The world’s best

Supercars chief James Warburton believes the weekend’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour proved the V8 category’s drivers are amongst the world’s best.

Nine full-time V8 Supercars drivers and a handful of regular co-drivers competed against high caliber international imports across the weekend, switching their regular V8 Supercars to steer exotic GT3 cars at Australia’s most impressive circuit.

The race was won by standout Supercars star Shane van Gisbergen, along with his former V8 Supercars team boss and regular co-driver Jonathon Webb, and McLaren GT driver Alvaro Parente.

Former V8 Supercars Champion and two-time Bathurst 1000 winner Rick Kelly, part of the factory-backed Nissan entry, was second with teammate Katsumasa Chiyo who gave everything to close the 1.3 second gap to van Gisbergen on the final lap, sprinting to the end in the #1 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3.

David Reynolds’ Erebus entry was home fifth, with regular category co-driver Alex Davison part of the fourth-placed Audi crew.

The Audi driven by Garth Tander and the McLaren steered by Will Davison were both home inside the top 10, and while Scott McLaughlin’s Porsche was 12th overall, he and co-drivers Stephen Grove and Earl Bamber won the Cup Cars Class B category.

Warburton congratulated the regular V8 Supercars drivers for their results and efforts, which demonstrated just how talented Australia ad New Zealand's best are. In V8 Supercars, the field – growing to 26 entries this year – is often separated by less than one second.

“Our drivers are the superstars of the show and are easily amongst, if not the best in the world,” Warburton said after the conclusion of the Bathurst 12 Hour. 

“Anytime they step away from our category and test themselves they prove that and the performances across the weekend at Bathurst was further proof of that.”

While the V8 Supercars schedule is tight once the season opener kicks off, some drivers do take up opportunities to race in high profile events overseas, with 12 Hour winner van Gisbergen the most likely to pop up in an exotic race and car on the other side of the world. Before this event he kicked off his racing season at the Daytona 24 Hour.

Nissan driver and V8 Supercars team co-owner Kelly looked at it the other way, and said the standard of racing showed international drivers could be assets for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 after their displays across the weekend. 

In the past, some imports have found it hard to adjust to the unique V8 Supercars, but others – like Mattias Ekstrom, who steered Triple Eight’s XBOX wild card to 10th in 2013 – have added excitement to the event. 

For the past two years, Nissan has welcomed Alex Buncombe to the team for the Pirtek Enduro Cup, who impressed with Rick’s brother Todd Kelly, finishing seventh in his first Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

“You can see how strong a lot of the great overseas teams and drivers are – they come here, get the track nailed pretty quickly, and the same with the cars; and a few years ago in our V8 Supercar this wasn’t really the case,” Kelly said.  

“So I think it really opens our eyes to overseas drivers for the 1000km race here in October because the quality of international drivers is outstanding. 

“Now they have experience at our home track they could certainly be assets for us in the future.” 

Perhaps Will Davison – who spent time racing in Europe in pursuit of a Formula One drive, before committing to the V8 Supercars Championship – put it best in the lead up to the event, acknowledging the level of international talent in the field. 

“Thirteen years have gone by and it’s like yesterday we were seeing each other [racing in Europe] … it’s funny how everyone’s ended up here at Bathurst,” he told v8supercars.com.au.

Over one-third of the regular V8 Supercars field was set to compete in the race, though 2015 Bathurst 1000 and 2014 12 Hour champion Craig Lowndes was ruled out after a broken collarbone, and Scott Pye was forced to step down after a seeding change.