BRAD Schumacher might have a chuckle to himself when he says "they must breed Bathurst drivers well", but when considering what he, Mick Anderson and Brad Shiels will do this week it's hard to argue with that sentiment.
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The trio of talented drivers will be involved with one of the biggest spectacles of motor sport in Australia when they race as part of the bumper six-day Bathurst 1000 event which starts on Tuesday.
On top of that, all three have the chance to ice impressive seasons at Mount Panorama.
Anderson is in line for two different series podiums in the Super3 category, Schumacher is the current leader of the trophy class in the GT World Challenge Australia, while Shiels is currently the best performed privateer in the TCR Australia series.
"It's great for Bathurst to have Bathurstians that are racing at such a high level in our home town in front of a home crowd," Schumacher said.
"Obviously Brad Shiels is a phenomenal driver, he's pro-rated as a driver under the FIA scheme and he does a lot of driving, you could says it's his profession.
"Michael and I are part-time drivers but at a very, very serious level so all in all, we're certainly punching above our weight in the classes that we're running in."
It will not just be those who are trackside that will watching the Bathurst trio in action, with race fans from Australia and across the globe set to tune into coverage of the huge Mount Panorama event.
"For me in the past doing Bathurst 12 Hours have probably been the biggest event that I've ever competed in, then we look back to 2020 when we did the tin tops at the Bathurst 1000, it was a big event but it obviously didn't have the crowd," Schumacher said.
"The different here is that we've got the crowd, the camping ground is sold out, we've got all the grandstands up and marques up, so it feels like it used to feel which is great.
"Then the great thing about the GT World Challenge Australia is that it is watched closely by people all over the world, the GT cars are a world platform unlike the V8 Supercars which might get a bigger following in Australia, but not so much overseas like the GTs.
"It's the same with the TCR's Brad is racing in, they're race all throughout Asia and Europe, so you do have a lot of eyes watching both the TCR and GT World Challenge Australia."
Like Schumacher, Shiels is looking forward to racing in front of a big crowd.
"It's going to be really cool, it's one of the biggest races in Australia, one of the biggest throughout history. I can't wait," he said.
"Hopefully now with the restrictions easing too we'll have a good crowd if the weather isn't too bad. That will make it better as well, having a big crowd."
Shiels has been impressive in his debut season of the Australian TCR series behind the wheel of the #333 Tilton Racing Hyundai i30N. Not only is he the leading privateer, but he sits in 10th outright heading into the Bathurst season finale, positioned ahead of the likes of former Supercars full-timers Michael Caruso and James Moffat.
"We've been doing pretty well despite a few of the mechanical dramas we had earlier in the year. I think if we hadn't had those problems we'd even be a bit further up again," he said.
The Bathurst round will be the first for Shiels and his TCR rivals since May, but they will be helped by the fact they contested the third round of their series at Mount Panorama in April.
"When we came here at Easter no-one had any idea what the cars were like here because we hadn't raced here before, sometimes they can be a bit lose to drive, so everyone was a bit nervous I think," he said.
"They're actually really nice to drive here, they're better than I expected and at least now we know straight away what the cars are going to be like which makes it easier to get back into it."
He will contest three 21-lap races for the TCR's Bathurst 400 round - on on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Shiels said that he aims to "just go out there and do the best I can, that's all you can really do."
"We haven't really done any races that long in TCR before, they're pretty hard on the tyres being front wheel drive," he said.
"The front tyre does all the work so it's really difficult to make the tyres last that long, so the biggest part of the race is going to be looking after the tyre.
"But the thing is everyone says they're going to be conserving tyres, but we're probably going to be going flat out and everyone will just see where we are at the end."
For Anderson, who steers the Anderson Motorsport Ford Falcon on the combined Super2-Super3 grid, the aim is to come away from Mount Panorama with two 2021 outright series podiums.
It would further add to what has already been a successful return to racing for Anderson, who placed sixth in the 2018 Australian V8 Touring Car Series before spending two seasons focusing on running the team.
"In Super3 Cup I'm actually leading that championship and I'm coming third overall in the main championship, so we're definitely looking like we're going to clinch one championship and hopefully I'm going to be on the podium for the second one," he said.
"It's like most categories, there's sort of two in one. We're still going out there to win everything.
"I've had pole positions and I've finished on the podium for different races, but this year we've just had the car dialled in perfectly, after the last couple of years in development we've come a long way.
"If we didn't have a Super2 driver make contact with us and break our steering at Townsville we'd still be leading the championship, so that one race did hurt us, but we've still always had good speed."
Anderson will contest a pair of 100 kilometre races - one Friday afternoon, the other on Saturday - and look to add to his strong performances during the season-opening Bathurst 500 round where he claimed round honours for his class.
It would not only keep him in the Super3 Cup lead, but help his cause for an overall Super3 podium. In that battle he sits on 807 points with Reef McCarthy (885) and Nash Morris (939) the two men ahead of him.
Naturally he's hoping the predicted rain stays away, but even if it is wet, he will enjoy being part of the huge Bathurst event.
"It's definitely going to be a good thing for Bathurst, it just depends if the weather is going to play ball, it looks like it is going to be a little bit hit and miss, but we'll just have to wait and see," he said.
"It's really exciting and should be something different for the spectators to watch as well. It's very good having three of us [Bathurst drivers] here, especially being in a range of categories too."
Schumacher leads the trophy class of the GT World Challenge Australia series by 25 points over Brett Hobson. He'll debut his new, current specification Kelso Electrical Audi R8 LMS in the season-ending Bathurst round which consists of two one-hour races.
If he manages to retain his lead, it will mark a brilliant debut season in that series.
"Job's not done yet. I need to finish within the top three of every race to take out the championship, so little bit of work to do and anything can happen because it's Bathurst, so not getting too confident naturally.
"We're just sticking to the strategies we've set ourselves which is changing every day with the way the weather is changing.
"At the start of the year it was a brand new team we put together for Schumacher Motorsport, all local guys, some guys with experience, some guys without experience. It was a big task for me as the team owner and driver to really piece all that together.
"So as ambitious as I am, at the beginning of the year, I never thought we'd be heading into the final round with a 25-point lead in the championship. I am pinching myself, it's obviously going to be a fairy tale to win the championship because it hasn't been easy, it has been up and down.
"If you look back at Bathurst we had a major incident and our the guys worked all that night to end up bringing in two race wins that weekend."
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