MOTORSPORT: Bathurst 12-Hour a watershed

And this year it's different. Instead of a production car race the entry rules have opened it up to GT cars.

Some of the regular production car entrants don't like that. On the other hand it sees Le Mans 24-Hour specialists and multiple winners Team Joest at Mt Panorama with two Audi R8s -- with V8 Supercar superstar Craig Lowndes as one of the drivers (pictured).

Another touring car great, John Bowe, is at the mountain in a Ferrari 430GT3.

The field -- although thin at 28 cars in five classes -- includes another Ferrari, nine Porsches, a Mosler MT 900, A Corvette 206, Nissan GTR R35 and Lotus Exige S.

Then there are seven BMWs, three Mazda RX-7s, a Ford FPV GT, Holden HSV VX-R Turbo, just a couple of Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions this time rather than the previous 10, and a Subaru WRX STi.

So this is a new incarnation for the other Bathurst.

Auto Action magazine's preview of the event called it "a mouth watering prospect for a grand spectacle that will have fans and observers watching with keen interest".

We'd like to think so, but will it?

Surely this is a watershed for endurance racing in Australia. It is a test of whether the public -- as either spectators at the track or TV viewers -- want real endurance racing other than the Bathurst 1000 -- a pure V8 Supercar race for about 15 years now, although its origins were far broader.

We note Bathurst mayor Paul Toole saying the 12-Hour is of major economic benefit to the NSW regional centre and that he is expecting "a very big crowd".

A three-hour television package from the event will be screened on One HD on the evening of Saturday, February 19.

The organisers claim that "coverage will be beamed to a potential international audience of more than 30 million homes around the world".

As has been noted with V8 Supercar telecasts, particularly overseas, there is a very big difference between the potential audience and the number of people who actually watch.

But first and foremost the Bathurst 12-Hour needs to succeed nationally. Track attendances have been small in the past and the TV audience for the delayed telecasts modest.

Now the 12-Hour is at a crossroads -- a test of whether the field of more exotic cars, the injection of a top-notch international team and the presence of Australia's highest-profile driver and reigning Bathurst 1000 champion Lowndes can give it serious significance on the racing calendar and with the public.

Even if it is not mega this weekend, there will be those who will say that the new format might take two or three years to take hold.

Clearly the competitors enjoy these enduros and the promoter(s) keep(s) them going.

So often so many Australian motorsport enthusiasts talk of craving some serious racing in this country other than V8 Supercars.

So what will the new-look Bathurst 12-Hour deliver?

If a field with this spice can't attract spectators and viewers might it be that there really isn't a need, a genuine appetite, for anything much other than V8 Supercars?

Last year there were three production car endurance races -- the Bathurst 12-Hour, a Six-Hour at Eastern Creek and then an Eight-Hour at the Creek.

It was that Eight-Hour that got this author wondering about the future of endurance racing in Australia other than the Bathurst 1000. It, the Eight-Hour, had only a handful of entries and barely that many spectators.

Maybe it was production cars the public weren't interested in.

Maybe they weren't interested in seeing them at Eastern Creek.

Maybe that race was too late in the year -- too close to Christmas.

So now we have the combination of the country's greatest race track, Bathurst, and a field with variety and something -- quite a lot -- exotic.

Bowe, a dual Bathurst 1000 winner and a V8 Supercar champion, is the 12-Hour's strongest advocate.

"A 12 Hour race around Bathurst is a very serious test of human and mechanical endurance," he said.

"In the past it has been strictly production based, but this year international GT cars have been allowed to compete. It's like going back to the days of Group C and Group A touring cars, with the huge speed differential -- but isn't that what racing has always been about?

"There will be many twists and turns to the race, as there always is, but this year will bring glamour to the event with Audi, Porsche, Mosler, Lotus and, of course, Ferrari.

"To have an opportunity to drive at Bathurst in the Ferrari is something I wouldn't miss for quids. The F430 is a great little car; I think it will go really well.

"The Audi guys are in a 2010 car -- it's a works factory entry, so you would have to say they are odds-on favourite to win it -- but it's a 12-hour race and it requires a lot more than outright speed to win.

"I think we are a great chance.

