RVSC24 R10 Repco Bathurst 1000

[Kingair]

Macca Jones was top finisher amongst BJR drivers.

Brad Jones must look forward to Bathurst each year, just like getting your wisdom teeth removed via your bottom.

[GTRMagic]

I wish the media commentary and focus when discussing this race wasnt about how “boring” they perceived it to be.

It was a masterclass… a genuine honest to goodness display of a sledgehammer… in the good looking car, in maligned team, in complex driver, in unfancied codriver.

Effectively a private team, albeit a well resourced and probably well funded one, the mob at Dandenong managed to beat the Banyo boys & girls at their own game.

And dragged the Chiko roll back into every day language… and stomachs..

It creates a wonder if the ‘boring’ tag sits because of the machinations earlier in the year rather than any particular fault in the execution of what has turned out to be a quality weekend for Erebus.

Would it be nice to have more cars as strong as the top couple? Of course. Especially if they were blue and red from ‘26.

There is plenty to see in the detail of performances within the event that are either hidden or unheralded. Get excited for that too.

Best track on the planet. And our series gets to headline it and make history.
Effluentcanning it serves no worthwhile purpose..

[Henry]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I wish the media commentary and focus when discussing this race wasnt about how “boring” they perceived it to be.

It was a masterclass… a genuine honest to goodness display of a sledgehammer… in the good looking car, in maligned team, in complex driver, in unfancied codriver.

Effectively a private team, albeit a well resourced and probably well funded one, the mob at Dandenong managed to beat the Banyo boys & girls at their own game.

And dragged the Chiko roll back into every day language… and stomachs..

It creates a wonder if the ‘boring’ tag sits because of the machinations earlier in the year rather than any particular fault in the execution of what has turned out to be a quality weekend for Erebus.

Would it be nice to have more cars as strong as the top couple? Of course. Especially if they were blue and red from ‘26.

There is plenty to see in the detail of performances within the event that are either hidden or unheralded. Get excited for that too.

Best track on the planet. And our series gets to headline it and make history.
Effluentcanning it serves no worthwhile purpose..

Agreed.

It was brilliant. Kostecki was inexorable. He just systematically walked away from the rest of them throughout the bulk of the day. I had my fears that Hazelwood might have been a vulnerability, but when he stabilised the gap back to Whincup around the 2.5-3 second mark throughout his stint, all of a sudden car 1 looked all but unassailable. That they didn't need to sharpen the car up until the very last stint showed just what a handle they had on their car on the day.

The bulk of the drivers in the field operated at a high level throughout the day. Aside from the wildcard's propensity to get in the way and deal awkwardly with it, the visible clangers were dropped by drivers with experience and skill enough to have done better. Sadder still (from my point of view anyway ), they were in the top-tier Mustangs more often than not.

I think the "boring" tag on socials came mainly from people who like their motor racing to be unnecessarily expensive, or who don't like the idea of excellence being directly rewarded by its own efforts.

[Jack65]

Is being described as a boring race, because it was. Must have been the most processional race we have seen since 1991. Although there have been a few others, 1996, 1997 and 2023 spring to mind, that ended up with the leader running unchallenged for long periods.

The leading three basically ran by themselves from very early on and never challenged one another. Even when the field was bunched by the safety car, the top five ran to the flag with no passing. The #25 was at one stage closing in on #6, but that petered out.

There was very little jeopardy. Tyre degradation wasn't an issue, fuel economy wasn't for most, am only aware of #87 having to fuel save at the end and then #26 ran out. With the only car not finish due to driver error, reliability wasn't an issue either. AFAIK, only DJR fumbled the rotor change with #11. On track incidents were few and far between, apart from a few spins at the first and last corners, only contract between #17 and #26 and #25 and #118 caught the stewards attention.

While there was a feel good story around Kostecki's return to form, it wasn't the triumph of David over Goliath that Erebus' 2017 victory was.

Given that online polls have known to have been manipulated, although I some how doubt Russia are too concerned by this one, take it with a pinch of salt, but an online poll by Speedcafe is showing only 25% of 8,000 respondents considered it a good race.

