| Event Information | ||||||||||||||
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| Round 10 of 14 in the2011 International V8 Supercars Championship | ||||||||||||||
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| Date | 6–9 October 2011 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Bathurst,New South Wales | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Mount Panorama Circuit | |||||||||||||
| Weather | Overcast, occasional showers | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
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The2011 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was an Australiantouring car motor race forV8 Supercars. The race was on Sunday, 9 October 2011 at theMount Panorama Circuit just outsideBathurst,New South Wales,Australia and was Race 20 of the2011 International V8 Supercars Championship. It was the fifteenth running of theAustralian 1000 race, first held after the organisational split over theBathurst 1000 that occurred in 1997. It was also the 54th race for which the lineage can be traced back to the1960 Armstrong 500 held atPhillip Island.
The race was won byGarth Tander andNick Percat of theHolden Racing Team by 0.3 of a second over defending race winnersCraig Lowndes andMark Skaife of theTriple Eight Race Engineering team. Tander was forced to resist a last minute charge from Lowndes as Tander's car faded in the closing laps. TheKelly Racing car ofGreg Murphy andAllan Simonsen finished third, completing aHolden Commodore clean sweep of the podium positions. Percat became the first South Australian born driver to win the Bathurst 1000, although South Australian raised Russell Ingall had won the race previously.
The race saw the entry of one wildcard, through Kelly Racing'sShannons Supercar Showdown television show.Cam Waters, one of the drivers of the wildcard entry, would become the youngest ever Bathurst 1000 starter at 17 years, 2 months and 6 days old - beating the previous record (set byPaul Dumbrell in1999) by 8 days.
*Entries with a grey background were wildcard entries which did not compete in the full championship season.
Thursday practice was plagued by rain and rumours over the condition of Dunlop's supply of wet weather tyres.[1] Fog caused the third practice session to be cancelled while the tyre supply situation was clarified.[2]
Tim Slade in theJames Rosenberg Racing Falcon was fastest in the first session on Thursday, setting a 2:24.2255 lap time in damp conditions. Slade'sStone Brothers Racing teammateShane van Gisbergen was second fastest ahead ofJames Moffat. Reigning series championJames Courtney was the fastest Holden, 1.4 seconds behind Slade.[3] The second session, only for co-drivers, was slower and wetter.Ford Performance Racing'sSteven Richards was fastest at 2:27.8960, over three seconds behind the previous session.David Besnard (Dick Johnson Racing) was second fastest ahead of the first Holden, David Russell ofKelly Racing who was just ahead of 2010 Bathurst winner,Mark Skaife.
The Friday morning session gained new importance when V8 Supercar series points leaderJamie Whincup crashed at the Cutting, crashing hard enough to bend his car's chassis rails.[4]Cameron McConville took his Holden Racing Team Commodore to the top of the co-driver practice session ahead of Skaife and Richards, with McConville setting a 2:09.8765 in the dry,[5] whileShane van Gisbergen set the fastest time of the meeting thus far at 2:07.6035, ahead of Whincup prior to his crash andMark Winterbottom,[6] whileBrad Jones Racing left the #14 Holden ofJason Bargwanna andShane Price on the sidelines, changing an engine.[7]
