EVENT 11, SUPERCHEAP AUTO BATHURST 1000, MOUNT PANORAMA RACE 21 OF THE 2012 V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP Point of Interest: This year is the 50th year of the Bathurst endurance race at Mount Panorama. First held in 1963 after the event had originally been held at Phillip Island, the race has since become world-famous. It’s important to note that this year is not the 50th anniversary or 50th running of the race. The 50th anniversary is next year and the 50th running actually occured in 2010 given there were two races held in 1997 and 1998. V8 Supercars have elected to celebrate this year’s event as the 50th year that drivers, teams and fans have gathered at the famous circuit for the race that captures Australia’s imagination. Circuit Length: 6.213-kilometres Circuit Direction: Anti-Clockwise 2011 Crowd: 179,939 (4 days) Circuit Description: Originally constructed in 1938 as a scenic tourist drive, Mount Panorama has hosted all types of motorsport including the world famous Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, the annual 12 Hour GT race, 24 Hour endurance races and the Easter motorcycle meetings. The circuit is public road on non-race weekends and has also hosted the Australian Grand Prix in the past. 10 FAST FACTS 1. Beat TeamVodafone and the Holden Racing Team and chances are you will win this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The two Holden squads have dominated the Bathurst race since 2001, claiming nine of the last 11 wins in the October classic. In that time the Holden Racing Team has claimed five wins, Triple Eight have claimed four and Kmart Racing (part of the HRT/HMS family in the mid 2000s) won twice. Not counting the Kmart team (which was related to HRT at the time of its wins by sharing a common equipment supplier in Holden Motor Sport), the last Bathurst win to be claimed outside of Triple Eight and Walkinshaw Racing/HRT/HMS was 2000 by Garry Rogers Motorsport with Garth Tander and Jason Bargwanna behind the wheel of the #34 Valvoline Commodore. Since 2005, HRT and Triple Eight have claimed more than 50 percent of the podium finishing positions at Bathurst (11 of 21) and between them they have led 43% of laps (762 of the 1771 laps competed). Reigning Peter Brock Trophy winners Garth Tander and Nick Percat are the only combination in this year’s race featuring a pair of Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 winners. 2. There are a range of special elements of Bathurst history being celebrated at the 2012 race. Various V8 Supercar teams will modify their existing liveries to pay homeage to some of the iconic drivers, teams and cars that have made up the race’s history. While the 50th year of the race is being celebrated, there are a range of other milestones to highlight. * This year is the 35th anniversary of the famous Ford 1-2 form finish byAllan Moffat and Colin Bond in the 1977 race, above. * This year is also the 45th anniversary of the first V8-powered car winning the Bathurst endurance race - and also of the first Falcon win - given it was in 1967 that Harry Firth and Fred Gibson won the-then 500-mile race in an XR GT Falcon V8. * This year is the 25th anniversary of Peter Brock’s ninth and final win in the race in 1987 as well as the introduction of the Chase to the circuit, which extended the lap length and reduced the race distance from 163 to 161 laps. 3. This year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is the end of an era with the current five-litre V8 Supercar regulations. With new ‘Car of the Future’ specification machinery to debut next season, 2012 is the 21st and final year of the current rulebook of winged, pushrod five-litre V8 Falcons and Commodores racing at Bathurst. They have been competing in the Mountain classic each year since four 1993-spec cars appeared in their own class in the 1992 race. The five-litre ‘V8 Supercar’ rule book remains the longest-serving technical regulations in Bathurst history, even outlasting the popular Group C of the 1970s/1980s and international Group A of the 1980s/1990s. This year is the last (for the foreseeable future anyway) in a streak of 18 years that the annual Bathurst V8 Supercar classic has been the exclusive domain of Holden and Ford V8-powered cars. Next year, both Nissan and Mercedes AMGs will be on the grid to to compete against them. 4. In all, 13 of the 29 co-drivers in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 will be performing ‘double duty’ and competing in one of the support categories over the course of the race weekend. The drivers who will be busy jumping backwards and forwards between cars over this year’s Bathurst weekend are: Dunlop Series (7) Scott McLaughlin, Nick Percat, Dale Wood, Tim Blanchard, Andrew Jones, Luke Youlden, Scott Pye Porsche Carrera Cup (5) Craig Baird, Steve Richards, Daniel Gaunt, Alex