Kiwis well placed for success at Bathurst

MIGHT this finally be the year in which one of the current crop of Kiwi V8 Supercar stars sees his name engraved on the Bathurst 1000 trophy? That is my hope, and to an extent my expectation, on the eve of the 62nd edition of Australia’s selfstyled great race.

Mind you, it was something I was also anticipating last October, when Shane van Gisbergen was leading the championship from Scott McLaughlin heading for the demanding Mt Panorama circuit. Victory on that occasion fell to two of the sport’s old hands — Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards — albeit with Richards at least being a New Zealander.

This time round it is McLaughlin who heads to Bathurst as series leader, with van Gisbergen his closest chaser. McLaughlin’s teammate, Fabian Coulthard (currently fourth in the series), is the third young Kiwi who has come close to Bathurst glory in recent years, but has still to make the top step of the Bathurst podium.

Sharing his Ford Mustang with fast and experienced Frenchman Alex Premat, McLaughlin is certainly the favourite on both sides of the Tasman. Coulthard, meantime, lines up with Australian Tony D’Alberto in the second DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang and should also be in the mix for a podium result and possible victory.

If Holden is to spoil Ford’s bid for a first Bathurst win since 2014, then van Gisbergen is the driver best placed to do that. This is especially possible given the stature of his Triple Eight Racing codriver Garth Tander, who is already a threetime Bathurst winner.

If a Kiwi doesn’t feature in tomorrow’s Bathurstwinning combination, then the pairing most likely to have prevented this from happening is van Gisbergen’s teammate Jamie Whincup, who has Craig Lowndes as his codriver. This duo count no fewer than 11 previous Bathurst wins between them, including three victories driving together. The other allAussie combination deserving respect is Ford’s Tickford Racing pairing of Chaz Mostert and James Moffat.

What of last year’s Kiwi winner Steven Richards, who is already a fivetime Bathurst winner? He is teamed with Australian Mark Winterbottom. These two won Bathurst in 2013, but there have been few signs this year that their Holden Commodore has racewinning pace.

There are three further New Zealanders competing this weekend. Richie Stanaway and Chris Pither are the only allKiwi pairing, and it would delight me if they could grab a top six result. Cracking the top six would also represent an absolute triumph for Kiwi Andre Heimgartner, who pairs with Australian Bryce Fullwood.

There’s one other car in the 26strong field I’ll be watching with particular interest. That’s the Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden Commodore that IndyCar drivers Alexander Rossi (USA) and James Hinchcliffe (Canada) will drive.

There are a couple of other pointers to note: Firstly, tomorrow’s race starts later than in the past, at 1.30pm New Zealand time. It will probably finish somewhere around 7.30pm.

Secondly, one of the key support classes for the main event, the Touring Car Masters, includes Dunedin’s Michael Wallace. Hopefully we’ll get to see some footage over the weekend.