They will unite to race as part of the 62-car field which will tackle the Bathurst 6 Hour.

It was only six weeks ago that Schumacher and Anderson decided to tackle what will be the third edition of the Production Cars enduro, purchasing the Subaru Impreza which James Abela and Cameron Hill piloted to ninth outright last year.

For Anderson, the man who won the privateer class of the Kumo Touring Car Series in a Ford Falcon BF last year, it will fulfil an ambition he has held since the 6 Hour joined the Mount Panorama program.

“You always want to race at Bathurst. I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years now, but it’s always just clashed with other rounds, you’d finish here Sunday and then have to leave Monday-Tuesday, so you’d have to load straight away,” he said.

“I first drove this car about three weeks ago ... but it’s definitely a good car and we are just getting our heads around it and I think we’ve done that now, we’ve got a set up that works for both of us and is comfortable for both of us.”

Like Anderson, Schumacher has not previously raced a Subaru. He and his team-mate have not tackled endurance races longer than one hour before either.

Yet he is confident their experience – himself the 2017 NSW Production Sports State Championship victor – will serve them well.

“Neither of us have done a race this long … but I am used to spending over an hour in the car at a time and we are both young, both fit and healthy, so I don’t see any reason as to why we can’t do it,” he said.

“We’ve grown up here, both born and bred locals in Bathurst, so I think we’ve done enough laps around the mount.

“The idea behind it is that we are both race drivers, we’ve both had successful years last year and the right car came up for purchase and we decided to grab it. We’ve been friends since we were young and our families have been friends for generations, so we thought it made sense to drive in the 6 Hour together.”

The Kelso Electrical-Kenwood Homes Subaru will compete in Class A1 against outright contenders like Supercars star Chaz Mostert. It will be a challenge, but they wouldn’t want it any other way.

“You always want to race the best people you can,” Anderson said.

“There’s no point for us racing for nothing, we want to have a proper crack. We want to finish, but top 10 I’d be happy.

“We just have to be realistic, what we need to do is get to the fifth hour and hopefully we are in a good position and potentially we can fight for the best position we can.”

“We both drive pretty quick cars with our normal series, so I don’t think it would have been fitting to drive a slower car, we wanted to go for the top notch,” Schumacher added.

“Our race will definitely be heavily played on strategy. It will just be being there for that last hour and holding good track position to then.”

The 6 Hour starts 11.30am on Sunday, with qualifying from 2.25pm Saturday.