Let’s talk the legendary Bathurst 1000 and unpack the highlights of qualifying at the mountain.
Four days of absolute Australian motorsport bliss; Mount Panorama – the most beautiful yet most relentless track. You don’t respect her, you’ll be entirely wishing you’d learnt sooner.
Over the years of watching the Bathurst 1000, it’s easily one of Australia’s best attributes. We are incredibly lucky to have a track that is historical, but also holds so much passion – with an excited ‘Happy Bathurst Day!’ shouted on race day to match.
Before the mountain welcomed Cameron Waters (28) as the 2022 provisional pole sitter on Friday, a lot happened over the duration of qualifying. Let’s get into it!
Rookie, Broc Feeney (19), stepped aside allowing co-driver and part team owner Jamie Whincup (39) to take on the #88 Red Bull Ampol Racing commodore for the qualifying run.
Experience was a big game player in this swap, the weather soaking the track causing tricky conditions. However, this allowed Feeney to take a breath, relax, and prepare for the rest of the weekend.
Lots of car control was seen around the mountain, some missing their braking marks and sliding off, others just unlucky in where the car was positioned paired with the condition of the track.
A superb performance by Richie Stanaway (30) was applauded by commentators, the car control highlighting his motorsport talents with hope there would be more from the New Zealander on race day.
Impressive – especially after a three year break from the Supercars Championship.
The last lap of qualifying endured an incident between Brad Jones Racing’s Macauley Jones (28) and Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen (33) – current championship leader.
The incident took place on approach to the dipper – Van Gisbergen making contact with the BJR driver, sending Jones into the wall. Yellows were deployed as a result, both cars limping away with damage.
Stewards came to a decision after qualifying, handing the championship leading New Zealander a penalty, dropping him by three grid positions.
Reportedly, the penalty wouldn’t be placed until after the top ten shootout – sourced from Speedcafe.com.
After much chaos in wet conditions during quali, the shootout brought a bunch of excitement as the grid was set for race day. Weather still not the best it could be with Super2’s final race canceled just beforehand.
Doubts began to cloud whether or not it’d go ahead – which was confirmed by Stewards that the session was cancelled at 4:55pm AEST.
Rain delays took a toll over the whole first few days into the weekend, causing havoc for the support categories and the main game.
No news as of yet as to whether or not the shootout will be given another chance, however from this stance, Waters will be starting from P1, situated next to Lee Holdsworth (39), and Chaz Mostert (30).
The weather for Sunday is predicted to be the same as the last few days; wet conditions with no signs of easing up until a weekday hits and high humidity.
Which duo do you believe will be crowned the 2022 winner of the great race?
Until next time,
Tayla Talks
Tayla Talks 
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