There has been 60 years of stories, legends, races and champions, with the newest chapter being written this past weekend.

The 2023 Bathurst 1000 took place from October 6 – 8 at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales.

The Great Race is the highlight event of Australian motorsport and has been a staple of the touring car scene in the country for decades.

For those not familiar with the event, here’s a quick description of what lies ahead for the teams and drivers of the Repco Supercars series.

The race involves 161 laps around the 6213 meters of the Mount Panorama Circuit, which equates to 1000 kilometres.

Because of the nature and length of the event, teams bring in co-drivers to assist in piloting the car and each one must complete a minimum of 54 laps.

And some of those were some heavy hitters.

From Australian legends such as seven-time Supercars champion and four-time Bathurst winner Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, who’s conquered Mount Panaroma seven times, to the Porsche factory drivers of Kevin Estre and Simona de Silvestro, there was talent up and down the grid.

And all them would have a hill to climb in order to conquer the mountain.

Thursday
The Great Race has a unique weekend configuration, with six practice sessions over the course of the four-day event, with two of them dedicated strictly to the co-drivers, those being the second and the fifth.
The first two involved a lot of learning, as it was the first time many of the teams had driven this new third generation Supercar around the circuit.

While some were learning about the car, others, like Estre and De Silvestro, needed to reacclimatize themselves to the circuit, as both last raced there in 2019, the former in the Bathurst 12 hour and the latter in the 1000.
These sessions were led by Coca Cola Racing by Erebus in their Chevrolet Camaro, with Brodie Kostecki topping the first practice and his co-driver David Russell leading the second.

Friday
This day’s sessions were where things started to come into place, with race runs and pit stop rehearsals happening throughout the field.

Practice three saw the majority of these, with teams working out the timing of brake changes, driver changes, and the possibility of adjustments.

It is also where Ford fired their first salvo with a one-two, with the pairing of Matthew Payne and Estre on top, followed by David Reynolds and Garth Tander, with Kostecki and Russell being the first Chevy, sitting in P3.

With one more session to go before first qualifying, most teams were eager to find out what changes were needed to give them the best chance at the top 10 shootout.

Once again, it was Erebus flexing their muscles, with Kostecki/Russell posting the fastest lap showing that they were a serious threat for pole. Scott Pye and the pairing of Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth rounded out the top three, while Cam Waters and Payne finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Qualifying for the shootout was a bit of a hectic affair with two red flag moments. The first was for Will Brown, who buried his Camaro into the wall at Turn two, and the other for Declan Fraser crashing hard at Reid Park, or Turn seven.

While the former was able to get back out for the remainder of the session, the latter was looking at a long evening to night of repairs to get the car ready for the rest of the weekend.

When the 40-minute qualifying concluded, it would be Kostecki, James Golding, Anton De Pasquale, Waters, Broc Feeney, Reynolds, Shane Van Gisbergen (SVG), who managed to sneak his way in one his final run, Payne, Mostert and Will Davidson battling for pole in the top 10 shootout.

Saturday
The fifth practice session was another chance for the co-drivers to get some more runtime in, get used to the setups of their respective cars and provide any last bits of feedback that they could.

It also had a Red Bull Ampol Racing sighting at the top of the timesheet, as Richie Stanaway, co-driver to SVG, was fastest in the session ahead of Tander, Zane Goddard, Russell and Jayden Ojeda.

The final practice session of the weekend is where plans diverged.

Most were doing some final runs and making late adjustments in preparation for Sunday, while the shootout participants were preparing for their dance with the mountain later in the day.

Feeney and Whincup were quickest ahead of Kostecki/Russell, Brown/Jack Perkins, Waters and Van Gisbergen.

Then it was shootout time.

This portion of the weekend has always been a massive highlight and it is something that both fans and drivers look forward to.

The entertainment value here is at its highest, with 10 drivers pushing themselves and their cars to the absolute limit in a one-shot qualifying format in search of Bathurst 1000 pole.

And this year was no exception.

With some amazing laps from Feeney, Payne, and SVG to name a few, the runs across the mountain where some of the finest driving you’ll see this year.

In the end though, no one was a match for Kostecki, who put down an absolutely remarkable lap to take pole.

The 25 year-old’s time was .483 seconds faster than second place and did one of the fastest splits across the top of the mountain ever.

Sunday
The 60th running of the Great Race started off with an overtake as Whincup took the lead off the start from Russell.

Things ran smooth and the pit stop cycle had begun until lap 27 when Estre locked up into Hell Corner (turn one) and hit the wall, beaching it in the gravel trap and bringing out the first safety car of the day.

This sent the grid into a frenzy for those that had not stopped, most of them being in the leading group, trying to take advantage of the situation.

The race got back underway on lap 30 with Dylan O’Keeffe leading SVG, Reynolds and Feeney, but the former had a rough restart, falling from first to fourth by the end of Mountain Straight and into turn 2.

It went green until lap 39 where contact between Scott Pye and Dale Wood sent the latter into the wall out of the final corner.

A flurry of pitstops were triggered by the safety car, including a double-stop from both Erebus and Red Bull.

Things got back underway at lap 42 with Mark Winterbottom leading the field ahead of David Coulthard.

It wasn’t long until the likes of Kostecki and Stanaway started to make their way through the field and before long, the two were in first and second.

Things kept relatively calm for a while, strategies began to start playing out and the race had developed a bit of a rhythm.

That was until lap 70 where James Moffat made a crucial error, hitting the wall through The Dipper (Turn 14 and 15), bringing out the third safety car and ending the race for the Tickford Racing machine.

After more stops took place, racing got back underway at lap 73 with Russell in the lead ahead of Tony D’Alberto and Warren Luff.

A groove developed once again as the divergence in strategies was starting to truly show.

The fight between Erebus and Red Bull continued to rage as neither team could separate themselves from the other, though there was one decision that seemed to be making the difference.

The number 99 of Kostecki and Russell did not pit under the lap 70 safety car, while the 97 and 88 from Red Bull had double stacked.

Thus, with 30 laps to go, Van Gisbergen and Feeney held a one-two and a 4.6 second back to the leading Erebus car.

Then on lap 137, disaster struck for the 88.

A broken gear level mount, an issue that had struck the 888 of Lowndes and Goddard much earlier in the race, forced Feeney into the garage and out of contention.

With the final stops happening for the leading pair at laps 146 and 149, it was clear that staying out on lap 70 had come back to bite Kostecki and co., as the gap had grown massive through the pit cycle and SVG had put himself into a grand position with a now 23 second lead.

Battling some steering trouble and some brake issues towards the end and the fear of a gear lever mount issue possibly arising for his car, Van Gisbergen was able to get it home to win the 2023 Bathurst 1000, marking his third victory of the Great Race, his second in a row and also the first for his co-driver Stanaway.

This is only the second time ever that a pair of New Zealand drivers have taken victory with the first being Greg Murphy and Steven Richards in 1999.

Kostecki and Russell came home in second while De Pasquale and D’Alberto grabbed third spot, giving them their first podiums at Mount Panorama.

The series heads next to the Gold Coast, and with it being the penultimate round in the championship and with how close the title race is, it’s sure to be a hotly contested 500 mile race.