Bathurst 24 hour.

rossp1 · 4 Oct 2003, 00:38 (Ref:739952)

I am the CEO of Procar Australia.
An interesting race downunder on 22nd and 23rd November [Australian Eastern Standard time].
In it,s second year we currently have 71 entries for a 65 car grid .
The outright class is reserved for NGT,Britsh GTO,All Japan GT category 2,Grand Am,and Australian Nations Cup spec cars.
Bathurst Australia is one of the great icon tracks of the world.
For 357 days of the year it is a public road,and for 4 days in October[bathurst 1000 for V8 supercars],and 3 days in November[bathurst 24 hour],the public road is closed for racing.
After this year,s 24 hour the existing pits [which are reasonably adequate] will be demolished for a government of the Stae of New South Wales funded brand new infrastructure.
In it,s inaugral year in 2002 we had 37 entries and free to air television coverage for 4 hours on Australia,s Channel 7 ,and post produced coverage for European,Asian,and North American Televison [1hour and 3 hour formats].
This year we will have upwards of 7 hours live on Australian free to air [channel7]and if current negotiations come to fruition possibly free to air or cable/satellite in UK/ Continental Europe/former eastern bloc countries.
We would of course be interested in North America or Asia but don,t have the contacts at this point in time.
It is simply a case of the feed costs and minor commercial arrangements,give that the event is still building.
This years entry list is awesome with the entries to be posted at www.bathurst24hr.com within the next week.
other websites within the Procar group include www.procar.com.au and www.v8brutes.com.
regards,
Ross Palmer

**skycafe** · 4 Oct 2003, 00:43 (Ref:739956)

Great luck with the promotion and the race! I have seen footage of the Bathurst track and was mighty impressed. Looks like you have a class field too. Wish I could visit but will have to depend on Speed coverage.

SALEEN S7R · 4 Oct 2003, 00:52 (Ref:739958)

Yes Indeed, this does seem like a fantastic event. Although it used to be a touring car event mainly, correct? Still its good to see now that there are more and more GT cars coming into the field. This is where the intrest lies for me, great to have the touring cars there too, but my intrest is really just the GT field.

Rossp1 Im sure I speak for everyone here when I say its a pleasure to have people like yourself posting here.

I hope that u like this great forum and decide to contribute further. Not just regarding the Bathurst 24hr event, but sportscar racing in general. Welcome to the forums!

slicktsax · 4 Oct 2003, 01:06 (Ref:739959)

yeah i think the bathurst 24 hour is a pretty cool race. i was able to see a 1 hour highlight of last years race and i thought it had some neat entries. i wish i could have had more coverage but since i live in the USA i can't. oh well maybe in the future. i think it will be a good race this year with a lot more diverse cars that have signed up and more top quality entries

Patrick B · 4 Oct 2003, 01:13 (Ref:739963)

I've sent dozen's of email's to SpeedChannel begging for coverage of the Bathurst 24 but like alway's i get no reply...

Chucky · 4 Oct 2003, 01:58 (Ref:739976)

The touring car race is a seperate (1000km) event in October.

The 24 hour race is specifically for NGT sports cars and the like. This year's race should be sensational with the Lamborghini's entered alongside the 360GT's, GT3's, Viper's and the Monaro's. I thnk the Mosler is making a reappearance as well.

paul-collins · 4 Oct 2003, 02:12 (Ref:739985)

Martin Short's Rollcentre Mosler is definitely coming down under. They've got an Aussie filling 3rd seat, name of Heather Spurle. Sound familiar?

jetsetter · 4 Oct 2003, 02:48 (Ref:740000)

Hopefully i can get some leave from work & make it down to Bathurst to experience a 24 hour race live.

rossp1 · 4 Oct 2003, 03:11 (Ref:740008)

Quote:

Originally posted by jetsetter
Hopefully i can get some leave from work & make it down to Bathurst to experience a 24 hour race live.

you are more than welcome jetsetter !geographically speaking where are you from ? I will make sure you get all the relevant information etc.etc.

rossp1 · 4 Oct 2003, 03:39 (Ref:740014)

