WINNING at Mount Panorama, no matter the race, is reason enough for any driver and crew to celebrate, but this year Prodrive Racing are chasing an even grander prize.
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They are looking to join Triple Eight Race Engineering in making it three consecutive Bathurst 1000 crowns for a Ford-backed outfit.
In 1963, when the Armstrong 500 was staged at Mount Panorama for the first time, it was the factory-backed Ford Cortina GT of Harry Firth and Bob Jane that claimed the chequered flag.
The blue oval again reigned supreme in the two years which followed, Jane and George Reynolds winning in their Ford Motor Company-supported entry in 1964 and the Fairfield Motors Cortina GT500 of Barry Seton and Midge Bosworth claiming the 1965 crown.
It took more than 40 years for Ford to string together three consecutive Great Race victories again, and this time it was the same team behind the hat-trick: Triple Eight.
It was a period in the V8 Supercars Championship when main game drivers were allowed to share the same car for the endurance races.
Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup formed a formidable combination as they won at Mount Panorama in 2006, 2007 and 2008 before Triple Eight switched to Holden.
Holden Commodores were the first across the line for the next four years, but their streak came to an end when Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards got the job done in a Ford Falcon FG in 2013.
Chaz Mostert made it back-to-back wins for Prodrive as he and co-driver Paul Morris came from the rear of the grid to win last year.
With Winterbottom and Mostert sitting first and second respectively in the drivers’ championship, Prodrive will rank among the favourites for the 2015 Bathurst 1000.
“Obviously we’ve had a win each the last couple of years, so we’d love to get the hat-trick no matter what car it is. Obviously the FG X has been on fire this year,” Mostert said.
“It’s been pretty cool. Frosty [Winterbottom] was really quick in 2013 and obviously last year it went my way.
“This year we feel like we’ve got the best package we’ve had in a lot of years. We’ll just see how we go.
“Just because you’ve got a fast car and can go fast all day doesn’t ensure you a good position.
“We were 24th last year and ended up winning the race. That just goes to show anything can happen.”
A one-two finish in the Sandown 500 gives the Prodrive team further belief a third Bathurst success could come this
year after Winterbottom and Steve Owen won the first round of the Enduro Cup ahead of Mostert and his co-driver Cam Waters.
Prodrive’s other driver – Rod Nash Racing’s David Reynolds – is another to keep an eye on at the Mount.
He is sitting third in the drivers’ championship and in 2012 he and co-driver Dean Canto narrowly missed out on claiming the Peter Brock Trophy when finishing behind the Whincup-Paul Dumbrell Holden Commodore.
Winterbottom would love to join Brock (1978, 1980) and Lowndes (1996) in winning the Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and championship in the same year.
But he knows there are no guarantees when it comes to Mount Panorama.
“We go up there now confident we can win it – not over-confident, but we believe in ourselves,” he said.
“That is really good because we had tried for some many years and came close and fell short.
“We got that first one off our back and then the next year we instantly back it up with another win.
“So we know we can do it.
“To win one Bathurst is amazing, to win two back-to-back is impressive and to get a third one would be insane.
“We will have confidence, but it is a tough road. We will try hard to win it. We were lucky to get one, let alone two, so we will see what unfolds.”