"To become a really large event I think it needs 50 cars -- and the only way you are going to have 50 cars is to have GT cars. I'm disappointed that the production cars haven't supported it more fully this year, because if you look at the Nurburgring 24-Hour they have every car with wheels on it almost.

"(But) This will be an absolute cracker of an event -- right up there with some of the world's best endurance events."

Lowndes hopes his drive of the Audi could open the door for him to race at Le Mans, perhaps as early as next year.

"This is hopefully a stepping-stone to the Le Mans 24-Hour, which is really the ultimate race I'd love to do one day," he said. "Hopefully we're on the podium somewhere this weekend. That'd be a great result for me, and then the bigger picture would be trying to secure, or at least build a relationship with Joest to try to do Le Mans -- next year or beyond.

"This event (Bathurst 12-Hour) has opened its doors, in a sense, to allow other cars and manufacturers to get involved. To have the German team come over and to attract a team of that magnitude is a credit to the organisers. It really shows the European teams are having a close look at what we have here."

So two of the greatest names of Australian motor racing are hugely enthused about the Bathurst 12-Hour.

Among the Australian motorsport community the jury is out.

We await the verdict on whether there is a future for an alternative enduro to the Bathurst 1000.

The website to follow this weekend's event is www.bathurst12hour.com.au.

After taking over from teammate and world champion Sebastian Vettel midway through the second day, Webber only got in 17 laps before what he called "a problem with the installation -- something with the pedals".

F1 correspondent Adam Cooper reported that it was a master-cylinder problem.

Anyway, last night (Australian time) Webber did 105 laps of the Ricardo Torno circuit and was second fastest of the drivers in 2011 cars.

Robert Kubica was quickest in Renault's new R31 with a time better than that posted by Fernando Alonso -- when he topped the timesheets in the new Ferrari F150 on day two -- and Vettel in the RB7's debut on the first day.

Webber was almost 0.8 seconds slower than Kubica and 0.3 seconds slower than Vettel had been two days earlier. Between Kubica and Webber on the third day sheet were Adrian Sutil and Jenson Button in 2010 Force India-Mercedes and McLaren-Mercedes cars respectively.

Red Bull focused heavily on the new Pirelli tyres when Webber was in the RB7 as it was his first chance to experience them -- and his new machine -- for a full day.

"It was the first good long run in the car for me, so we learnt a lot," Webber said. "There are some quick cars out there, but it was a good finish to the test for us. We (Red Bull) had a good day one and day three -- day two wasn't quite so productive.

"But overall the team has done a bloody awesome job -- to get the car here for the first test and do the work we've done straight out of the box, it's impressive."

The website formula1.com has a major interview with Webber for further reading.

Red Bull Racing's head of race engineering Ian Morgan said Webber's testing at Valencia was "an encouraging start".

"We've had good reliability and a reasonable performance -- it's a solid foundation to start developing towards the first race of the season (in Bahrain on March 13)."

Ferrari's Felipe Massa had a spectacular fire on the F150 in the first hour of the final day at Valencia after the car had run trouble-free for teammate Alonso. Ferrari said the fire was the result of "an oil leak caused by a broken clamp".

"Unfortunately, the lubricant ended up on the exhausts, which led to a small fire breaking out -- and that caused some damage to the car," it said.

Massa got back out on the track in the last couple of hours.

Rookies Pastor Maldonado from Venezuela and Sergio Perez from Mexico were quicker in the new Williams and Sauber cars than Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes GP W02.

The second pre-season test is at Jerez, over four days from next Thursday -- with the first appearance of McLaren's new MP4-26 and Australian youngster Daniel Ricciardo set to do half a day in the Scuderia Toro Rosso STR6 he will drive in Friday practice at GPs this year.

Meanwhile, outspoken Team Lotus technical chief Mike Gascoyne has blasted the "boring" modern GP circuits in the Middle East.

"Why don't we stop going to boring racing circuits?" Gascoyne has said. "A lot of the (F1) races now that are really boring are all the purpose-designed tracks built in deserts where you could have done absolutely anything that you want. Bahrain and Abu Dhabi were the two most boring races of 2010.

"It's pretty disappointing that you've got two massively boring races on circuits where you had literally carte blanche to do anything you liked. You could have had elevation change or moved sand wherever you want it."

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...