'Mistakes have consequences': Co-drivers on alert for Bathurst

Some of the most seasoned co-drivers on the Ryco Enduro Cup grid have issued an ominous warning ahead of the Repco Bathurst 1000 in a fortnight's time.

Several drivers had big offs at The Bend, however whilst they proved extremely detrimental to their race results, none were punished with major damage.

Experienced hands such as James Moffat and Jamie Whincup (who had two big moments) found trouble by themselves, as did young gun Cameron McLeod, who threw Cameron Hill's #4 Camaro off whilst running in a podium position.

Steering damage for the #8 R&J Batteries entry of Andre Heimgartner/Declan Fraser after a collision with MSR wildcard Cameron Crick dealt Heimgartner's Finals hopes a hammer blow, whilst Crick picked up damage himself two corners later when he fired off after contact with Craig Lowndes.

"There were mistakes made at The Bend, a few cars slipped off at Turns 8, 9, 10," explained Tander.

"But there's four paddocks out there before you hit anything, so you just trundle back onto the race track, it doesn't drag a Safety Car out.

“Those mistakes have consequences at Bathurst."

Fellow Ford veteran Mark Winterbottom added that the high-grip surface at The Bend saw cars limited in how they could utilise any potential pace advantage over cars there were racing.

“There wasn’t much you could do to hustle it [at The Bend],” Winterbottom said.

“If you have nervous entry, you brake here, you can’t brake deeper. If you have push, that’s where good cars were faster. Bathurst will be a good test… there were a lot of mistakes in that race, especially that fast right-hander, they kept spearing off.

“Some people ranked really well, but they made one bad mistake, and at Bathurst, it’s game over."

The 2025-spec Dunlop Soft tyre also played a quiet role in its first race test in an enduro, with Tander anticipating it could also punish mistakes severely at Mount Panorama.

"Marbles was a big thing, I haven't seen that yet this year with the tyre debris on the race track, it was big.

"When you get to the middle to the end of the last stint, sort of the last 20 laps, the tyre debris was way more than I've seen from this tyre at all, so when we get to Bathurst that's going to be a factor."

Will Davison is also curious as to how the new tyre will perform, believing its performance and characteristics will land somewhere in the middle of the past two seasons.

The Hard tyre used last year saw the highly experienced duo of Davison and David Reynolds both come unstuck in Friday qualifying. A day earlier, Scott Pye crashed Will Brown's Camaro at The Cutting in practice.

"I'm not sure about Bathurst, I think we can admit that last year the cars were incredibly on edge, incredibly challenging," said Davison.

"I had a nasty shunt in qualifying last year, but a lot of dirt had come onto the track, it was the last minute of qualifying, everyone is pushing for that last desperado attempt to get into the Shootout, and I just hit all the dirt down before the Dipper, and had a nasty shunt.

"The cars were very on edge. Two years ago we were on the Soft tyre, so we saw deg was quite extreme but the lap speed was quite high, you did have to manage the tyre a bit in the slow speed elements of the circuit.

"So I'm not sure on this tyre, I think it's going to be somewhere in between, I think the cars will be pretty exciting in qualifying trim, I think they're going to grip up pretty well.

"In race trim, I'm not 100% sure what we're going to be dealing with."