Bathurst Lap Record Could be Safe For Now

V8 Supercar fans expecting the Car of the Future to deliver a new lap record at Mount Panorama might have to wait until next October.

That was the warning from Ford superstar Mark Winterbottom yesterday after setting the second fastest time in the opening day of practice for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in his Pepsi Max Falcon more than two seconds slower than the current lap record.

Winterbottom, who was also 0.7sec slower than pacesetter Jamie Whincup in the Red Bull Racing Australia Holden Commodore VF, said the new-for-2014 COTF technical regulations were proving a challenge to adapt to the dauntingly fast 6.213km circuit, while the hot conditions and blustery wind also didn’t help.

But he also made the point the circuit was due for a resurface before next year’s 1000km classic, which would immediately reduce times due to the increased grip and smoothness fresh bitumen provides.

The outright V8 Supercars lap record at Mount Panorama was set by Craig Lowndes at 2min06.8012sec in 2010. The qualifying lap record, known as the 'Lap of the Gods'  was famously set by Greg Murphy in the 2003 Top 10 Shootout at 2min06.8594sec on a freshly resurfaced track.

The race lap record was set by Whincup at 2min08.4651 all the way back in 2007.

There had been predictions the outright lap record would be broken this year with the introduction of the new generaion V8 Supercars.

“The surface does deteriorate over the years and it is going to be resurfaced next year,” said Winterbottom. “We could be sitting here next year and saying how fast the Car of the Future is. We will go three seconds faster on a resurfaced track and do 2.05s and how quick is the Car of the Future in 12 months?

“But the track conditions and surface are all going to play a big part. The record will go 100 per cent next year when the surface is down and it will be a Car of the Future that sets that time.

“At the end of the day I don’t care if we did 2.20s and won the race, it wouldn’t matter to me one bit,” added Winterbottom, who is winless in the Great Race.

While outwardly similar to its Project Blueprint predecessor, the Car of the Future has fundamental technical changes including the swap from a live rear axle to an independent rear suspension, a transaxle and 18-inch tyres.

Teams have complained about a handling imbalance all year and that was emphasised in Thursday’s tough conditions where Alex Davison in the Jeld-Wen Falcon and Todd Kelly in the Jack Daniel’s Nissan Altima both got caught out by ill-handling cars, which lost rear-end grip without warning and slewed into the concrete wall at Reid Park.

“It stepped out and just slid into the fence and the front came around and hit the wall,” Kelly told v8supercars.co.au. “The thing was ridiculously ugly in that session through there with what we did to the car. That was the last lap before I was due to come in and throw a different set-up at it. It was out of control.

“Everything is so new. This place requires such a different set-up to everywhere else we go. We have never been here with an independent rear end and this type of car and we are just trying to get our head around it.

“It will be a long day on Sunday of we don’t improve it, but I think we can make it a lot nicer.”

Erebus Motorsport V8’s Tim Slade crashed his HHA Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG in the same session but said the incident was his fault.

Practice begins at 9.40am AEDT, with the day's first session limited to co-drivers only.