2024 Bathurst 1000
| Event Information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 10 of 12 in the 2024 Supercars Championship | ||||||||||||||
 Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit | ||||||||||||||
| Date | 10–13 October 2024 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Bathurst, New South Wales | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Mount Panorama Circuit | |||||||||||||
| Weather | Fine | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
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The 2024 Bathurst 1000 (commercially titled the 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000) was a motor racing event for Supercars held on the week of 10 to 13 October 2024. It hosted the tenth round of the 2024 Supercars Championship and took place at Mount Panorama-Wahluu in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, featuring a single race of 1000 kilometres.
Brodie Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood claimed victory for Erebus Motorsport, the teams second win after 2017. Both drivers won the race for the first time, and for Hazelwood it was his first Supercars Championship/Australian Touring Car Championship race win.[1] The winning time of 5 hours and 58 minutes was the fastest in the history of the Bathurst 1000, aided by just one safety car period, and the first to be completed in less than six hours.[2]
Background
[edit]The event was the 67th running of the Bathurst 1000, which was first held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in 1960 as a 500-mile race for Australian-made standard production sedans, and marked the 64th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 28th running of the "Australia 1000" race, which was first held after the organisational split between the Australian Racing Drivers Club and V8 Supercars Australia that saw two "Bathurst 1000" races contested in both 1997 and 1998. Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway were the defending race winners, but did not compete together. Van Gisbergen moved to the United States to race in NASCAR, whilst Stanaway moved to Grove Racing on a full-time basis.[3][4]
Following a spate of engine failures for Ford teams during the preceding Sandown 500, Ford Performance and Motorsport Powertrains were allowed to fit a different crankshaft – derived from the Ford Mustang GT3 – to all of the Mustangs on reliability grounds.[5] Alterations were also made to the Full Course Yellow procedure. After a minimum lap requirement introduced for the Sandown 500 contributed to the race ending under time-certainty, as well as multiple incidents occurring caused by the speed-limit countdown, the minimum lap requirement was abolished and the FCY speed limit was planned to be raised from 80kph to 120kph – however, the speed limit change was never enforced.[6][7]
Entering the weekend, Will Brown of Triple Eight Race Engineering led the drivers' championship on 2280 points, 189 points ahead of Chaz Mostert in second and 222 points ahead of team-mate Broc Feeney in third; Triple Eight led the teams' championship on 4308 points, 805 points ahead of Tickford Racing in second and 812 points ahead of Walkinshaw Andretti United in third. A maximum of 300 points were available for drivers, 576 points available for teams.[8]
Entry list
[edit]Twenty-six cars entered the event - 16 sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaros and 10 seventh-generation Ford Mustangs. In addition to the twenty-four regular-season entries, two "wildcard" entrants joined the field – one from Triple Eight Race Engineering, and the other from Super2 team Matt Chahda Motorsport making their second appearance after 2022.[9]
Six drivers, which are main-gamer Ryan Wood and Super2 Series drivers Aaron Cameron, Cameron Crick (son of four-time Bathurst 1000 starter Rodney Crick), Cameron McLeod (grandson of 1987 race winner Peter McLeod), Cooper Murray and 2022 Super3 Series Champion Bradley Vaughan, made their debut in the Bathurst 1000.
Report
[edit]Thursday
[edit]Two practice sessions were held on Thursday to begin the weekend. Practice 1 was a largely uneventful affair, aside from Andre Heimgartner suffering a power steering failure, with Matthew Payne topping the opening session.[11] Scott Pye became the first major scalp in the co-driver only Practice 2, the Sandown 500 winner crashing at the Cutting. The session had been delayed due to an eastern brown snake entering the circuit at Forrest Elbow, but ultimately Pye's team-mate Jamie Whincup set the fastest time, two tenths shy of Payne's effort earlier in the day.[12]
Friday
[edit]Practice 3 on Friday morning was dominated by incidents for Matt Stone Racing. Bathurst debutant Cameron Crick crashed approaching Forrest Elbow, and Dylan O'Keeffe ended the session early having spun into the wall at Griffins Bend. Jaxon Evans also found the sand at Hell Corner, but continued undamaged; Broc Feeney continued the form of co-driver Whincup from the previous day, setting the fastest time despite a vibration.[13] Reigning champion Brodie Kostecki set the pace in the last practice session before qualifying as Cooper Murray made late contact at the Dipper.[14]
