V8 Utes Fast Facts: Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000

1. Race Three on Sunday will be the V8 Ute Racing Series' 300th Championship race. The V8 Race Utes celebrated 300 race starts at the Clipsal 500 last year, however that included New Zealand and other non-championship races. 

2. Four drivers are looking to make history this weekend. Reigning Champion Ryal Harris has the most race wins on six and is going for his third Bathurst podium in a row, while Nathan Pretty has the chance to become the first V8 Ute driver in history to win three consecutive rounds.

Only one of them can take one of the titles, and the two are also fighting for the Series title only separated on 11 points. Coming into this round last year, Harris was eight points behind Pretty. 

Kim “The Assassin” Jane will celebrate 250 race starts, inaugural driver Noel Edge will reach 150, and Warren Millet will celebrate his 50th round start.

3. David Sieders finally broke former NASCAR development driver and current Dunlop Series driver George Miedecke’s lap record last year in a time of 2min32.837 (the first driver to go under 2min33). 

Miedecke held his record in a time 2min34.46 since Race One in 2009.

Sieders missed the record in 2010 by four-tenths of a second and Harris in 2011 by only six one-hundredths of a second (2min34.4687 – Miedecke, 2min34.8781 – Sieders, 2min34.5358 – Harris). Harris actually was the first to break the record last year in Race One, but Sieders lowered it again by Race Three. 

In 2008, the lap record was broken in all three of the V8 Ute Races, Race One by Grant Johnson and Race Two and Race Three by Kim Jane. The improvement on the cars from 2006-2008 was evident. In Race One, 11 people broke the lap record including Grant Johnson, Layton Crambrook, Gary MacDonald, Gary Baxter, Clint Harvey, George Miedecke, Jack Elsegood, Kim Jane, Stephen Robinson, Charlie Kovacs and Andrew Fisher.

4. Mount Panorama has favoured Fords in the past with seven round wins compared to Holden’s two.

5. V8 Utes raced at Bathurst in their inaugural year in 2001. Grant Denyer set the fastest pole time in qualifying ahead of Damien White while Gary MacDonald set the fastest race lap with a time of 2min42.98.

6. 2012 was the first time two females competed in the Series, Hayley Swanson and Amber Anderson – who also drove the V8 Supercar Safety Car. 

7. This will be the tenth year that the V8 Utes have competed at Mount Panorama, with the previous events held in 2001-2003, 2006, 2008-2010 and 2012.  

8. Ten out of the 32 drivers competing have not raced a V8 Ute before at Bathurst, including Adam Marjoram, Jesse Dixon, Cam Wilson, Elliot Barbour, Matt Nolan, John Wood, Ben Dowley, Troy Wilson, Stephen White and Wayne Wakefield. 

Wakefield is the only driver to have been on Pole Position twice in the one weekend in the history of the Bathurst event. In 2003 he was on Pole in the Development Series and then started the Bathurst 1000 on Pole again thanks to teammate Marcos Ambrose. 

9. Four of the current V8 Ute drivers have competed in the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 race before including Nathan Pretty, Tony Longhurst, Andrew Fisher, David Sieders and Jesse Dixon, who won the drive last year after taking out the 2012 Shannons Supercar Showdown Reality TV Show. Dixon was a part of the youngest team to ever compete in the Great Race. He raced alongside Cameron Waters at the time and the two had a combined age of 38 – Dixon was 20 and Waters was 18.

10. Last year was the first time in V8 Ute history that more than 32 Utes started on the grid. There were 36 entries in last year’s event including 16 Ford FGs, one Ford BF, and 19 VE Holdens. The additional three Holden entries were from the New Zealand V8 Ute Series, for the chance to win the Bathurst Challenge Trophy, which was taken out by NZ driver Peter Ward. 

11. New additions to the V8 Ute field this round include former Perth AFL Star Troy Wilson, who will steer Grant Bromley’s Ford; and Gary MacDonald,who is returning to the fleld. MacDonald has a great track record at Bathurst with three race wins and one podium under his belt.

12. Three time Bathurst winner (including a Bathurst 12-Hour win), Tony “No Baloney” Longhurst will be back racing this round. Longhurst has raced two times before around Bathurst in a V8 Ute as the Auto One Wildcard.

13. The V8 Utes Series is back to running its original qualifying format at this round – 20-minute session, with the fastest driver of that session taking pole. 

Top five ENZED Drivers Championship Results: 

1. Ryal Harris, 612

2. Nathan Pretty, 601

3. David Sieders, 568

4. Rhys McNally, 553

5. Kris Walton, 530 

Quick fact: Motorsport legend Peter Brock, Touring car and open wheeler star Andrew Miedecke, 1986/1990 Bathurst winner Allan Grice, country singer Adam Brand, Kevin Bartlett, (Bathurst winner 1974), Bob Holden (Bathurst winner 1966), Neil Crompton (Bathurst 12 Hour winner), David Parsons (Bathurst winner 1987) Barry Seton (Bathurst winner 1965), Garry Rogers (Bathurst winning team owner 2000) and TV personality Grant Denyer have all raced a V8 Ute around Mount Panorama.

The V8 Utes is just one of the great categories supporting the V8 Supercars at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 this year. Tickets are still available for the event here.