IT was not so long ago Mick Anderson was contemplating a season without racing at Mount Panorama, but now he has his sights set on a Super3 podium at Bathurst.
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Earlier this month the support category was scrapped from this year's Bathurst 1000 program due to the logistics involved with quarantining, but with teams still willing to undergo that process, last week the Super2-Super3 series was reinstated as part of the October program.
It came as welcomed news to Anderson, team boss of Anderson Motorsport.
They are now focused on getting Declan Fraser a Super3 podium with a strong run in the team's Ford Falcon FG.
In July the talented young Queensland driver finished runner-up for the Super3 round at Sydney Motorsport Park, while in late August he had a strong showing at Townsville when running the Anderson Motorsport Falcon in the Aussie Tin Tops series.
"He's been going really good, he's getting real comfortable in the car," Anderson said.
"Racing in Bathurst is a big thing, everyone wants to race at Bathurst. It's always the one that you want to go to.
"He's ran in an [Toyota] 86 at Bathurst before and he's run in the 6 hour before, so he's done a couple of laps there before.
"He's pumped to come down and the way it's looking, the borders may even be open for Queensland drivers I'd say. Either way he's coming.
"Definitely the goal is a podium. We are putting everything into it to try and make it happen. We are going to try and do a test day before Bathurst and then go to Bathurst with all guns blazing."
The Super2-Super3 series will be the headline support category at Mount Panorama, with the program for the four-day event also including the Aussie Tin Tops, the Toyota Australia 86 Series and the Combined Historics.
As for the Supercars teams, they have been given seven hour-long practice sessions, including three specifically for co-drivers. The top 10 shootout will commence at 5.05pm on Saturday, October 17, while the race itself starts 11.30am on October 18.
While initial plans were to run a 250 kilometre Super2-Super3 enduro at Bathurst, that has been altered and Fraser will tackle a pair of 100 kilometre races for the round. One will be held Friday afternoon with the second to follow on Saturday.
"It would have been good to do a pit stop, that would bring another strategic element into it where it's not just about what's on circuit, but that's how it is," Anderson said.
"With this COVID thing they've got to do what they can to minimise people in pit lane and it works well for us given we can only have minimal [five] crew members with us.
"For us the preparation realistically couldn't be better because we are the only team which is based here.
"There's not as many categories which suits us, it means we can go into the weekend like the main game itself. We can spend Thursday, which is just practice, not qualifying, we can spent all of Thursday tuning our set-ups, making sure we are in the window come Friday for qualifying."
