The 2023 Bathurst 1000 (known as the 2023 Repco Bathurst 1000 for commercial reasons) was a motor racing event for Supercars held on the week of 5 to 8 October 2023. It hosted the tenth round of the 2023 Supercars Championship and took place at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, featuring a single race of 1000 kilometres.
| Event Information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 10 of 12 in the 2023 Supercars Championship | ||||||||||||||
 Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit | ||||||||||||||
| Date | October 5–8 2023 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Bathurst, New South Wales | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Mount Panorama Circuit | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
New Zealanders Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway claimed victory for Triple Eight Race Engineering, the teams' tenth Bathurst 1000 win. It was Van Gisbergen's third victory in four years, and the first win for Stanaway. The duo were only the second all-Kiwi crew to win the race after Greg Murphy and Steven Richards in 1999, and their 19.9-second margin of victory was the largest since the same race. The race was also won by a Chevrolet for the first time, with sixth-generation Camaros finishing first and second against a backdrop of participant and public discontent related to technical parity between the Camaros and rival Ford Mustangs.[1][2]
Report
editBackground
edit- Event history
The event was the 66th 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 63rd time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 27th 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. The event also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first running of the Armstrong 500 at Mount Panorama, with promotional material reflecting this milestone.[3][4]
Chevrolet returned to the event for the first time since 1984, while also marking the first time in the event's history that Holden did not take part.
Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander entered the event as defending race winners, but did not compete together. Van Gisbergen remained with Triple Eight Race Engineering, while Tander moved to Grove Racing.[5]
- Parity concerns
This was the first Bathurst 1000 held under Supercars Championships' "Gen3" regulations, which were centred around American pony cars (namely the sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro and the S650-model Ford Mustang) following the demise of Holden.[6] Throughout the 2023 season, Ford Performance and Ford teams expressed concerns over a lack of technical parity between the two models – exacerbated by Mustangs winning only two of the preceding 23 races (one of which through the disqualification of two Camaros).[7]
Supercars opened an inquest into parity following the Darwin round, resulting in a revised rear aero package for the Mustang ahead of the Townsville 500.[8][9] Prior to the Bathurst 1000, Ford and its teams pushed for further alterations to the Mustang's aero package. A meeting between Supercars officials and teams was mooted, and later cancelled in favour of intra-manufacturer meetings.[10] As a result of pushback from Chevrolet teams and a pre-determined parity "trigger" having not been met, Ford's proposals were rejected by Supercars.[11]
Entry list
editTwenty-eight cars entered the event - 15 Chevrolet Camaros and 13 Ford Mustangs. In addition to the twenty-five regular-season entries, three "wildcard" entrants joined the field – one from Blanchard Racing Team, one from Dick Johnson Racing, and one from Triple Eight Race Engineering.[12][13][14]
Three drivers made their Bathurst 1000 debut; FIA World Endurance Championship driver Kévin Estre, and Super2 Series drivers Kai Allen and Aaron Love. Estre and the returning Simona de Silvestro were the first drivers from outside of Australia and New Zealand to participate in the event since De Silvestro, James Hinchcliffe, Alexandre Prémat and Alexander Rossi in 2019.[15][13]
Results
editPractice
edit| Session | Day | Fastest Lap | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Cond | Ref | ||
| Practice 1 | Thursday | 9 |  Will Brown
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.9653 | Fine | [16] |
| Practice 2 (Co-Driver) | 99 | David Russell
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.6826 | Fine | [17] | |
| Practice 3 | Friday | 19 |  Matthew Payne
|
Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.2855 | Cloudy | [18] |
| Practice 4 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.1215 | Overcast | [19] | |
| Practice 5 (Co-Driver) | Saturday | 97 | Richie Stanaway
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.0486 | Cloudy | [20] |
| Practice 6 | 88 | Broc Feeney
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.5872 | Cloudy | [21] | |
| Warm Up | Sunday | 99 | Brodie Kostecki
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.3584 | Fine | [22] |
Qualifying
editTop 10 Shootout
edit
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki
|
Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.2719 | |
| 2 | 88 | Broc Feeney
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.7549 | +0.4830 |
| 3 | 6 | Cam Waters
|
Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:04.7775 | +0.5056 |
| 4 | 31 | James Golding
|
PremiAir Racing | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.8155 | +0.5436 |
| 5 | 11 | Anton de Pasquale
|
Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:04.9156 | +0.6437 |
| 6 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen
|
Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.9971 | +0.7252 |
| 7 | 26 | David Reynolds
|
Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.1512 | +0.8793 |
| 8 | 19 | Matthew Payne
|
Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.2696 | +0.9977 |
| 9 | 25 | Chaz Mostert
|
Walkinshaw Andretti United | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.8309 | +1.5590 |
| 10 | 17 | Will Davison
|
Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:06.4174 | +2.1455 |
| Source:[24] | ||||||
Grid
editRace
edit
References
edit- ^ "Shane van Gisbergen wins Bathurst 1000 for third time at Mount Panorama". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 8 October 2023.
- ^ "Ford concedes Supercars parity defeat". Motorsport.com. 5 October 2023.
- ^ "How the 2023 Bathurst 1000 is the 60th anniversary race". V8 Sleuth. 4 October 2023.
- ^ "60 years of the Bathurst 1000". Royal Australian Mint. 27 September 2023.
- ^ Tander joins Grove Racing as co-driver Speedcafe.com 9 December 2022
- ^ "Triple Eight to race Camaro in 2022". Speedcafe. 15 October 2020.
- ^ "Triple Eight fails with Newcastle appeal". Touring Car Times. 22 March 2023.
- ^ "Supercars opens parity inquest after Ford's Darwin nightmare as 'serious' issue lingers". Fox Sports. 21 June 2023.
- ^ "SUPERCARS MAKE MUSTANG AERO TWEAKS FOR TOWNSVILLE". Auto Action. 4 July 2023.
- ^ "Supercars parity meeting cancelled". Speedcafe. 4 October 2023.
- ^ "Supercars furore erupts over 'unacceptable' parity move on Bathurst eve". Seven Network. 5 October 2023.
- ^ a b Goddard scores Triple Eight wildcard seat Supercars 24 January 2023
- ^ a b DJR confirms De Silvestro-Allen wildcard for Bathurst 1000 Speedcafe 25 July 2023
- ^ O'Brien, Connor (6 July 2023). "DJR, BRT approved for 2023 Supercars wildcards". Retrieved 10 July 2023.
- ^ Grove names Porsche WEC driver in Supercars enduro line-up Speedcafe 7 March 2023
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Practice 1". Speedcafe. 5 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Practice 2". Speedcafe. 5 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Practice 3". Speedcafe. 6 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Practice 4". Speedcafe. 6 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Practice 5". Speedcafe. 7 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Practice 6". Speedcafe. 7 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Warm Up". Speedcafe. 8 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Qualifying". Speedcafe. 6 October 2023.
- ^ "2023 Repco Supercars Championship - Top Ten - Race 24".
- ^ "Bathurst 1000 grid, 2023: Where every car will start the race". V8 Sleuth. 7 October 2023.
- ^ "Winterbottom's cruel last-lap DNF explained". V8 Sleuth. 9 October 2023.
- ^ "Results: Bathurst 1000 Race". Speedcafe. 8 October 2023.
| Supercars Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous race: 2023 Sandown 500 |
2023 Supercars Championship | Next race: 2023 Gold Coast 500 |
| Previous year: 2022 Bathurst 1000 |
Bathurst 1000 | Next year: 2024 Bathurst 1000 |