Provisional qualifying was dominated by major crashes for former race winners. David Reynolds spun in the Esses and crashed head-on into the wall, whilst Will Davison slid into the fence at the Dipper with seconds remaining in the session – Nick Percat stopping to check on the 2009 and 2016 winner in the aftermath of a 58G impact. Both drivers were unhurt, however Davison was winded. Kostecki and Aaron Love also came unstuck at the top of the hill, buckling wheels exiting the Grate. Payne continued his form from Practice 1, setting the fastest time just six-thousandths of a second faster than Cameron Waters – Andre Heimgartner earned his first Top 10 Shootout berth in his 11th Bathurst 1000.[15]
Saturday
[edit]Murray went fastest in Saturday-morning co-driver only practice in the Triple Eight wildcard entry, with Fabian Coulthard and Dale Wood caught out by a Full Course Yellow test.[16][17] Feeney set the pace in the last session before the Shootout with a 2:06.1274, as Aaron Love backed his Mustang into the wall at the Cutting - his third Supercars Championship crash at the same corner in 9 months having done the same twice at the season-opening Bathurst 500. Three other drivers also found the sand at Hell Corner in Practice 6; Evans as he did the day prior, along with Tony D'Alberto and Craig Lowndes.[18]
Brodie Kostecki claimed back-to-back Bathurst 1000 pole positions in the Top 10 Shootout, despite complaining of a tyre vibration. Provisional pole-sitter Payne only managed seventh having hit the wall exiting Forrest Elbow, whilst his Grove Racing team-mate Richie Stanaway went faster than his provisional time to gain five spots. Heimgartner locked up and went off at the first corner on his first Shootout attempt, rounding out the top 10.[19]
Sunday
[edit]The Sunday morning warm-up was brought to an early end after Payne had a high-speed off into the sand at the Chase; issues also beset Blanchard Racing Team, with the Courtney/Perkins car not turning a lap due to a broken transaxle. Will Brown went fastest in the final session prior to the race, setting a 2:06.6553.[20]
- Race
Kostecki led the field away at the start. Feeney and Richie Stanaway jumped Waters off the grid, before Feeney challenged Kostecki up Mountain Straight – the Triple 8 driver ultimately had to cede to Stanaway at Griffins Bend, but regained the position a few laps later after Stanaway misjudged a move for the lead. Stanaway's pace fell away as the opening stint went on, and Waters later passed the defending winner with bump-draft assistance from Brown. Waters fell back down the order before the first pit-stops, having locked up and gone down the escape road at Hell Corner.
Matt Chahda's wildcard entry had an eventful opening 30 laps – the Super2 driver, not used to the tyre package on the Gen3 cars, wore out his tyres and ran off the circuit twice before handing over to rookie co-driver Bradley Vaughan, who was then spun by Chaz Mostert at Forrest Elbow whilst being lapped. Vaughan returned to the garage minus the front bumper, and lost over ten laps repairing the damage. David Reynolds also had a torrid opening stint; the 2017 winner flat-spotted a front tyre, which caused balance issues that affected his car for the remainder of the race.
Ryan Wood's first Bathurst 1000 stint ended with a brush of the tyre wall at pit-entry, damaging the drivers' side door on his Mustang. Garth Tander took over Payne's Mustang, but the five-time winner locked his front wheels and ran down the escape road at Murrays Corner having attempted a pass on Lee Holdsworth. Jayden Ojeda and rookie Cooper Murray became the stars of the second stint, carving their way through the field of mainly co-drivers.
Will Davison received a 5-second pit-stop penalty for pushing Dale Wood off the circuit at the Chase whilst trying to pass him. Chahda also got himself into further strife in the third stint of the race; having received the bad sportsmanship flag for not respecting blue flags, he almost caused a crash by slowing dramatically on Conrod Straight to let James Moffat past. Holdsworth was then forced to lap Chahda around the outside of the kink in the Chase, and deliberately made side-to-side contact with Chahda as retribution. Nick Percat received a mechanical black flag for a loose passenger door, dropping out of the top fifteen.
Car #1 and Car #88 dominated the first three-quarters of the race; the pair were separated by up to 15 seconds out front, but led Car #87 by over double that. Throughout the penultimate stint, having taken over from co-driver Whincup, Feeney began to tear into Kostecki's margin whilst the Erebus driver managed lapped traffic – the Triple 8 driver had reduced the gap to 4 seconds when the first and only caution period of the race was called for Payne after 130 laps. The reigning Adelaide 500 winner reported an inability to downshift at the Cutting and hit the outside wall, resulting in the safety car being deployed.
