MOTORSPORT: Bathurst's bumper Easter production

Easter is anything but a holiday for production car racers. It’s the time for a grassroots endurance event at NSW regional city Bathurst’s famed Mt Panorama circuit.

In only its second year, the Bathurst Six-Hour has drawn a bumper field of 65 cars and 150 drivers.

At this stage, and perhaps destined to be always, a ‘poor relation’ of the elite Bathurst 1000 for Supercars in October and the 12-Hour predominantly for GTs in February, the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst Six-Hour harks back to the origins of endurance car racing at The Mountain.

It’s comparatively affordable for competitors – the base cars must not cost more than $150,000 – and it has much more relevance to everyday motoring, even if it doesn’t have anything like the following of the other enduros – especially The Great Race (1000).

This weekend’s field has 17 car brands represented and 34 models (even without a new Mustang) across seven classes. Drivers come from all six states and the ACT, as well as New Zealand, the US, Britain, and Hong Kong and Singapore.

The winners are likely to come from Class A1 for all-wheel-drive extreme performance cars with forced induction.

While the class has six makes, the favourites are the turbocharged Ford Focus RS LZs – one to be driven by last year’s winners, Chaz Mostert and Nathan Morcom, another by Tony and Klark Quinn and New Zealander Andy Waite.

A1 has six BMWs in three types -- an F82 M4 Coupe piloted by last year’s runners-up, Grant and Iain Sherrin, an F20 M135i hatch with the indomitable Paul Morris among its trio of drivers, and four 1 Series M Coupes.

Then there are three Mercedes-Benz AMG A 45s. Audi also is represented in the class by a TTRS, Mitsubishi by eight Evos – with last year’s third placegetters, John Bowe and David Wall, going around again in Alan East’s Evo IX GSR – and Subaru by a couple of Impreza WRX STIs. In amongst all those is a supercharged V8 Ford FGII GT-F.

Yet last year’s victorious car, a rear-wheel drive E92 BMW 335i again entered in Class B1 (high performance, forced induction) by Barry Morcom and with Jack Perkins partnered by Leigh Burges, could still be an outright contender again.

Last Easter it completed 125 laps – 36 less than Supercars can do in a little more than six hours – for a distance of 776km.

While it has the horsepower for The Mountain’s long straights, it will at least have to beat the Focus, which Nathan Morcom says has “good power out of corners” and is “a perfect car for Bathurst”.

The diverse driver line-up for this second running of the Bathurst Six-Hour includes Adelaide 15-year-old Tyson Harvey, who won’t be allowed to practise in the Stephenson Motorsport Hyundai Excel X3 in which he’s entered in the invitation class under he turns 16 on Saturday.

Tyler Everingham, a 16-year-old apprentice electrician from Dubbo, is paired with 66-year-old Bob Hughes in one of (Colin) Osborne Motorsport’s Renault Megane RS 265 Trophy Rs.

Mostert, whose biggest victory was in the 1000 in 2014 but had his biggest crash at The Mountain a year later, says that, while racing a Focus this time will be quite different to the BMW last year, “it’s pretty exciting to have the Blue Oval [badge] on the front of the car”.

“The race has a lot of great memories in it already and the field is bigger this year – I’m sure there will be lots of competition,” Mostert says.

Apart from Mostert, Tim Slade is the only other full-time Supercars driver taking part – but there are several Supercars endurance co-drivers as well as the versatile and hugely successful Craig Baird, now the Supercars driving standards observer.

Baird is in one of the Merc A45s with Garth Walden – one of four cars entered by the Sydney team owner.

Walden reckons he and Baird are “a good shot at a win” and his second A 45 – to be driven by Robert Woods, Ben Porter and Duvashen Padayachee – a podium chance.

“We’ve made gains on the performance side since last year, but also on durability,” Walden says.

“There’s been gains in suspension and drivability, so it’s a better package overall.”

Garth Walden Racing’s other cars are a Class B1 Subaru and the Class B2 (high performance, naturally aspirated) defending winner Holden VE SS-V Redline.

“We feel like we’ve got strong chances in A1, B1 and B2,” says Walden, who has a crew of about 40 at The Mountain. "It’s a massive assault.”

Another four-car entrant is CXC Global Racing, with two Evo Xs – with Slade in one and Karl Reindler the other) and a pair of Evo IXs.

The invitational class failed to entice a new Mustang for this year but still ensures a good old Ford-v-Holden battle, with five AU Falcons up against a sole VY Commodore.

Practice is on Good Friday, with more practice and qualifying (in two halves) on Saturday, and then the six hours of racing from 11:30am Sunday.

The race – which also doubles as the first of six rounds of the Australian Production Car Series – will be streamed live on website bathurst6hour.com.au, which will also have live timing and scoring. Fans can also follow the event on Facebook, Twitter (@Bathurst6Hour) or via the hashtag #B6Hr.

A two-hour TV package will screen in coming weeks on SBS.