2017 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000


The 2017 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was a motor racing event for the Supercars Championship, held from October 5 to 8 2017 at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, and consisted of a 1000 kilometre race. It was the eleventh event of fourteen in the 2017 Supercars Championship and was Race 20 of the season. It was also the second event of the 2017 Enduro Cup.
DJR Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin qualified on pole with a lap time of 2:03.8312, the fastest lap of the Mount Panorama Circuit recorded by a Supercar.
The race was won by David Reynolds and Luke Youlden driving a Holden VF Commodore for Erebus Motorsport.

Report

Background

The event was the 60th 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 57th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 21st 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 19th time the race had been held as part of the Supercars Championship and the fifth time it formed part of the Enduro Cup. The defending winners of the race were Will Davison and Jonathon Webb.
Scott McLaughlin entered the event as the championship leader, 84 points clear of Triple Eight Race Engineering's Jamie Whincup. McLaughlin's DJR Team Penske team-mate Fabian Coulthard was third in the points standings, 161 behind McLaughlin. In the Teams' Championship, DJR Team Penske held a 372-point lead over Triple Eight. In the Enduro Cup standings, Prodrive Racing Australia team-mates Cameron Waters and Richie Stanaway led the pairing of McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat by 24 points.

Entry list

Twenty-six cars were entered in the event. It was the first time since 2008 that no additional "Wildcard" entries had been received for the race. The race would see the Bathurst 1000 debut of four drivers - Super2 drivers Todd Hazelwood, Richard Muscat and Garry Jacobson and main-game debutant Alex Rullo. Rullo would become the third youngest Bathurst 1000 starter after Cameron Waters and Paul Dumbrell.
DriversTeamCarDriversTeamCar
02 Scott Pye
Warren Luff		Walkinshaw RacingHolden VF Commodore21 Tim Blanchard
Todd Hazelwood		Tim Blanchard RacingHolden VF Commodore
3 Aaren Russell
Taz Douglas		22 James Courtney
Jack Perkins		Walkinshaw RacingHolden VF Commodore
5
Dean Canto		Prodrive Racing AustraliaFord FG X Falcon23 Michael Caruso
Dean Fiore		Nissan MotorsportNissan L33 Altima
6 Cameron Waters
Richie Stanaway		Prodrive Racing AustraliaFord FG X Falcon33 Garth Tander
James Golding		Garry Rogers MotorsportHolden VF Commodore
8 Nick Percat
Macauley Jones		Brad Jones RacingHolden VF Commodore34 James Moffat
Richard Muscat		Garry Rogers MotorsportHolden VF Commodore
9 David Reynolds
Luke Youlden		Erebus MotorsportHolden VF Commodore55 Chaz Mostert
Steve Owen		Rod Nash RacingFord FG X Falcon
12 Fabian Coulthard
Tony D'Alberto		DJR Team PenskeFord FG X Falcon56 Jason Bright
Garry Jacobson		Britek MotorsportFord FG X Falcon
14 Tim Slade
Ashley Walsh		Brad Jones RacingHolden VF Commodore62 Alex Rullo
Alex Davison		Lucas Dumbrell MotorsportHolden VF Commodore
15 Rick Kelly
David Wall		Nissan MotorsportNissan L33 Altima78 Simona de Silvestro
David Russell		Nissan MotorsportNissan L33 Altima
17 Scott McLaughlin
Alexandre Prémat		DJR Team PenskeFord FG X Falcon88 Jamie Whincup
Paul Dumbrell		Triple Eight Race EngineeringHolden VF Commodore
18 Lee Holdsworth
Karl Reindler		Charlie Schwerkolt RacingHolden VF Commodore97
Matt Campbell		Triple Eight Race EngineeringHolden VF Commodore
19 Will Davison
Jonathon Webb		Tekno AutosportsHolden VF Commodore99 Dale Wood
Chris Pither		Erebus MotorsportHolden VF Commodore
20 Todd Kelly
Jack Le Brocq		Nissan MotorsportNissan L33 Altima888 Craig Lowndes
Steven Richards

;Notes:
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 saw Mostert set the fastest lap time of 2:06.3033. Lowndes was second fastest, six hundredths behind while Todd Kelly was sixteen hundredths further back. Tim Slade caused a red flag as a result of losing control in the Esses before heavily impacting the wall on the entry to the Dipper. The session was halted again with nineteen minutes remaining after Alex Rullo stopped on Conrod Straight having found the wall at Forrest's Elbow.

Results

Practice

Qualifying

;Notes:

Race 20

Standings after the event

;Drivers Championship
DriverGap
1 Fabian Coulthard2431
2 Jamie Whincup2340+91
3 Scott McLaughlin2334+97
4 Chaz Mostert2208+223
5 Shane van Gisbergen2142+289

;Teams Championship
TeamGap
1DJR Team Penske4800
2Triple Eight Race Engineering 4482+318
3Prodrive Racing Australia3384+1416
4Garry Rogers Motorsport2937+1863
5Erebus Motorsport2808+1992

;Enduro Cup
DriversGap
1 Fabian Coulthard
Tony D'Alberto		480
2 Cameron Waters
Richie Stanaway		444+36
3 Chaz Mostert
Steve Owen		414+66
4 David Reynolds
Luke Youlden		408+72
5 Dale Wood
Chris Pither		372+108