[GTRMagic]

I thought the ‘86 race was a pearler… and in reality it had one bloke (Oil Can Harry) driving away from the field in his VK rocket ship.

Blew off the factory Holdens, Tricky Dick and every other racer.
Mr Grice (and the longsuffering Mr Small) smacked them all.

Lots of other stuff going on in the race.. (some truly awful ) but it was a sign of coming and success for a bloke who had pace, form & zero luck.

Bathurst ‘91 was another sledgehammer. Technical excellence, local development and tuning, a metric shed load of dollars and yen, and the ultimate 2 fingered salute to absolutely everybody.

What this year’s event seems to show is the disparity in the tuning of essentially the same platform between the Chev runners, and myriad other issues that seemed to hold back the Ford teams.

The hope has to be that the 2025 Kostecki/Commins/DJR experience shall combine to remove ‘team’ from the reasons for the blue campaign to look so insignificant

[Sandgroper]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I wish the media commentary and focus when discussing this race wasnt about how “boring” they perceived it to be.

It was a masterclass… a genuine honest to goodness display of a sledgehammer… in the good looking car, in maligned team, in complex driver, in unfancied codriver.

Effectively a private team, albeit a well resourced and probably well funded one, the mob at Dandenong managed to beat the Banyo boys & girls at their own game.

And dragged the Chiko roll back into every day language… and stomachs..

It creates a wonder if the ‘boring’ tag sits because of the machinations earlier in the year rather than any particular fault in the execution of what has turned out to be a quality weekend for Erebus.

Would it be nice to have more cars as strong as the top couple? Of course. Especially if they were blue and red from ‘26.

There is plenty to see in the detail of performances within the event that are either hidden or unheralded. Get excited for that too.

Best track on the planet. And our series gets to headline it and make history.
Effluentcanning it serves no worthwhile purpose..

100% SPOT ON

It was a pure masterclass this weekend with Ebus thinking why is this man running off to DJR as he is in his prime.

Had we had multiple safety cars we would have these same people complaining about a boring race due to the interruptions. Yes Safety cars
bunch the field and add to the excitement but WOW you have to Applaud the winners, well raced, (The whole Top 3)

[Kingair]

Top race, the little Aussie battlers in the Chiko Roll Camaro beat the big names.

The only shame is that Brodie should have been in the car all year.

The G.O.A.T can still drive very well.

[GTRMagic]

WOW!!

[mite5255]

When people say a race is boring, do they mean they want more carnage

[Ares]

Originally Posted by mite5255

When people say a race is boring, do they mean they want more carnage

Pretty much I'd say. They want to be entertained with their very short attention spans that many have today. The race is a chess match today. The cars and drivers are just better now. Test cricket was the pinnacle of the sport, now many only have the attention span to watch forty overs. Now even the 50 over game is said to be just to long.

A bit like boxing, people want KOs not points decisions.

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

I wish the media commentary and focus when discussing this race wasnt about how “boring” they perceived it to be.

It was a masterclass… a genuine honest to goodness display of a sledgehammer… in the good looking car, in maligned team, in complex driver, in unfancied codriver.

Effectively a private team, albeit a well resourced and probably well funded one, the mob at Dandenong managed to beat the Banyo boys & girls at their own game.

And dragged the Chiko roll back into every day language… and stomachs..

It creates a wonder if the ‘boring’ tag sits because of the machinations earlier in the year rather than any particular fault in the execution of what has turned out to be a quality weekend for Erebus.

Would it be nice to have more cars as strong as the top couple? Of course. Especially if they were blue and red from ‘26.

There is plenty to see in the detail of performances within the event that are either hidden or unheralded. Get excited for that too.

Best track on the planet. And our series gets to headline it and make history.
Effluentcanning it serves no worthwhile purpose..

This exactly.It was a fantastic battle between 1 and 88.People paid for their errors and weren’t ,sometimes repeatedly ,bailed out.
It doesn’t reflect well on motor racing overall -not Supercars in particular- if people need the sugar hit of a safety car to make it interesting.
Think about it.A late Safety Car is the equivalent of having a rule in football -any code- where they can change the score back to 0-0 with a few minutes to go.
Top level sport needs credibility where excellence is rewarded.Safety cars should be a last resort unfortunate evil not an entertainment starter.

