After a full season of preparation, the Great Race is finally here!
A lot of people will be surprised to learn this, but our entire year is actually built around the Bathurst 1000 – not only because of the importance of the race, but also because it is the longest race on our calendar.
We design and build these cars to cover 1000km, striving for the ideal balance of performance and durability. As Colin Chapman, the renowned Lotus mastermind in Formula One, once said, “The perfect car should win the race and then fall apart as it crosses the finish line.” This highlights the philosophy that a car should be both strong enough to complete its task and light enough to maximise its efficiency.
So, we spend our year building and designing the car to do that 1000km, and at the same time, there is the planning for the componentry that is going to go into the car that must be considered. By necessity, that planning starts at the beginning of the year as you need to make sure all your mileages, your service planning, your intervals and everything else lines up so you can have the optimum level of equipment and personnel possible at your disposal going into Bathurst.
There is also the fact to consider that we nearly do two Bathursts – when you take into account the testing mileage we almost do 1000km before we even get to the race start, so that has to be factored into everything you are doing as well.
It really is a gigantic process just to get to this week, and getting here is just part of the battle! Once you are here and in it, then you have the usual complications of a race meeting with a lot of drivers and the balancing act of the massive potential risks and rewards.
There’s also the fact that because it is such an important race, everyone will go to any extent necessary to make sure their car is at the start line – that can mean late nights and long days across the event just to make sure you get to the start, so if you have a nice and cruisy lead-up with no problems, you can come into Sunday well rested, but on the flipside, that can be a real challenge. Of course this is something that is true of all events; you always want your people to be as sharp and rested as they can be come race day, but it is of course crucially important for the Great Race.
And of course, once you actually get here on-site there is the whole performance part of it all – you need to have fast cars, fast drivers, a fast pit stop crew, and you need to get everything right on the day.
Last year we had fast cars and drivers but we probably didn’t have the actual race pace on the day. I can tell you that a lot of work has gone in this year in preparation to ensure we are in a better position; both Jimmy and Tim have put in massive efforts; and we have really good co-drivers in David Russell and Cameron McLeod as well.
David is obviously an enduro specialist, and while Camy is still an emerging talent, he is vastly experienced at Bathurst for his years – in fact, he has probably done more miles at Bathurst this year than Tim with the enduros he has competed in across 2024, so I expect that pairing to be much stronger at Mount Panorama than it perhaps appeared at Sandown.
Of course, no matter how prepared you are, you can only prepare for so much. From the flying tyre I had to pull out of Lowndes’ windscreen in 2005 to the long list of incredible incidents we have all seen across our time on The Mountain, we all know anything can happen here.
As a team we are ready to bring the tools and fast cars, the drivers will do their parts, and then it is really in the hands of the gods. What we do know for sure, is that whatever happens, it is set to have us on the edge of our seats.
And if all that wasn’t enough, we are also very excited to see our team boss Peter Xiberras on-track in the V8 Sleuth Revival bracket. His restored Group A ex-Graeme Crosby, Bob Jane T-Marts VK Commodore is seriously cool and we can’t wait to see him taking to this legendary race track.
Before I sign off, I also wanted to encourage you to support the efforts of Dunlop Tyres to once again go pink for October to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research.
Dunlop Tyres will be donating $50 per pitstop made by each Supercar during the Bathurst 1000 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) and you can also donate to the cause – for all the details, go to https://fundraise.nbcf.org.au/fundraisers/dunloptyres
See you on the Mountain!
Stephen Robertson
PremiAir Nulon Racing Team Manager
The 2024 Bathurst 1000 will be held across October 10-13. For event information, visit www.supercars.com
PremiAir Nulon Racing will carry live race coverage and team updates on its website across the weekend – stay up to date at www.premiairracing.com/track-updates/
For more information on PremiAir Nulon Racing, please visit www.premiairracing.com or follow the team on its social media platforms at www.facebook.com/PremiAirRacing/, www.instagram.com/premiair_racing/, www.linkedin.com/company/premiairracing/ and www.twitter.com/premiairracing
