2007 Bathurst 12 hour

[john14]

Thank you, MSN.

I love the that BMW 335i Twin Turbo, especially the great paint job featuring the BMW colours.

Tell them to deliver the car to my house.

[fpv_gtho]

IMO they should simplify the upper classes. The 335i's looked to be in a class of their own, and even though the Atkinson/Crocker/Herridge STi was ahead of the 2nd 335i, a few more liberties thrown its way wouldve spiced up the Class A action.

Going right from Class A to Class H seems rather ridiculous. As Henk4 rightfully pointed out, both the competing diesels shouldve been racing each other in the same class.

All that of course means you cant have simple rules for equality. You have to start giving smaller cars more to be able to compete with the bigger cars, and you're guranteed to upset one camp in the manner its performed.

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by fpv_gtho

All that of course means you cant have simple rules for equality. You have to start giving smaller cars more to be able to compete with the bigger cars, and you're guranteed to upset one camp in the manner its performed.

But don't clases sort this out? The small cars can't win overall, but they can win their class, which is a win nevertheless.

All in all this looks like great fun and I think it should be properly developed. I personally think that the nearest to the production spec the cars the more fun it will be.

Basically: less grip = more fun.

[fpv_gtho]

Well depending on how the classes are setup. Currently there's 8 classes. IMO, 4 would be enough. IIRC, the first couple of classes are setup so that existing cars competing in various production classes in Aus can just step in. That allows a higher number of entries due to the ease of entry, but if there was something like a 6000cc, 4000cc, 2000cc and diesel class, the cars would be grouped alot closer but need more modifications.

[motorsportnerd]

Well, certainly Class A and B should be merged - just have a single High Performance class.
There would be problems with having capacity limits for each class. The FIA rule regarding turbo equivilency is one problem. A Mits Evo 9 has a 2.0 litre turbocharged engine. Even after applying the turbo equivilency rule, it would still fit below the 4,000 cc limit. This means its competition for the class win would be Falcon XR6, Mitsbuishi 380, etc. Whereas in realty it is an outright contending car.
Another example would be the Focus XR5. This time we're looking at a 2.5 litre turbo engine - or 4250 cc after the turbo equivilency rule is applied, but in a much lower state of tune than the Evo. This means it would end up in the outright 6000 cc class, when in realty it should compete against Astra VXR, BMW 130i, etc.
The classes will have to be based on the outright potential of the car, not just its engine capacity.

[fpv_gtho]

Well for those particular cars, the XR5 (ST for the Europeans) and EVO, perhaps a drivetrain equivalency factor could be used. One being FWD, the other being AWD, perhaps something could be thought up whereby the smaller capacity EVO would then be above the larger capacity Focus.

Consider also a 350Z would be under the 4L limit, and perhaps also competing for overall honours. Given the production car roots of the event, the 6L class may be eliminated, and the 4L class changed to an open class etc, with the 2L class simply to protect lesser sports models.

[Ferrer]

Maybe a good solution would be to get all the standard production cars competing on a track with a driver, set some fast laps and then class the cars on that basis?

[fpv_gtho]

That would help, but i'd be concerned with the extra effort. They'll probably need to keep the formula the same for a while to get the numbers interested before starting to cause alot of fuss over entries.

[gouldo]

The 1st thing they need to do is get some name drivers & by that I mean get some of the supercar drivers involved. There is no way that it will get the attention of the public without a few more big names. People go to races to see good close racing & popular drivers racing hard.

What was dished up there over the weekend was very very lame. By Friday afternoon, 2000 tickets had been sold, and possibly countless more given away. In theory it is a great idea, but I am afraid that the motor racing fans want to see some exciting racing, & although this type of racing has the potential to deliver the goods, it doesnt. This weekend was more like a very poor 2nd grade club race meeting.

There is no doubt that some of the manufacturers would like to get more involved, and I am sure that a dozen v8 or turbo 6 falcons and a dozen v8 commodores with some of the supercar drivers would be a good start.

I suppose there are a few here that remember the Group E prodie racing from the 80's & 90's. That was great racing. The starion turbo, RX7, Volvo 240T, Nissaan 280Z, Alfa GTV6 & BMW 323i all put on some great racing. They were generally all pretty affordable. And they were all generally a chance at an outright win.

What else does the weekend need? Some advertising. Bugger all was seen on TV, radio, print media. The lead up to the event in Bathurst was pretty quiet, & there was very little excitement.

[motorsportnerd]

Well - there were several V8 Supercar drivers there.... Jason Richards, Jack Perkins, Shane Price and Nathan Pretty in the Astra and Paul Morris and Craig Baird in the BMW. Also, Leanne Tander, Neil Crompton, Chris Atkinson, Cody Crocker, Dean Herridge, Neal Bates and Rick Bates are all quite well known in Australian motorsport circles. Young up and coming V8 drivers such as Chris Pither and Chris Alajajian were there. And there was some guy who presents the weather on a Channel 7 breakfast show and occasionally driver a V8 Supercar with modest success. But I take your point, and agree with it - names such as Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, Jason Bright, Mark Winterbottom are also needed in the lineup.
There were rumours of a factory backed Ford Falcon F6 Typhoon with Steve Richards/Craig Lowndes/Russell Ingall amongst the rumoured driver lineup. It never happened, but that would've made a big difference on the "name driver" front.
Perhaps next year things will improve.

[motorsportnerd]

More photos from the weekend.
This time from the support races.

1. Glorious looking Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Bryce Washington which won the round of the Australian GT Championship held on the Saturday.
2. John Teulan's beached Ferrari 430 with the Aust GT field passing behind under safety car conditions.
3. The Historic Touring Cars were interesting as usual. Here we have a Ford Lotus Cortina Mk 1 followed by a Holden Torana XU1
4. More Historic Touring Cars - a Mustang with a Mazda RX2 tucked in behind it.
5. Yet more Historic Touring Cars - a Escort Mk 1 followed by a Holden EH, another Escort Mk 1 and a BMW 2002
6. Action from the Commodore Cup race (a series for mid 80s Commodore VH and mid 90s Commodore VS cars fitted with 4.2 litre V8 engines).

[clutch-monkey]

MSN is that the same f430 that crashed at the A1 GP? hahaha

[motorsportnerd]

My memory serves me poorly regarding the GT races at the A1GP - but I believe that was the same 430 that crashed there.

[Zytek_Fan]

There should be an endurance race at Bathurst for GT cars

[2ndclasscitizen]

Been there, done that (24hr race) didn't work (Holden abused the rules)