to thank everyone at Haupt Racing Team for all their efforts this season and driving with my teammates Jannes Fittje and Alain Valente was a pleasure.
“We showed great speed at times but unfortunately don’t have the results to show. Let’s build and on to the next.”
Jordan Love
The final round of this year’s GT World Challenge in Barcelona saw Alessio Picariello, Klaus Bachler and Matteo Cairoli winning the race for Dinamic Porsche.
Bathurst 1000, Mount Panoroma
Meanwhile Jordan’s younger brother Aaron Love drove the quickest lap in one-make Porsche history around Mount Panorama and pole position for the seventh round of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship.
In what turned out to be a dramatic 10-minute dash for pole, Love flew to the top spot with a 2m05.3525s lap late on Thursday – and he could have gone quicker had it not been for late traffic on his final flyer.
He secured his fourth career TAG Heuer Pole Position award and continued his remarkable charge from nowhere into title contention with two rounds and six races remaining.
The Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia field will race for the 399th time Friday, ahead of their milestone 400th race on Saturday.
The races are on Fox Sports, Kayo Sports and Channel 7 around Australia.
Pretty difficult session but I’m really happy with it. It was the first time in this car, at this track, but it was the same for everybody.
“It was a case of learning the track and seeing what this car can do, but then it started raining a little bit and just threw another curve ball at us.
“But just really happy we can come away with pole, but also learn a lot about the car in the process and have no scratches on it, so I’m pretty stoked.”
Aaron Love – Carreracup.com.au/results/
New Zealand
Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera won Rally New Zealand last weekend, using Pirelli Scorpion gravel tyres. At just 22, Rovanpera has become the youngest champion in WRC history, beating the previous record set by Colin McRae – also on Pirelli tyres – in 1995, who won the title aged 27.
Indianapolis
The penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge – exclusively equipped by Pirelli – takes place at Indianapolis this weekend, with Mercedes driver Jules Gounon currently leading the standings.
EDITED by AC
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