The status quo remained in the final stint, with Kostecki ultimately pulling away from Feeney in the end having better managed his tyres – the 2023 series champions' lead was threatened by lapped traffic in the closing stages, but was aided by James Courtney refusing to yield for Feeney on the last lap. Cooper Murray's impressive run ended with a drive-through penalty for a safety car infringement, whilst Ryan Wood went off at Hell Corner and stalled trying to rejoin.[21]
Results
[edit]Practice
[edit]| Session | Day | Fastest Lap | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Cond | Ref | ||
| Practice 1 | Thursday | 19 |  Matthew Payne
|
Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:07.2941 | Fine | [11] |
| Practice 2 (Co-Driver) | 88 |  Jamie Whincup
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:07.4788 | Fine | [12] | |
| Practice 3 | Friday | 88 | Broc Feeney
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.7842 | Fine | [13] |
| Practice 4 | 1 | Brodie Kostecki
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.1820 | Fine | [14] | |
| Practice 5 (Co-Driver) | Saturday | 888 | Cooper Murray
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:07.0951 | Overcast | [22] |
| Practice 6 | 88 | Broc Feeney
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.1274 | Fine | [23] | |
| Warm Up | Sunday | 87 | Will Brown
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.6553 | Cloudy | [20] |
Qualifying
[edit]Provisional
[edit]Top 10 Shootout
[edit]| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Brodie Kostecki
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.5119 | |
| 2 | 6 | Cameron Waters
|
Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.6429 | +0.1310 |
| 3 | 88 | Broc Feeney
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.8618 | +0.3499 |
| 4 | 26 | Richie Stanaway
|
Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.9286 | +0.4167 |
| 5 | 87 | Will Brown
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.1625 | +0.6506 |
| 6 | 9 | Jack Le Brocq
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.1827 | +0.6708 |
| 7 | 19 | Matthew Payne
|
Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:06.2373 | +0.7254 |
| 8 | 11 | Anton de Pasquale
|
Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:06.2385 | +0.7266 |
| 9 | 25 | Chaz Mostert
|
Walkinshaw Andretti United | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:06.5411 | +1.0292 |
| 10 | 8 | Andre Heimgartner
|
Brad Jones Racing | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:15.1206 | +9.6087 |
| Source:[19] | ||||||
Grid
[edit]Race
[edit]
Standings
[edit]
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|
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for each set of standings.
References
[edit]- ^ "Kostecki/Hazelwood win fastest ever Bathurst 1000". V8 Sleuth. 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Bathurst 1000 race record broken". Speedcafe. 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Stanaway seals comeback with Penrite Racing". Supercars. 21 August 2023.
- ^ Pavey, James (16 August 2023). "Brown in, van Gisbergen out at Triple Eight". Supercars.
- ^ "2024 Repco Bathurst 1000 | Schedule | Supercars". www.supercars.com. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
- ^ "Supercars makes key changes to Safety Car rules". Speedcafe. 1 October 2024.
- ^ "Why Supercars U-turned on Full Course Yellow speed". Speedcafe. 12 October 2024.
- ^ "Standings 2024 Supercars / Teams". Supercars Championship. Retrieved 10 October 2024.
- ^ Pavey, James (12 April 2024). "Triple Eight hands Murray solo debut in Darwin". Supercars.com. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ "Confirmed line-ups: 2024 Supercars enduro drivers". Supercars. 31 July 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Payne leads Ford 1-2 in opening Bathurst practice". Speedcafe. 10 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Whincup on top, Pye crashes in Bathurst co-driver practice". V8 Sleuth. 10 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Feeney leads Practice 3 as both MSR cars crash out". V8 Sleuth. 11 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Kostecki puts rivals on notice in Bathurst, damage for Murray". Supercars Championship. 11 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Payne tops crash-hit Bathurst 1000 qualifying". Speedcafe. 11 October 2024.
- ^ "Wildcard blitzes Bathurst 1000 co-driver practice". V8 Sleuth. 12 October 2024.
- ^ "Supercars co-drivers delivered warning for FCY near-miss". Speedcafe. 12 October 2024.
- ^ "Feeney sets pace before Shootout, Love crashes". Supercars Championship. 12 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Kostecki roars to back-to-back Bathurst 1000 poles". V8 Sleuth. 12 October 2024.
- ^ a b "Bathurst 1000 warm-up abandoned after 'scary' Payne incident". Speedcafe. 13 October 2024.
- ^ "Supercars Bathurst 1000: Kostecki and Hazelwood dominate at Mount Panorama". Motorsport.com. 13 October 2024.
- ^ "2024 Repco Supercars Championship | Results | 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000 | P13 | Supercars". www.supercars.com. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
- ^ "Feeney tops red flag riddled final Bathurst 1000 practice". Speedcafe. 12 October 2024.
- ^ "2024 Bathurst 1000 starting grid". Speedcafe. 12 October 2024.
- ^ "2024 Repco Supercars Championship - Race 20". Supercars Championship. 13 October 2024.
External links
[edit]| Supercars Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous race: 2024 Sandown 500 |
2024 Supercars Championship | Next race: 2024 Gold Coast 500 |
| Previous year: 2023 Bathurst 1000 |
Bathurst 1000 | Next year: 2025 Bathurst 1000 |