2016 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000

Background

The event was the 59th running of the Bathurst 1000, which was first held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in 1960 as a 500-mile race for Australian-made standard production sedans, and marked the 56th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 20th running of the Australian 1000 race, which was first held after the organisational split between the Australian Racing Drivers Club and V8 Supercars Australia that saw two "Bathurst 1000" races contested in both 1997 and 1998. It was the 18th time the race had been held as part of the Supercars Championship and the fourth time it formed part of the Enduro Cup. The defending winners of the race were Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards.

The event commemorated ten years since the death of nine-time race winner Peter Brock—who died in a crash at the Targa West rally one month prior to the 2006 race—and the introduction of the Peter Brock Trophy. Brock's brother Phil presented the Trophy to the race winners, having made the first presentation of the Trophy in 2006. Several of Brock's old race cars were on display at the event, with a selection completing parade laps prior to the race on Sunday morning. The cars in the parade were driven by Phil Brock and the previous winners of the Peter Brock Trophy. The event also paid tribute to Mark Porter, who passed away following a crash in a support race during the 2006 event.

Shane van Gisbergen entered the event as the championship leader, seven points clear of his Triple Eight Race Engineering teammate Jamie Whincup. Lowndes, the third Triple Eight driver, was third in the points standings, 157 behind Van Gisbergen. In the Teams' Championship, Triple Eight Race Engineering hold a 1273-point lead over the Holden Racing Team. In the Enduro Cup standings, Holden Racing Team drivers Garth Tander and Warren Luff lead the Triple Eight pairing of Van Gisbergen and Alexandre Prémat by 24 points.

Entry list

As well as the regular 26 championship entries, a single wildcard entry was received for the race. The Harvey Norman Supergirls entry that contested the 2015 race returned for 2016, fielding an unchanged line-up of Simona de Silvestro and Renee Gracie. The entry switched from competing with a Prodrive Racing Australia-prepared Ford FG X Falcon to a Nissan Altima L33 built by Nissan Motorsport.

Entries with a grey background were wildcard entries which did not compete in the full championship season.

Practice

Three one-hour practice sessions were held on the Thursday prior to the race. Practice 1 and Practice 3 were open to both regular drivers and co-drivers, while Practice 2 was for co-drivers only. The first session was contested mainly by regular drivers, with Whincup setting the fastest lap time of 2:05.9500. He had earlier caused a red flag after spinning at the final corner and getting stuck in the sand trap. Coulthard was second fastest, more than half a second behind, ahead of Slade. The car of Pye sustained damage when Pye spun at McPhillamy Park and went backwards into the tyre wall. Despite the damage, Pye was able to return to the pit lane. Courtney brushed the inside wall at Turn 13 early in the session but did not incur any significant damage. Rick Kelly and Mostert completed minimal laps, with both of their cars suffering from a vibration in the driveline. Practice 2 was topped by Whincup's co-driver Dumbrell, who set a time of 2:06.8947. Walsh, Premat, Canto and Macauley Jones completed the top five. The session was red flagged with seven minutes remaining when Golding ran wide at Turn 6 and made heavy contact with the outside wall. The car suffered significant damage to the front and rear suspension on the left-hand side as well as to the transaxle. Moffat did not take part in Practice 3 as Garry Rogers Motorsport were unable to repair the damage from the crash in time. Like Practice 1, the session was contested mainly by regular drivers, with only six co-drivers completing laps during the session. Whincup set a lap time of 2:05.2946 to be fastest ahead of Coulthard and Mostert.

