| Event Information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 10 of 12 in the2023 Supercars Championship | ||||||||||||||
 Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit | ||||||||||||||
| Date | October 5–8 2023 | |||||||||||||
| Location | Bathurst, New South Wales | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Mount Panorama Circuit | |||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
The2023 Bathurst 1000 (known as the2023 Repco Bathurst 1000 for commercial reasons) was amotor racing event forSupercars held on the week of 5 to 8 October 2023. It hosted the tenth round of the2023 Supercars Championship and took place at theMount Panorama Circuit inBathurst, New South Wales,Australia, featuring a single race of 1000 kilometres.
New ZealandersShane van Gisbergen andRichie Stanaway claimed victory forTriple Eight Race Engineering, the teams' tenth Bathurst 1000 win. It was Van Gisbergen's third victory in four years, and the first win for Stanaway. The duo were only the second all-Kiwi crew to win the race afterGreg Murphy andSteven Richards in1999, and their 19.9-second margin of victory was the largest since the same race. The race was also won by aChevrolet for the first time, withsixth-generation Camaros finishing first and second against a backdrop of participant and public discontent related to technical parity between the Camaros and rivalFord Mustangs.[1][2]
The event was the 66th running of theBathurst 1000, which was first held at thePhillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in 1960 as a 500-mile race for Australian-made standard production sedans, and marked the 63rd time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 27th running of the"Australia 1000" race, which was first held after the organisational split between the Australian Racing Drivers Club andV8 Supercars Australia that saw two "Bathurst 1000" races contested in both 1997 and 1998. The event also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first running of the Armstrong 500 at Mount Panorama, with promotional material reflecting this milestone.[3][4]
Chevrolet returned to the event for the first time since1984, while also marking the first time in the event's history thatHolden did not take part.
Shane van Gisbergen andGarth Tander entered the event as defending race winners, but did not compete together. Van Gisbergen remained withTriple Eight Race Engineering, while Tander moved toGrove Racing.[5]
This was the first Bathurst 1000 held under Supercars Championships' "Gen3" regulations, which were centred around Americanpony cars (namely thesixth-generationChevrolet Camaro and theS650-modelFord Mustang) following the demise of Holden.[6] Throughout the 2023 season,Ford Performance and Ford teams expressed concerns over a lack of technical parity between the two models – exacerbated by Mustangs winning only two of the preceding 23 races (one of which through the disqualification of two Camaros).[7]
Supercars opened an inquest into parity following theDarwin round, resulting in a revised rear aero package for the Mustang ahead of theTownsville 500.[8][9] Prior to the Bathurst 1000, Ford and its teams pushed for further alterations to the Mustang's aero package. A meeting between Supercars officials and teams was mooted, and later cancelled in favour of intra-manufacturer meetings.[10] As a result of pushback from Chevrolet teams and a pre-determined parity "trigger" having not been met, Ford's proposals were rejected by Supercars.[11]
Twenty-eight cars entered the event - 15 Chevrolet Camaros and 13 Ford Mustangs. In addition to the twenty-five regular-season entries, three "wildcard" entrants joined the field – one fromBlanchard Racing Team, one fromDick Johnson Racing, and one fromTriple Eight Race Engineering.[12][13][14]
Three drivers made their Bathurst 1000 debut;FIA World Endurance Championship driverKévin Estre, andSuper2 Series driversKai Allen andAaron Love. Estre and the returningSimona de Silvestro were the first drivers from outside of Australia and New Zealand to participate in the event since De Silvestro,James Hinchcliffe,Alexandre Prémat andAlexander Rossi in2019.[15][13]
| Session | Day | Fastest Lap | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Cond | Ref | ||
| Practice 1 | Thursday | 9 |  Will Brown | Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.9653 | Fine | [16] |
| Practice 2 (Co-Driver) | 99 | David Russell | Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.6826 | Fine | [17] | |
| Practice 3 | Friday | 19 |  Matthew Payne | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.2855 | Cloudy | [18] |
| Practice 4 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.1215 | Overcast | [19] | |
| Practice 5 (Co-Driver) | Saturday | 97 | Richie Stanaway | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.0486 | Cloudy | [20] |
| Practice 6 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:05.5872 | Cloudy | [21] | |
| Warm Up | Sunday | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:06.3584 | Fine | [22] |
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Erebus Motorsport | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.2719 | |
| 2 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.7549 | +0.4830 |
| 3 | 6 | Cam Waters | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:04.7775 | +0.5056 |
| 4 | 31 | James Golding | PremiAir Racing | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.8155 | +0.5436 |
| 5 | 11 | Anton de Pasquale | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:04.9156 | +0.6437 |
| 6 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Chevrolet Camaro Mk.6 | 2:04.9971 | +0.7252 |
| 7 | 26 | David Reynolds | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.1512 | +0.8793 |
| 8 | 19 | Matthew Payne | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.2696 | +0.9977 |
| 9 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | Walkinshaw Andretti United | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:05.8309 | +1.5590 |
| 10 | 17 | Will Davison | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang S650 | 2:06.4174 | +2.1455 |
| Source:[24] | ||||||
The event telecast was produced by Supercars Media and carried domestically byFox Sports Australia (via Fox Sports 506 andKayo Sports), apaid service which covered all sessions including support categories, and theSeven Network (viafree-to-air channels 7HD and7mate, as well asstreaming on7plus), which covered select sessions from midday Friday onwards. Radio-only coverage was introduced for 2023, withSports Entertainment Network covering Saturday and Sunday action. In New Zealand the sessions were shown by paid serviceSky Sport, whilst internationally the broadcast was available through the series'pay-per-view service SuperView.[28]
| Fox Sports | Seven Network[29] | SEN (radio) |
|---|---|---|
| Host: Jessica Yates Booth:Mark Skaife,Neil Crompton Pit-lane: Riana Crehan,Mark Larkham, Chad Neylon, Chris Stubbs Supports: Richard Craill,Greg Murphy, Matt Naulty | Presenters:Mark Beretta,Mel McLaughlin Pundit:Jack Perkins Roving:Emma Freedman, Chris Stubbs | Presenter: Aaron Noonan |
| Supercars Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous race: 2023 Sandown 500 | 2023 Supercars Championship | Next race: 2023 Gold Coast 500 |
| Previous year: 2022 Bathurst 1000 | Bathurst 1000 | Next year: 2024 Bathurst 1000 |
