2018 Bathurst 1000 Explained

Flag:	New South Wales
2018 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
Round No:	13
Season No:	16
Year:	2018
Series:	SC
Track Map:	File:Mount Panorama street racing circuit in Australia.svg
Caption:	Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit
Date:	4–7 October
Location:	Bathurst, New South Wales
Circuit:	Mount Panorama Circuit
Weather:	Sunday: Overcast with brief light showers before clearing to fine late, 17°C.
Race1 Laps:	161
Race1 Dist:	1000
Pole1 Time:	2:04.0589
Winner1:
Winner1 Time:	6:01:44.8637

The 2018 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was a motor racing event for Supercars, held on the weekend of 4–7 October 2018. It was staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia and featured of a 1000 kilometre race. The event was the thirteenth of sixteen in the 2018 Supercars Championship and incorporated Race 25 of the series. It was also the second event of the 2018 Enduro Cup.^[1]

The race was won by Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards driving a Holden Commodore ZB for Triple Eight Race Engineering.^[2] ^[3]

Report

Background

The event was the 61st 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 58th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 22nd running of the Australian 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. It was the 20th time the race had been held as part of the Supercars Championship and the sixth time it formed part of the Enduro Cup. The defending winners of the race were David Reynolds and Luke Youlden.

Shane van Gisbergen entered the event as the championship leader, 55 points clear of DJR Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin. Van Gisbergen's Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mate Jamie Whincup was third in the points standings, 338 points from the lead. In the Teams' Championship, Triple Eight held a 656-point lead over DJR Team Penske.^[4] In the Enduro Cup standings, Triple Eight team-mates Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell led the pairing of Van Gisbergen and Earl Bamber by 24 points.^[5]

Entry list

Twenty-six cars were entered in the event. As in 2017, there were no additional "Wildcard" entries entered in the race. Four drivers would make their first start in the Bathurst 1000 - two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Earl Bamber, Super2 drivers Will Brown and Bryce Fullwood, and 'main-gamer' Anton de Pasquale. Teams Matt Stone Racing and 23Red Racing would also make their debuts in 'the Great Race', however the former contained many crew members from the former Stone Brothers Racing outfit and the latter was a continuation of Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport under new owners. It was the last start in the Bathurst 1000 for Paul Dumbrell and Jason Bright.

	Drivers	Team (Sponsor)	Car			Drivers	Team	Car
1					21
2					23
5					25
6					33
7					34
8					35
9					55
11					56
12					78

| |-! 14|
|
| ! 97|
|
| |-! 17|
|
| ! 99|
|
| |-! 18|
|
| ! 230|
|
| |-! 19|
|
| ! 888|
|
| |}

Results

Practice

Session! rowspan="2"
No.	Driver	Team
Day	Fastest lap
Practice 1	Thursday	230	Wet
Practice 2	Thursday	17	Wet
Practice 3	Thursday	56	Wet
Practice 4	Friday	9	Drying
Practice 5	Friday	23	Wet
Practice 6	Saturday	9	Dry
Warm-Up	Sunday	17	Dry
Sources:^[6] ^[7] ^[8] ^[9] ^[10] ^[11] ^[12]

Qualifying

		Time	Gap
1	1	2:04.1093
2	9	2:04.2647	+0.1555
3	17	2:04.2861	+0.1769
4	97	2:04.3818	+0.2725
5	25	2:04.4759	+0.3666
6	888	2:04.5702	+0.4609
7	6	2:04.5794	+0.4701
8	8	2:04.6380	+0.5288
9	99	2:04.6942	+0.5849
10	33	2:04.8567	+0.7474
11	55	2:04.9133	+0.8040	11
12	34	2:04.9719	+0.8627	12
13	7	2:05.0357	+0.9265	13
14	11	2:05.0644	+0.9552	14
15	12	2:05.1789	+1.0696	15
16	23	2:05.3195	+1.2102	16
17	56	2:05.4607	+1.3514	17
18	2	2:05.4655	+1.3562	18
19	5	2:05.5106	+1.4013	19
20	14	2:05.5656	+1.4563	20
21	18	2:05.7075	+1.5982	21
22	21	2:05.8433	+1.7340	22
23	35	2:06.0375	+1.9283	23
24	230	2:06.0429	+1.9336	24
25	19	2:06.1324	+2.0232	25
26	78	2:06.4374	+2.3281	26
Source:^[13]