Two more one-hour sessions were held on Friday. Practice 4 was open only to co-drivers while all drivers were allowed to run in Practice 5. The car of Moffat and Golding returned to the circuit in Practice 4 after being repaired overnight; Golding finished the session in 14th place. Le Brocq set a time of 2:05.9547 to be fastest, with Youlden, Dumbrell, Canto and Premat completing the top five. Ingall clipped the wall at Turn 13, similar to Courtney in Practice 1, but continued without damage and finished the session in 22nd place. While co-drivers were allowed to run in Practice 5, the session was contested exclusively by regular drivers. The final part of the session was used as a simulation for qualifying session to be held later in the day. Whincup returned his car to the top of the order with a time of 2:05.1494, the fastest lap of the weekend to that point. Winterbottom was second fastest ahead of Mostert, McLaughlin and Van Gisbergen. Halfway through the session, Percat's car got loose going through the Esses, causing him to lock a brake going into the Dipper. He hit the inside wall which sent the car into a spin before it came to rest on the exit of the Dipper. Percat escaped without significant damage and was able to take part in the remainder in the session. The sixth and final one-hour practice session was held on Saturday morning. Teams focused on the race set-up of their cars for the majority of the session and completed practice pit stops. Towards the end of the session, a number of the drivers who had qualified for the Top 10 Shootout took the opportunity to do a simulation of their Shootout lap; Mostert set a lap time of 2:05.3352 to be fastest. His co-driver Owen had almost hit the wall earlier in the session when he lost control of the rear of the car going into the Dipper. Winterbottom was second fastest ahead of McLaughlin.

Qualifying – Race 21

Qualifying for Race 20 consisted of three parts: a 40-minute qualifying session and a Top 10 Shootout. The qualifying session was held on Friday afternoon and was contested by regular championship drivers. The fastest ten drivers in the qualifying session progressed to the Top 10 Shootout, held on Saturday afternoon.

Qualifying

The start of the qualifying session was delayed by ten minutes following a crash in the preceding Supercars Dunlop Series session which left fluid on the circuit. Whincup continued to show strong form, setting an early benchmark of 2:05.5157. His teammate Van Gisbergen set the second fastest time, with Mostert, McLaughlin and Winterbottom completing the top five, before the session was red flagged when Davies went off at the Chase and became stuck in the sand trap. As per the qualifying regulations, Davies had his fastest lap time removed and was not permitted to take part in the rest of the session. The session resumed with 25 minutes remaining and Mostert went to the top of the order with a 2:05.2067. The session was red flagged again with 20 minutes remaining, with de Silvestro getting stuck in the sand trap at the Chase. Like Davies, she had her fastest time removed and was excluded from the rest of the session.

After the resumption of the session, Mostert remained at the top of the order until Whincup set a time of 2:05.0481 with two minutes remaining, which would prove to be the fastest time of the session. McLaughlin started his final flying lap just before the end of the session and moved up to second, one tenth of a second slower than Whincup. Slade was third fastest despite encountering an electrical problem which left him without key information—such as anti-roll bar positions and brake bias—for much of the session. Mostert, Coulthard, Van Gisbergen, Winterbottom, Pye, Tander and Caruso completed the top ten and progressed through to the Top 10 Shootout along with Whincup, McLaughlin and Slade. Defending race winner Lowndes qualified in 21st position, having struggled with his car for most of practice.

Top 10 Shootout

The top ten shootout saw each of the ten drivers complete one flying lap each, in reverse order of their qualifying positions. Having qualified in tenth position, Caruso was the first driver to complete a lap, setting a time of 2:05.9167. Both Tander and Pye were unable to beat Caruso's time, with Tander going 0.0019 seconds faster than Pye. Winterbottom ran wide at the Chase on his lap, setting the slowest time of 2:08.2615. Van Gisbergen went faster than Tander but was still over three tenths of a second slower than Caruso. Caruso's time was finally beaten when Coulthard set a time of 2:05.6726; this was immediately eclipsed by Mostert's time, who went fastest despite running wide on the exit of the Chase. Slade slotted in between Coulthard and Caruso before McLaughlin went to the top, 0.0352 seconds faster than Mostert. Whincup was the final driver to complete a lap and set a time of 2:05.4263 to take pole position by less than a tenth of a second over McLaughlin. It was the second time Whincup had scored pole position at Bathurst, though he downplayed its importance, saying: "It’s all good stuff, but it doesn’t mean anything, tomorrow’s the big day. There’s no points for qualifying on pole."

Qualifying

Championship standings after the event