Team TRTPower Rankings: Bathurst 6 Hour
Bathurst never fails to deliver.
The 2023 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst Six Hour has written another chapter in the incredible story of long-distance racing at Mount Panorama.
Here we break down all of the Hots, Nots, Whats and Memes from another Easter classic.
ABOUT THE RANKINGS: The TRT Power Rankings are compiled by your nominations from social media and edited by the TRT editorial team. They’re designed to give a balanced, as fair as possible critical overview of those things that excelled and those things that struggled, at each event. It’s (mostly) a democracy, and what you nominate generates the order, so have your say next event via our social media channels, @theracetorque on Facebook, Twitter and Insta. Look for the call out each evening and get commenting!
HOT
1. That Race
Holy smokes, how do you unpack that lot?
The second ever red flag in the event set up a fascinating run home, which was further complicated with a safety car with 1hr12min to go to retrieve a Commodore from The Cutting, right at the edge of the fuel window.
With Jayden Ojeda completing his compulsory stops earlier, he was in the box seat.
Another yellow for an expired Honda setup a 30 dash to the flag.
Ojeda then lost half of his 4sec advantage with 15min remaining, while an epic three-way battle for third ensued within the final 10min.
Ojeda then appeared to be in fuel drama, while the safety car appeared with 3min to go when multiple crashes occurred around the track simultaneously.
A swift clean-up allowed for a one-lap dash to the flag, with Ojeda/Simon Hodges winning from the Russell family, who were awesome all day long, with Anton De Pasquale and friends elevated to the podium when Tyler Everingham was pinged from the last step of the podium when it was ruled that his final move was under yellows.
But wait, there’s more!
Tony D’Alberto became beached on the last lap in the Chase, and all hell broke loose for multiple class results.
The A2 class battle went down to the final corner of the race, with the Quinn/Quinn/Denyer car getting the better of the Casha/Delfsma/Gray Mustang by short a bumper, A1 was split by a second at the chequers, Class C was separated by 2sec after 6hrs, while Class E only had two entrants, they were also split by 2sec at the finish.
All told, 11 cars finished on the lead lap.
What a thing.
Bathurst: tap it into our veins.
2. Jayden Ojeda
This is that big breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.
Gutsy, gutsy passes, ultimately with his move in the grass down Conrod a deciding factory.
Held on in the one-lap sprint home, ably backed up by Simon Hodges.
He’s got swagger and personality, clearly oozes talent, and has overcome being snake bitten at The Mountain – The Juice in the big leagues would be a quality outcome for the sport.
3. The Accessible Bathurst Enduro
The Bathurst 6 Hour is simply different.
The basis of production cars means that you don’t need a mega-budget to compete. Thus, many of the entries originate from backyard sheds, with families providing the manpower over the race weekend.
Forget lush corporate tents for catering. The bulk of the field was powered all the way by ham sandwiches, plus home-baked cookies and cake.
Teams take it seriously, but there is very much a laidback vibe around the paddock.
For punters, the access is unrivalled.
Where else are you invited onto the grid of a Bathurst enduro?
That’s a HOT in our books, and according to the comments section of the internet, it is the sort of thing everyone should actually love.
4. The Russell Family
Firstly, a big attaboy to Drew Russell, who placed the family’s M3 second on the grid, amidst a sea of hired-gun pro Supercars pilots.
Then the father-son-son trio were front runners throughout and finished second ahead of multiple big guns.
The ultimate privateer comes good story that can only happen in Bathurst.
5. Marcos Ambrose
We have examined this previously on these pages – motorsport is simply better with Marcos Ambrose involved, fact.
Returning to The Mountain for the first time behind the wheel after a hyper-extended hiatus away, it was awesome to see the spark of old return.
And he was in outright contention too, until the 10-speed auto in the Mustang gave up, although that only paved the way for him to make an appearance in the commentary box, where his insight and stories were brilliant.
Please, Marcos, do the 2024 Six Hour.
6. Tony Quinn
The second coming of TQ is a good one, a true front-runner in multiple classes over the weekend.
It’s a story you love to see.
Massive ups to his grandson Ryder, with a massive move at the last turn of the race to capture the class win.
Watch that name…
7. Racing for a Cure
Racing for a Cure sums it up nicely – the Kavich Brothers were joined by Thomas Randle for the weekend, with their Yellow Pages-backed Bimmer raising cash for Breast Cancer Trials.
It’s a cause close to the hearts of the Kavich tribe, and one dear to Randle, who overcame a cancer scare of his own, with the team’s efforts over the years raising over $130,000 for the charity, with another $45k added in 2023.
They were bloody quick on race day too, finishing fourth, with Randle in the thick of the lead battle in his first ever proddy car race, a PB result for the crew in the event.
8. Will Davison’s Pole
Willy D is no stranger to big laps around the Mountain, but he laid it all on the line to take home the Saturday chocolates in the BMW he shared with Tim Leahey and Beric Lynton.