Holden Racing Team'sGarth Tander set the fastest lap time during the qualifying session on Friday. Tander set a 2:07.6640 lap time to secure the prime final position in the Top Ten Shootout to be held on Saturday morning. Tander set the time late in the session and was good enough to hold off a last lap effort from Mark Winterbottom. Winterbottom was five hundredths of a second slower than Tander with Jamie Whincup three hundredths further away in his repaired Commodore.David Reynolds andKelly Racing teammateGreg Murphy climbed up the order on their final laps.Craig Lowndes (Triple Eight Race Engineering), James Courtney,Lee Holdsworth (Garry Rogers Motorsport), Shane van Gisbergen andSteve Owen (Paul Morris Motorsport) secured the other positions in the top ten shootout.Will Davison just missed out on the top ten by five hundredths of a second with his Ford Performance Racing teammatePaul Dumbrell also just missing out in the final moments.Alex Davison (Stone Brothers Racing),Michael Caruso (Garry Rogers Motorsport) and Tim Slade completed the top 15.[8] Following the session, Lee Holdsworth was demoted five grid positions after he missed the scales at the end of qualifying. The penalty sees Will Davison move into the top ten shootout.[9]
29th and last was the Kelly Racing Commodore of TV weather presenterGrant Denyer who made a return to racing after a long layoff to mentor the winner of a reality TV competition aimed at discovering young racing drivers. The winner, Cam Waters, became the youngest driver to ever compete for the race.[10]
The only serious set-back in qualifying was a last lap crash when Jason Bargwanna hit the wall at the Esses, heavily damaging the front end of his Brad Jones Racing Commodore.[11]
Will Davison was the first driver out in the shootout, setting a time of 2:08.8821. Steve Owen, Shane van Gisbergen, James Courtney and Craig Lowndes all failed to better Davison's time, Lowndes coming closest with a 2:09.2197. 2003 pole-sitter Greg Murphy was three tenths up at the first split and went on to beat Davison by eight one hundredths of a second with a 2:08.8009, which would prove to be the pole time. Murphy's teammate David Reynolds complained of smoke in the cabin from a gearbox issue at the start of his lap, going slowest with a 2:10.1570. Jamie Whincup, Mark Winterbottom and Garth Tander all had their laps ruined when rain started to fall, Whincup having a few moments on his lap. Winterbottom coasted around to take tenth place while Tander pushed a bit harder to take ninth.[12][13]
Notes:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 |  Greg Murphy | Kelly Racing | 2:08.8009 |
| 2 | 6 |  Will Davison | Ford Performance Racing | 2:08.8821 |
| 3 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | Triple Eight Race Engineering | 2:09.2197 |
| 4 | 1 | James Courtney | Holden Racing Team | 2:09.2359 |
| 5 | 9 | Shane van Gisbergen | Stone Brothers Racing | 2:09.3820 |
| 6 | 49 | Steve Owen | Paul Morris Motorsport | 2:09.5177 |
| 7 | 16 | David Reynolds | Kelly Racing | 2:10.1570 |
| 8 | 88 | Jamie Whincup | Triple Eight Race Engineering | 2:26.6012 |
| 9 | 2 | Garth Tander | Holden Racing Team | 2:31.3934 |
| 10 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Performance Racing | 2:52.0682 |
| source[15] | ||||
The following table represents the final starting grid for the race on Sunday:
| Pos | No | Name | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | Triple Eight Race Engineering | 2329 |
| 2 | 88 | Jamie Whincup | Triple Eight Race Engineering | 2229 |
| 3 | 9 | Shane van Gisbergen | Stone Brothers Racing | 1920 |
| 4 | 2 | Garth Tander | Holden Racing Team | 1848 |
| 5 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Performance Racing | 1687 |
The race was covered by theSeven Network in Australia for the fifth consecutive season. The race saw expanded international television coverage with United States-basedcable channelSpeed broadcast the race live throughoutNorth America, the first time a V8 Supercar race had been televised live on the continent.[18] Speed's decision to broadcast this race, as well as theGold Coast 600, came on the heels of the series' announcement that it would stage a round in the United States, beginning in 2013.[19]
| Seven Network | Speed[20] |
|---|---|
| Booth:Neil Crompton,Matthew White Pit-lane:Mark Beretta,Mark Larkham Supports: Aaron Noonan | Booth:Mike Joy,Darrell Waltrip Pit-lane:Leigh Diffey,Calvin Fish |
| Supercars Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous race: 2011 L&H 500 | 2011 Supercars Championship | Next race: 2011 Armor All Gold Coast 600 |
| Previous year: 2010 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 | Bathurst 1000 | Next year: 2012 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 |
