Battle returns to Bathurst for 21st visit to Mount Panorama

Harri Jones (Equity-One Pro) and Rodney Jane (Pro-Am) will seek to continue their title-leading ways this weekend though it’s not likely to be easy.

The 26-strong field locked in for this weekend remains consistent from the most recent hit out at The Bend; 17 Equity-One Professional class cars and 9 Pro-Am contenders entered. Four drivers will run in the Masters category within the Pro-Am ranks.

Six drivers will race this weekend battle hardened following global Carrera Cup exploits last weekend.

French-Finnish young gun Marcus Amand returns to Australia as the newly crowned Porsche Carrera Cup France champion, having sealed the title last weekend at Paul Ricard.

It will mark the second time this season that Carrera Cup Australia will have hosted two current global one-make Carrera Cup champions on the same grid.

Dylan O’Keeffe, Bayley Hall, Matt Belford and Dean Cook all came away with silverware from last weekend’s Porsche Carrera Cup Asia finale’ in Singapore – the challenging Marina Bay circuit a perfect warm-up for the Mountain this weekend.

Meanwhile, Sonic’s Porsche Michelin Junior ace Marcos Flack snuck over to contest the final round of Porsche Carrera Cup Germany at the Hockenheim circuit, ensuring he’s likely to return battle hardened too.

It will mark the second time this season that Carrera Cup Australia will have hosted two current global one-make Carrera Cup champions on the same grid.

Once again eyes will be on both the Porsches and the classic Bathurst enduro as well, with three Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia drivers to perform double duties this weekend, with championship leader Harri Jones to line up alongside Anton De Pasquale aboard the Team 18 DeWalt Chevrolet Camaro for his first Bathurst start.

David Russell, meanwhile, will make his 16th Great Race start, returning to PremiAir Racing alongside James Golding.

Dale Wood will make his 18th Bathurst start, driving alongside Penrite Racing young-gun Kai Allen. That team is owned by Carrera Cup competitor and multiple Pro-Am class champion, Stephen Grove who will also race this weekend.

It is not unprecedented for drivers to succeed doing both: Warren Luff won the 2013 Bathurst Carrera Cup round, before going on to finish a fighting third in the Great Race later that day.

Meanwhile, Steven Richards finished third overall in the 2015 Carrera Cup Bathurst round before winning the Bathurst 1000 later that day with Craig Lowndes.

They remain the only instances where a driver doing double duty has scored a pair of Bathurst podiums on the same day.

Five different drivers and five different teams have claimed the last five Bathurst rounds: David Wall (Wall Racing), Cooper Murray (McElrea Racing), Aaron Love (Sonic), Harry King (EMA Motorsport) and Harri Jones (Porsche Centre Melbourne) having taken the top spots.

Of the current field, Jones is the only driver to have won at Bathurst previously, claiming the round honours last year.

David Russell and Dale Wood completed the podium with the latter also claiming race three, the traditional Bathurst 1000 warm-up on Sunday morning.

Adrian Flack claimed two of the three races to win the Pro-Am round ahead of Rodney Jane, who won Race 1, and Matt Slavin.

Jones’ holds the qualifying record on the Mountain, his 2m04.6672s best set in 2023.

Five different drivers and five different teams have claimed the last five Bathurst rounds.

British ace Harry King owns the race lap record, the benchmark standing at 2m05.4074s also set in 2023.

This weekend marks the 21st Porsche Carrera Cup Australia round at Mount Panorama, the most of any circuit on the calendar.

The event commences on Thursday morning with a solitary practice session ahead of the all-important qualifying for the TAG Heuer Pole Awards on Thursday afternoon.

From there, one race each day on Friday and Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, respectively, completes the weekend with the finale' the traditional pre-Bathurst 1000 curtain-raiser.

All sessions will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo while all three races will also be shown on the Seven Network.

Info

Head to www.carreracup.com.au for more information and the full entry list.