Bathurst 1000, ask for the program!

Contested in the Blue Mountains region less than 200 kilometers from Sydney, the Bathurst 1000 event will take place on the night of Saturday to Sunday. The Mount Panorama circuit (with a distance of 6,21 km) will once again be the scene of a 6-hour race for what will be the penultimate round of the 2022 Australian Supercars season.

Even if the great Shane van Gisbergen (Triple Eight engineering) dominates the championship with more than 525 points ahead of Cameron Waters, it seems premature to place him as THE favorite for the biggest meeting of the season. The New Zealander certainly has the wind in his sails (he has just finished on the podium in WRC2 for his rally at home last weekend), but there are so many ingredients to bring together to win the race against the mountain. He is once again associated with Garth Tander (quadruple winner), with whom he won the race in 2020. After a 2021 edition to forget, Van Gisbergen is really thirsty for revenge and could, if successful, win his second consecutive title in Supercars.

The Holden duo will have to be wary of the winner of the 2021 edition: Chaz Mostert, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver who will have a new teammate (he was associated with Lee Holdsworth last year). Fabian Coulthard is very experienced (3^e in 2017, 4^e in 2020) and looks to be the perfect sidekick to help Mostert retain his crown at Mount Panorama.

We must not rule out Craig Lowndes, seven-time winner of whom this will be the 29th^e participation as well as its 300^e departure in the discipline. For the occasion, the Supercars legend will be in a duo with the leader of the second division of the championship: Declan Fraser. If they have nothing to lose, the experience and enthusiasm of the two men could form the ideal mix to get a good place on the podium on Sunday morning.  

Cameron Waters has twice finished second (2020 and 2021). The Tickford Racing driver wants to break this curse. The lap record holder (set during his pole position last year in 2:03.3736) knows he has the potential to win in New South Wales. A victory at Bathurst would allow him to consolidate his second place in the championship standings. James Moffat, his teammate, seems the most suitable partner to cherish this rather crazy dream.

In the Dick Johnson Racing clan, which will celebrate its 1000th^e racing in Supercars, the confidence will be placed on the Davison brothers: Will and Alex. Will, winner twice (2009 and 2016), will want to increase his stats with the support of his brother, who failed at the foot of the podium in 2014. To celebrate this event, the Ford Mustang will wear a livery tribute to his boss Dick Johnson . The colors of 1998 will be in the spotlight, the year he himself ran the classic with his son Steven.
 
There will really be a lot of people on the starting grid for this 65^e edition of the “Grande Course”. Hostilities begin on Sunday October 9 at three in the morning (French time) with an arrival around nine or ten o'clock. The 2022 edition could be contested in humid conditions which have always been synonymous with a spectacle full of twists and turns.

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