Production cars simply weren’t designed to bang out 2:24.4612sec laps around Bathurst, with long-range MRF tyres and threat of precipitation working against the effort.
Will noted that he has never ragged a lap that hard at the venue, which is absolutely all you can ask from man and machine.
Sadly, the team just wasn’t quite in the conversation at the end of six hours, with a flat tyre one final cruel blow.
9. Supercheap Auto’s Best-Presented Bonanza
Huge attaboy to the team at Supercheap Auto for getting behind the best-presented car award, with $500 going to each of the eight classes.
An awesome initiative, which was warmly received up and down pitlane.
In the non-pro world of the Six Hour, rewarding effort this way is a big deal.
10. Save of the Weekend
The Race Torque is proud to support our mate Asher Johnston, because he is bloody good.
On Saturday afternoon, he was good enough to have the biggest off of the day, the most spins at 200km/h into The Chase, and he was kind enough not to wipe any of the stickers off the car.
Bad for the end result, simply awesome for Hobgoblin Ruby Ale awareness.
MORE HOTS
GT World Challenge Australia
Two nice clean races saw Liam Talbot and Bathurst debutant Max Hofer sweep the weekend for Audi, but the definite highlight was in race two when Talbot stalked down Prince Jeffri in the Triple Eight AMG, claiming the ultimate victory with a ballsy run around the outside of the Chase.
Also HOT was Brad Schumacher’s move on fellow Audi pilot Geoff Emery on the last lap of race two at The Chase to claim a place on the podium.
Further HOTNESS in the TV coverage came when Brad was behind the bar at the Reckless Brewing Co pouring frothies.
A solid GT field too, which will continue to grow as the year goes on.
TV of Things
Some of the things we love to hear on an Easter Sunday include: Josh Buchan, Grant Denyer, Marcos Ambrose, and Matty White, who was clearly enjoying himself. Also, drones are cool.
Ryan Casha
GT4 & Production Cars
While the early laps of the races were competitive between the GT4s and the best BMW, the GT4s won out in the end.
A highlight was the bulk of the GT4 overtakes happening at McPhillamy Park…
Nissan Pulsar Racing
Smaller field than the Excels, but the local Pulsar racing class turned on some quality content.
62 Excels
We have been staunch advocates of the Hyundai Excel class here on TRT for a long time, and despite some doom merchants saying years ago that the category would be priced out of existence, a mega field once again fronted for The Mountain.
Is 62 Excels a good thing on track together at any one time? Hint, see NOT.
Bathurst.
Again. Just Because.
BETWEEN HOT & WHAT
WHAT
Grant Denyer blowing the door off the Ginetta
Fernando Alonso vibes
Won’t lie. We’d wear out the red button
Angle parking – it’s one of Bathurst’s proudest traditions, and obviously, one that has been severely disrespected in this image, raising the ire of the local community…
Monorail mentions
Craill using his privileged position of power to brutally force a Simpsons monorail reference in the broadcast, when the B6HR drone camera picked up said transportation device during a conrod shot. It was neither smooth nor subtle, but also: Any Simpsons reference will do.
Smon Champman
NOT
1. Six Hour Biffo and Attrition
2. Bathurst Weather
Between fog, rain, and generally being bloody cold (no warmer than 11 degrees on race day), Bathurst did it again!
Now, Bathurst wasn’t alone in being host to rubbish Easter weather, but unpredictable conditions on The Mountain add to an already tough task.
At least there weren’t the biblical floods from October or November last year…
3. Excel Biffo
It’s almost a predictable outcome: 62 cars, largely amateur drivers, a 6.213km race track, and watching eye of live TV cameras, carnage ensued, with all three races featuring safety car appearances.
For a thing we love, you hate to see it.
4. Skippys on track
It’s champagne Bathurst, and it happened multiple over the weekend. Ugly for all involved.
5. Waved off Six Hour Start
What’s up with that? Frankly the second time around was no better – so why wave off the first?
6. GT Friday Crash
Not: crashing. Hot: Having fans on the spot banging out prime content for our consumption.
7. Porsche PLP
One second was the difference between a swift compulsory stop and a pit lane penalty for the GT Porsche of Yasser Shahin and Garnet Patterson.
Sadly, the crew cribbed the compulsory stop time by a second, and thus a top result went begging in race two.
8. The comments section
The Bathurst 6 Hour page was mainly filled with people complaining about the fact the race was on Stan and not free for them to view. Seriously, in this day and age, people need to deal with it and move on..
9. Automatic gearboxes
Frankly appalling that Ford didn’t design their 10-speed Auto to survive a six-hour Production Car race at Mount Panorama, denying us a shot at seeing the Miedecke Mustang contend for victory. Proof that manuals remain the king of gearboxes.
10. Prince Jeffri Punted
Turn one, lap one, friendly fire from behind. Ugh.
TWEET
It’s a Bathurst tradition!
High fa-shun
It’s a race of attrition…
Boom-tish, he’s here all week folks
Well done: our official of the meet
Is anyone missing a green VW Scirocco?
Ok, hide your Sciroccos…
MEME
