IT was massive news when it was announced and left many wondering what the impact would be on an event that was beginning to emerge as a huge drawcard in its own right.

As it turned out, the Bathurst 12 Hour coped perfectly despite the fact that no full-time V8 Supercars drivers were allowed to compete due to a mandatory testing session at Eastern Creek for their championship entries.

Instead of having an adverse effect, it seemed that it didn’t matter one iota as crowd numbers shifted into record territory to witness an action-packed race.

There can be no doubt now that the 12 Hour is growing massively in terms of its awareness both at home and overseas, and race organiser James O’Brien said that extra media had plenty to do with that, as well as the obvious quality of the drivers.

With the endurance event’s date locked in months in advance, V8 Supercars booked mandatory test days for its drivers on the same weekend as the 12 Hour.

The decision prevented star driver Craig Lowndes from defending his victory in the 2014 event and robbing the race of first-class drivers such as Shane Van Gisbergen and Rick Kelly.

Kelly was set to return as a driver of a factory-backed Nissan GT-R, and was the subject of unsuccessful protests by Nissan’s local chief executive Richard Emery and global manager of motorsport, Darren Cox. 

Yet O’Brien said the clash of categories “actually had a positive effect”.

“The overall result has been a net positive because of the publicity that our event has gained over the last six months as a result of the date clash issue,” he said. 

“We’d prefer that the V8 drivers were available, but the way it played out over the last six-odd months, the publicity was priceless.”

News of the clash made waves internationally, and leading teams had to draft in fresh talent to fill seats vacated by absent racers.

O’Brien observed the fact that the crowd numbers were higher both statistically and simply in terms of what you could see; the venue was noticeably busier than in past years.

“It’s noticeable on the top of the mountain, but there are other indicators, the camping areas sold out – that’s never happened before, the corporate suites are fully occupied – that’s never happened before,” he said.

The around-the-clock event saw crowd numbers increase by around 6000 people to 32,200 at the track.

That figure included V8 Supercar team owners Jonathan Webb and Betty Klimenko, who spent Sunday at Mount Panorama instead of Eastern Creek.

V8 Supercars chief James Warburton told Fairfax Media on Friday that “if possible, it’d be better to avoid [a clash]” with the 12 Hour, which is set to confirm its 2016 date in coming days.

O’Brien said no agreement is in place to avoid a similar situation next year.

“I’ve never met James Warburton nor have I ever spoken to him,” O’Brien said. “We hope that there isn’t a clash, but if there is we’ll just get on with it the way we did this year,” he said.

The 12 Hour boss said the future of his event lay with international racers, and said his team planned to reduce its reliance on local competitors, and that production cars that spend most of the race diving out of the way of world-class GT machines may not be invited to compete in future iterations of the event.