2011 Bathurst 12 Hour
The mountain is alive once again, with the early February date for the Bathurst 12 Hour seeming to fit like a glove (weather permitting) as it entrenches itself as the first major motorsport event for Australia.
The 2011 event has caused some controversy, with regulations changed to allow the GT category to race, resulting in reduced competitor numbers for the Production Cars, the backbone and mainstay for the past few years.
Audi has made a major investment in this year’s race, with two R8 cars and a combination of Australia and international drivers.
Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy will helm the green and gold R8 entry and will go up against the might of the Donut King Racing Nissan GT-R, the Ferrari of Il Bello Rosso with John Bowe, a brace of Porsche GT Cup cars with a smattering of the formerly overwhelming all wheel drives from Subaru and Mitsubishi.
Having said that, the Improved Production category, one of the support categories, has over fifty cars nominated for entry while the now semi-historic racing category in Australia, the Groups A and C, have around 20, covering cars such as the Holden Torana, Ford Capri and Jaguar’s lithe XJ-S. The training ground for so many, the Formula Vee group, is well represented once again while Australia’s own living dinosaur, the venerable HQ Holden, is here in numbers.
Fingers are crossed that the treacherous weather of 2010 doesn’t return, with the now infamous “tree incident” well and truly etched into the memory of all that were there.
With the possibility of rain, from the remnants of Cyclone Vasi making their way south, the old phrase “anything can happen”, more apt than ever.
