THE potential to race in Mount Panorama's three biggest motor sport events in the space of five months - it is tantalising prospect, yet Bathurst driver Brad Schumacher is not allowing himself to get excited just yet.
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It's because Schumacher knows all three events hinge on just how the coronavirus pandemic continues to unfold.
The virus has already led to cancellations, postponements and reconfiguring of many motor sport events in Australia, those hosted at Mount Panorama amongst them.
The Bathurst 6 Hour planned for Easter could not go ahead as intended and it is now expected that will run in November in conjunction with the inaugural Bathurst International.
Supercars still plans to stage the Bathurst 1000 in October, but also intends to host the season finale of the series at Mount Panorama instead of Newcastle.
That season finale will be in February 2021 and at this point, will combine with the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Schumacher could race at all three events - in his Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car as a support category for the 1000, in the 6 Hour behind the wheel of a Subaru Impreza and in the 12 Hour.
But he knows nothing is set in stone.
"I guess at this stage I'm not going to get too excited about any racing because you just don't know what's going to happen," he said.
"There's a lot of unanswered questions, but the main thing is that there is racing going ahead at this stage and that is what we all care about."
After contest this year's Bathurst 12 Hour in a Ford Mustang for MARC Cars Australia, Schumacher was looking forward to returning to the Mount in Easter.
That did not happen.
"Obviously we missed out in the Bathurst 6 Hour in the Subaru and that's the same weekend the Australian GT were at, so we would have been in the Porsche there as well," he said.
"Of course that weekend got cancelled due to COVID-19, but it's now been announced we are on the November weekend. However, I am told that only the 6 Hour will run in November and the Australian GT won't get a slot in that tight schedule.
"But I have been informed that, at this stage, the Australian GT will be support category at the Bathurst 1000 weekend in October."
Though an October and November drive at his home track looks a distinct possibility, when it comes to a third consecutive Bathurst 12 Hour appearance Schumacher is less certain.
That event raises a lot of questions for Schumacher in terms of a whether the 12 Hour grid would get enough entries, health and safety measures plus logistics.
"Being that the 12 Hour is predominantly filled with international teams, it is difficult obviously at this stage to know if it's still going to go ahead," he said.
"If it ran as only Australian and New Zealand teams you wouldn't have many more people than what you'd see on the grid for a regular GT rounds.
"The other thing to consider is a lot of GT teams have been hammered by COVID-19 and potentially don't have the luxury of running a GT car at the moment. That could dwindle the number on the grid even further.
"It says the Supercars will be a support to the 12 Hour, but I guess the other thing is with the 12 Hour being the main event and if the Supercars are there as well, where do they situate those guys in terms of garaging?
"Do they get put in the support paddock or do 12 Hour teams end up in the support paddock with Supercars in the pit garage?"
"Something to think about as well as a Bathurstian, we are in a regional area and pretty lucky that everybody here has generally been doing the right things as figures for COVID-19 show out this way.
"But if we have a big event we are going to bring a lot of people to Bathurst from all over Australia and if the borders are open, internationally. In particular if the Bathurst 12 Hour goes ahead as usual in February, then we'll be bringing people into the Bathurst region from all over the world and that's a bit of a concern.
"It's a catch-22. It's obviously fantastic for our town to have such big events and without COVID in the mix we all want these things to go ahead no doubt, but by the same token now we all have to think about public safety."