Top 10 Shootout

		Time	Gap
1	9	2:04.0589		1
2	1	2:04.0683	+0.0094	2
3	99	2:04.3498	+0.2909	3
4	97	2:04.5385	+0.4796	4
5	17	2:04.5494	+0.4905	5
6	6	2:04.7517	+0.6928	6
7	8	2:04.7673	+0.7084	7
8	25	2:05.0034	+0.9445	8
9	888	2:05.0835	+1.0246	9
10	33	2:05.1717	+1.1128	10
Source:^[14]

Race

		Laps	Time/Retired		Points
1	888	161	6:01:44.8637	9	300
2	2	161	+6.292	18	276
3	17	161	+9.408	5	258
4	55	161	+10.253	11	240
5	97	161	+27.421	4	222
6	33	161	+30.010	10	204
7	8	161	+36.542	7	192
8	34	161	+37.233	12	180
9	12	161	+47.112	15	168
10	1	161	+56.433	2	156
11	11	161	+1:19.074	14	144
12	5	161	+1:35.009	19	138
13	9	161	+1:39.105	1	132
14	78	161	+1:47.776	26	126
15	19	161	+1:52.397	25	120
16	7	161	+1:54.823	13	114
17	14	160	+1 lap	20	108
18	21	159	+2 laps	22	102
19	230	159	+2 laps	24	96
20	35	159	+2 laps	23	90
21	18	157	+4 laps	21	84
22	56	152	+9 laps	17	78
23	6	148	+13 laps	6	72
24	99	143	+18 laps	3	66
NC	23	69	Accident	16
NC	25	33	Mechanical	8
Source:^[15]

Championship standings after Race 25

Drivers' Championship standings

	Driver		Gap
1	Shane van Gisbergen	3276
2	Scott McLaughlin	3257	-19
3	Jamie Whincup	2872	-404
4	Craig Lowndes	2787	-489
5		2567	-709

Teams Championship

		Team		Gap
	1	Triple Eight Race Engineering (1, 97)	6117
	2	DJR Team Penske	5539	-578
	3	Tickford Racing (5, 55)	4066	-2051
1	4	Brad Jones Racing	3921	-2196
1	5	Erebus Motorsport	3886	-2262

Enduro Cup

			Gap
2	1	558
	2	498	-60
1	3	498	-60
2	4	480	-78
4	5	456	-102

Note: Only the top five positions are included for three sets of standings.

Notes and References

News: Supercars reveals 16 event 2018 calendar. speedcafe.com. 4 October 2017. 1 July 2018.
Web site: 2018 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Results, www.supercars.com, as archived at web.archive.org . 12 March 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190312044753/https://www.supercars.com/sessions/2018-supercheap-auto-bathurst-1000/virgin-australia-supercars-championship-race-25/ . 12 March 2019 . live . dmy-all .
https://web.archive.org/web/20181209215909/http://racing.natsoft.com.au/639127369/object_269339.81o/View?41 2018 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, racing.natsoft.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org
Web site: 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Points. Supercars.com. 2 October 2018.
Web site: Race 24: RABBLE.club Sandown 500 Results. Supercars.com. 2 October 2018.
News: Practice 1. 4 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Practice 2. 4 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Practice 3. 4 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Practice 4. 5 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Practice 5. 5 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Practice 6. 6 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Warm-Up. 7 October 2018. Supercars.com.
News: Qualifying. Supercars.com. 5 October 2018.
News: Top 10 Shootout. Supercars.com. 6 October 2018.
News: Race 25. Supercars.com. 7 October 2018.