Patrick B, I lived in Chicago for 8 years from 1989 to 1996.
In those days Speedchannel was a fantastic must watch channel.
In fact they broadcast our GTP series for a number of years.
A good friend of mine, Andy Kritikos from AKG Motorsport www.akgmotorsport.com told me the other nite that since the NASCAR company now has a 50% interest,that the programming content has changed,and that is fair enough since they have the equity interest.
He seemed to be unhappy that there appeared to be a lot of half hour advertorial programming.
Certainly we would be only too happy to provide programming at minimal cost to speedchannel.
We produce 32 hour 1 hour post produced programs for Australian television and Motors TV in Europe,plus 7 hours live and 3 hours post produced for the Bathurst 24 hour race.
Our 8 round domestic sprint series includes NATIONS CUP [Australian GT racing with specs and speeds similar to NGT/in Group 1 Class ,and cars like the Ferrari 360 Challenge in Group 2.
In 2004 the group one cars include the BMW M3 GTR V8,just purchased by an Australian team through PTG.
427 cubic inch factory GM Holden Monaro Coupes.[Left hand drive Pontiac GTO in the United states].
There has been a suggestion from some quarters that Pontiac run in 2005.
Ferrari 360 Gt,s,Porsche GT3 RS,s ,Chrysler/Dodge Vipers,Honda Brabham NSX Coupe,Lamborghini Diablo[currently leading this year,s championship].
Most teams running in the 24 hour outright class,but our rules are framed in such a way that we can accomodate outright cars from other international series and the timing is quite good for them as northern Hemisphere is in the grip of winter and downunder we are coming out of Spring into summer.
We have numerous overseas entries in the outright class this year including 4 from the UK [including one entry that will blow everyone,s socks off].2 from Germany [high profile FIA NGT team],and 1 from Holland.
Numerous expressions of interest from US teams we expect to materialize in 2004 ,as well as interest from All japan GT category 2.
check it out at www.bathurst24hr.com ,and also check out our domestic Sprint series at www.procar.com.au,and www.v8brutes.com ,to understand our other 4 series which includes Australian formula 3,GTP [somewhat similar to International group N,but including V8,s],Ford GM pick up truck racing [aussie Style],and APCC which is showroom stock racing.

alfasud · 4 Oct 2003, 05:05 (Ref:740032)

Quote:

Originally posted by paul-collins
Martin Short's Rollcentre Mosler is definitely coming down under. They've got an Aussie filling 3rd seat, name of Heather Spurle. Sound familiar?

Heather Spurle raced in New Zealand for many years - mainly single seaters. Her name turns up in the Historic forum (Chevron B29 thread). I think she's done some touring car drives too and IIRC she made some attempts at NZ land/water speed records(?). Haven't heard of her racing in NZ for a while now. I think she moved to Australia in the last few years.

Welcome to ten-tenths Ross.

Do you or anyone else know anything about New Zealand TV coverage of the event?

**GTRMagic** · 4 Oct 2003, 06:06 (Ref:740048)

Hey Ross, welcome to ten-tenths

The 24hr is a must see event, with substantial television coverage (not the whole 24hrs though

) and in some parts websteaming last year, very good to see.

There seems a maximum capacity field in place, once we see the confirmed entry list the quality will make this year even better than last.

Catch you at the mountain for the 24hr race

Oh, and go the BMW Supertourer with Mr Yoong at the wheel

rossp1 · 4 Oct 2003, 08:14 (Ref:740100)

GTR magic ! see you there and thanks for your support over the years.

rossp1 · 4 Oct 2003, 10:56 (Ref:740214)

GTR magic ! I can give you one tip Brad Jones and JB in something special.Maybe you can interview them again?

jetsetter · 4 Oct 2003, 13:03 (Ref:740274)

Ross, Can you tell us when the entry list for the 24 hour will be made public?

rossp1 · 4 Oct 2003, 19:26 (Ref:740519)

I think quite soon is my view,but i can,t give you an exact.

Gunman · 4 Oct 2003, 20:12 (Ref:740565)

Last year they had live webcast of the Bathurst 24, but the servers struggled to keep up with the demand. Hopefully us in the US will at least get to watch that way.

rossp1 · 5 Oct 2003, 01:58 (Ref:740718)

Gunman, we were inundated last year with traffic and got caught out.This year I think we should see a better service.

**GTRMagic** · 5 Oct 2003, 04:49 (Ref:740767)

Hey its a big thing to migrate ISP's and servers in the middle of a race... some other places around Australian motorsport give up if they cant get a printer to work

Crash Test · 5 Oct 2003, 06:46 (Ref:740793)

I can't wait, should be some very good Aussie combos mixed in with European guns, won't be a walk in the park for the Monaro this year... is Brocky really a chance at number 10?

**GTRMagic** · 5 Oct 2003, 08:45 (Ref:740827)

He is if the other 3 do 99% of the driving

rossp1 · 5 Oct 2003, 12:59 (Ref:741010)

Yes GTR magic !! Jason Bright,Todd Kelly and Cameron M.Conville would make a good front row for Brock sitting on the bench and called out for the last stint to take the flag.
Maybe that,s in the back of Holden,s mind if you believe the driver rumour lineup coming out of the back office of PROCAR off the entry sheets.
Last year,s team winning team GRM have supposedly slipped Greg Murphy into the JUST CAR YELLOW 427,and moved Mc Conville across into the BROCK car.
Tortoise and Hare?

Gunman · 5 Oct 2003, 13:37 (Ref:741037)

Quote:

Originally posted by rossp1
Gunman, we were inundated last year with traffic and got caught out.This year I think we should see a better service.

Excellent. I want to be able to keep up on the Moslers!

The email updates I got last year just didn't come in fast enough.

**FIRE** · 5 Oct 2003, 17:58 (Ref:741169)

Quote:

We produce 32 hour 1 hour post produced programs for Australian television and Motors TV in Europe...

No Eurosport

rossp1 · 5 Oct 2003, 18:26 (Ref:741185)

Fire, Would EUROSPORT carry magazine type programming for motorsport series outside of Europe?

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