Bathurst FAI 1000 Preview for 2000

Whatever else a team or driver may do in their career they are not a success until they have won Bathurst. There are drivers such as former F1 World Champion Alan Jones who keeps trying to win this race. Bathurst legends Peter Brock and Dick Johnson are regarded much more highly. Triple F1 World Champion Sir Jack Brabham only comes close because he also failed at Bathurst. The race itself is a 1000 Km endurance test for touring cars around the 6.2Km Mt. Panorama circuit.

The cars are modified 4 door sedans powered by 5 Litre V8 engines. They are either Ford Falcons or General Motors Holden Commodores, two of the top selling road cars in Australia.

After last year's disappointment the DJR Falcon of Paul Radisich and new co driver Jason Bright is looking strong. They have a new car that has revived Ford's flagging hopes after winning its first two race meetings. The sentimental favourite is Glenn Seton in an official Ford factory entry. He has won many races, been multiple Shell Australian Touring car titles and started from pole position several times but race success at Bathurst has always eluded him.

The Fords do have an unwanted advantage in this the final round of the Shell Australian Touring Cars Championship series; none of them are in contention for the title.

While the Fords will be going all out for a race win the leading Holdens of Mark Skaife and Garth Tander will be battling for the Championship. The team strategists will be keeping a close eye on their relative positions and how it will effect the title outcome. Skaife only needs to finish in 17th place or better, but in a 55 car field over six hours of racing anything could happen. Bathurst is renowned for throwing up surprises.

You can never discount long time Holden stalwart and six times winner Larry Perkins in the Perkins Engineering Commodore. The defending champions Richards and Murphy from Kmart racing are always strong in the long distance races.

Of course any of the other regular top ten finishers from the sprint races need only an ounce of luck to win. For the drivers and teams down the back end of the grid this is chance to impress team managers and attract new sponsors for next year.

Some teams are once a year racers who are just there to get the best view of the race. This is point of contention between the professional teams and the organisers.

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