[GTRMagic]

Codriver lap time comparisons

Some outstanding efforts.. and some concerning ones here….

[mite5255]

Originally Posted by Ares

Pretty much I'd say. They want to be entertained with their very short attention spans that many have today. The race is a chess match today. The cars and drivers are just better now. Test cricket was the pinnacle of the sport, now many only have the attention span to watch forty overs. Now even the 50 over game is said to be just to long.

A bit like boxing, people want KOs not points decisions.

Agreed

[chavez]

Originally Posted by mite5255

When people say a race is boring, do they mean they want more carnage

For some people the answer is undoubtably "yes".

For others it might be more overtaking, different strategies or a real risk of mechanical failure.

The championship this year has seen some excellent racing with lots of overtaking and at time different strategies coming to the fore.

Unfortunately, what should be the best race of the year had little or none of that.

I suspect we will return to better racing for the final two rounds.


Two things that would improve the spectacle would be a tyre allocation of two (or three) different compounds and separating the tyre changes from re-fueling / driver changes like GT racing.

This would provide some options for the teams to take a risk or make a strategy call that might pay off.

[chavez]

Originally Posted by Alan52

Think about it.A late Safety Car is the equivalent of having a rule in football -any code- where they can change the score back to 0-0 with a few minutes to go.
Top level sport needs credibility where excellence is rewarded.Safety cars should be a last resort unfortunate evil not an entertainment starter.

The Safety Car is perhaps more similar to Sets in tennis. The winner of the set (or in our case the race leader) is still ahead in overall terms, with the result of the previous set (or in our case laps led) ignored for the next Set.

It doesn't help that the commentators were calling for a Safety Car to close the race up. Think of how many once-a-year watchers there are and for them to hear this.

I watch the Great Race each year with the car club I am a member of. It has become increasingly difficult to convince members who only watch Bathurst that the series in entertaining and Bathurst is not necessarily reflective of the general level of competition.

[GTRMagic]

Podcast Interview With Todd Hazelwood

[Henry]

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/analysis...-bathurst-win/

A great insight into how Erebus did what they did.

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Henry

https://www.v8sleuth.com.au/analysis...-bathurst-win/

A great insight into how Erebus did what they did.

Yes it is - from a respected ex-team guy in the paddock too - not a well-intentioned journo who hasn't "been there, done that".

I know that he can be a difficult character but Barry Ryan is ex-Perkins and appears to have taken the approach that worked so well for Larry over the years.

[GTRMagic]

A mention of Bathurst winning Chiko rolls.

[Mixer]

Originally Posted by Tourer

I know that he can be a difficult character but Barry Ryan is ex-Perkins and appears to have taken the approach that worked so well for Larry over the years.

Larry was modeled after Harry Firth and Barry modeled on Larry (****, say that 5 times fast)

The issue is in this day and age you can't be like that.

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

A mention of Bathurst winning Chiko rolls.

Now that is opportunity wasted.

I still bloody want one but I can't remember ever seeing them at Woolies!

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Larry was modeled after Harry Firth and Barry modeled on Larry (****, say that 5 times fast)

The issue is in this day and age you can't be like that.

I was referring to the linked article about how Erebus approached Bathurst - very much the approach taken by Larry in the past (focus on setting up for the race, worry about Qualifying and fast lap times only when needed).

Now, you CAN be like that in this day and age!

Being a grumpy, cantankerous b'stard and ripping into your staff, not so much.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by Mixer

Now that is opportunity wasted.

I still bloody want one but I can't remember ever seeing them at Woolies!

And competition winners…

[Kingair]

What’s this cooking Chiko Rolls in bloody air fryer ffs?

Down da Greek Fish and Chip shop, cooked by da hairy armed Greek owner or his hairy armed wife, in oil that’s never been changed since they bought the shop twenty years ago.

[GTRMagic]

[TWRv12]

^ Emphasises how much Erebus has thrown away this year