Bathurst 12 Hour RIP?

[Roadways6]

Surely, there are a lot of local cars now, with some having older spare cars that could be leased.

If numbers are down, just add another class such as superseded Porsches.

Maybe it is too expensive for additional, mostly amateur, entrants?

The last five years have seen the organisers prioritise the overseas GT3 entries, and the depth of international cars coming over had effectively scared off a lot of the local "gentlemen" entries, who amongst others things have been put off by the crash & bash sprint race it's become. The damage bill in the last few years has been astonishing.

SRO has said they will likely move to clashing GTWC Europe Sprint event to a new weekend..... an advantage to that being it frees up Valentino Rossi to compete.

Factories can easily ship customer cars here for the likes of MPC or T8 to run, or for teams like WRT to fly in to run them, teams shipping their own regular equipment over will be hard/impossible with this date though.

Drivers shouldn't be an issue as it stands now, unless border entries change again

[Kytabu]

Well, tickets went on sale this week! So that's happy days for now. Still waiting to hear about the date for the campsites going on sale.

[Troy01505]

They HAD to choose the weekend of my sisters wedding....

She's going to be pissed that I'm missing her special day 

Priorities on point

[Roadways6]

At least two overseas entries are confirmed for the event

1x Gruppe M Mercedes
1x GPX Martini Racing Porsche

[Kytabu]

Campsites on sale next week!

[Kytabu]

McPhillamy campsite sold out in five minutes! Jumped straight on at 11 and the available sites were disappearing very quickly, glad I got my usual two!

[Roadways6]

Just need some more car announcements now

One assumes we may see a bigger "invitational" class this year

[Alan59]

2 weeks out and no entry list.A cause for concern.As far as I can tell there are only 12 entries announced and I'm wondering how many more there are.

[Sonic]

2 weeks out and no entry list.A cause for concern.As far as I can tell there are only 12 entries announced and I'm wondering how many more there are.

12 is not a good thing. even if that doubles it's still not good to do a 12 hour event for such a small number.

if it truly is that small then you'd have to look at maybe switching it to a number of smaller events. maybe 3x3 hours or something? and spread the support categories over the 3 days.

[36]

Just need some more car announcements now

One assumes we may see a bigger "invitational" class this year

Old supercars and Bathurst 6 hour competitors have been approached to run as invitational. Amazing opportunity for teams who wouldn't normally get to run at the 12 hour.

Expectation is for a field of around 25 cars. Not awesome, but better than no event.

[Sonic]

Just need some more car announcements now

One assumes we may see a bigger "invitational" class this year

Old supercars and Bathurst 6 hour competitors have been approached to run as invitational. Amazing opportunity for teams who wouldn't normally get to run at the 12 hour.

Expectation is for a field of around 25 cars. Not awesome, but better than no event.

I would lean to better to not have the event than mar it with a 25 car field.

Supercars is bad enough for 6 hours with that many.

Although on the plus side it makes me feel better about not being able to make it due to the clash in Vic.

I doubt too many of the 6 hour teams would join in having only just completed their own event, and so close to this one, the cars would not be up for another big event so soon and neither would the teams be prepared financially for such a big undertaking!

As for the old Supercars, while they may well be able to do the distance, I don't know that even they would be able to pull it together that quickly to join the event... especially with many of them in private hands since leaving the SC fold.

The closer we get to the event the more I hope that it doesn't fall over because of where it has landed this year.

[Alan59]

I think if they were going to cancel they would have long before this.The small entry has been obvious since the date was announced and it became apparent at least a month ago that the entry was critically small.
Contractural obligations to Bathurst Council and Ratel complicate any cancellation.Just hope it bounces back next February.What is happening in 2 weeks time is not a sustainable event.

[Alan59]

18 GT cars and 2 Marc's.Better than it might have been.Better than no 12 Hour at all.
Hopefully back to normal next February.

[Sonic]

18 GT cars and 2 Marc's.Better than it might have been.Better than no 12 Hour at all.
Hopefully back to normal next February.

I disagree... and am kinda glad now that I won't be able to get there.

20 cars for 12 hours (less attrition) isn't a good thing.

I do think a modified event for this year would have been a better idea, even maybe to drop the main show to a lesser enduro due to the small numbers and get in an extra category or give those already entered an extra race.

[Alan59]

I prefer the way it is.This is a much better quality entry than the first 2 GT3 years in 2011 and 2012.
Turning it into 2 3 Hour races or some other non alternative  format would be a bigger disappointment for me.The magic of this event is once around the clock at an amazing circuit.
Although things like the Am format and timed pit stops are not to my taste there is still a good chance this might be a compelling race.
My next big wish is dry weather at something above freezing point.