AS Mount Panorama prepares to play host to this weekend’s Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, it’s probably fair to say that most people living in our city do not yet realise just what a special event this is.
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The revitalised 12 Hour is only a decade old and does not yet generate anything like the local buzz that surrounds the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 each year.
The 12 Hour does not yet attract the crowds, the congestion in the city or the massive economic boost for local pubs, clubs and restaurants of the Bathurst 1000. But that’s not to say it never will.
Because while the Bathurst 1000 is easily the biggest fish in the Australian Supercars pond, the 12 Hour race is swimming in a much bigger body of water.
This year the race has attracted more than 170 drivers from 17 countries and 53 cars.
A total of 12 manufacturers will be represented on the grid, including factory-supported or assisted teams from Bentley, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, McLaren, Porsche, KTM, Ginetta and Lamborghini.
Eleven of the drivers – including Craig Lowndes, Jamies Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen, Scott McLaughlin, David Reynolds and Chaz Mostert – are among the biggest names in the domestic racing scene.
These are numbers that would have been unimaginable when the 12 Hour returned to the Mount in 2007.
The 12 Hour is not a local event, it is part of an international circuit that has seen drivers and teams touching down in Daytona and Dubai in recent weeks. That’s the sort of company we are keeping now.
On Sunday, millions of race fans across the world will tune in to a live stream of the 12 Hour – perhaps even more than would bother to watch the Bathurst 1000.
And still the potential for growth in the 12 Hour is enormous.
Organisers and not hoping to make it the biggest race in Australia; rather, they want to see it become one of the major races in the world. And they’re will on the way to making that happen.
Meanwhile, to walk around the Bathurst CBD on Friday afternoon you would have been hard pressed to realise there was a race in town at all.
Nothing will ever replace the Bathurst 1000 in the hearts and minds of Bathurst – and Australian – motorsport fans but, in time, the Bathurst 12 Hour may come close.
We just wonder how long it might take for the rest of Bathurst to catch on.