Davison, Jonny Reid V8 Utes (1) Cameron McConville 5. Tradingpost FPR’s Will Davison and IRWIN Racing’s Lee Holdsworth will both rack up a special milestone at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 when the two Ford drivers each make their 100th V8 Supercars Championship event start. They become just the 34th and 35th drivers to have reached the 100 event milestone in the 50-plus year history of the Australian Touring Car Championship/V8 Supercars Championship. Both made their championship debuts in 2004 - Davison at Winton and Holdsworth at Sandown - and both also made their first appearance in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in the same year. 6. There are five drivers in this year’s field making their Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 debut. From left to right they are: Scott McLaughlin (#19 Tekno Autosports), Christian Klien (#66 Supercheap Auto Racing), Alexandre Premat (#33 Fujitsu Racing/GRM), Scott Pye (#30 Team iSelect) and Jesse Dixon (#23 Shannons carsales.com.au Racing) Klien is the first Austrian driver to compete in the race since the late Roland Ratzenberger and Mercedes Stermitz drove factory BMWs in 1987, while Premat is the first French driver sinceYvan Muller co-drove with Craig Lowndes in 2005. On the flip side, there are a range of drivers missing from the grid for the first time in many years. Now V8 Supercars Commission Chairman, Mark Skaife will miss his first Bathurst in 25 years while 2000 winner Jason Bargwanna is absent from the entry list for the first time in 16 years. 7. Paul Morris and Steve Owen will be the most experienced combination in this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The duo have 32 starts in the race between them with Morris to make his first-ever Bathurst start in a Ford this year. The next most experienced combination in the race are Dick Smith Sandown 500 winners Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff with 30 starts between them. They are followed by Greg Murphy/Owen Kelly (29 starts), Mark Winterbottom/Steve Richards (28 starts), Steven Johnson/Allan Simonsen (26 starts), James Courtney/Cameron McConville (26 starts), Lee Holdsworth/Craig Baird (25 starts), Jason Bright/Andrew Jones (25 starts) and Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell (23 starts). 8. Cameron Waters made history last year as the youngest- ever driver in Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 history and this year he and his co-driver will make some more. Waters (who is subbing for the injured Grant Denyer) and his partner - Shannons Supercar Showdown winner Jesse Dixon - will become the youngest-ever combination in the history of the race. 18-year-old Waters, 20-year-old Dixon (right) and their combined age of 38 will undercut the previous record of 39 held by Jack Perkins and Shane Price from 2006. The Waters/Dixon car is the only wildcard entry in this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. 9. The search for the perfect Bathurst combination is an ongoing process for V8 Supercar teams with just six combinations from 2011 remaining intact for the 2012 race. Defending Peter Brock Trophy winners Garth Tander and Nick Percat are joined by Tony D’Alberto/Dale Wood, Mark Winterbottom/Steve Richards (left), Jason Bright/Andrew Jones, James Courtney/Cameron McConville and Steve Owen/Paul Morris as the only partnerships to stay together this year. Interestingly, 45% of co-drivers in this year’s race (11 of 29) have more Bathurst 1000 starts than their car’s full-time ‘primary’ driver. Three of the top five drivers in the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship pointscore - Jamie Whincup, Mark Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen - have co-drivers with more Bathurst starts than they do. 10. The fifth round of the Dunlop Series will be the primary support category at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 with young gun Scott McLaughlin leading the way. McLaughlin, who will make his debut in the main race at Bathurst alongside Jonathon Webb, holds an 88-point lead over Ford Performance Racing’s Chaz Mostert heading into the Bathurst round. Mostert will not be driving in the main race at Bathurst, though six of the top eight drivers in the series points will be ‘doubling up’ as co- drivers in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. This year is the eighth time a points-paying round of the Dunlop Series has been a support event at Bathurst. From 2001 to 2004 there was a non-championship race held on the Saturday afternoon. Dreamtime Racing’s David Russell (who will co-drive with Rick Kelly for Jack Daniel’s Racing in the main race), won the round in 2010 and finished second last year to Andrew Thompson - though will not compete at the Mountain after his team withdrew from the round last week.