Bathurst 1000 top runners tight-lipped on potential rain pace

The top three qualifiers for tomorrow’s Bathurst 1000 have remained tight lipped about their chances should the forecasted rain arrive for tomorrow’s 161 lap race around the Mount Panorama Circuit.

With the heavens holding out on opening up throughout the Top Ten Shootout despite dark and threatening clouds, it looks increasingly likely that tomorrow’s race will go wet, if not all the way through then at least for a decent portion, a prediction which has seen Supercars move the race start forwards to 1100 local time.

Pole-sitter Cam Waters and his Tickford Racing team haven’t decided whether he or co-driver Will Davison will start the #6 car tomorrow but isn’t too phased about the car’s wet pace thanks to a strong baseline setup.

“If it rains in the warm-up session, we’ll get a good idea on what the car is like”, Waters said.

“Traditionally at Tickford we don’t change the car setup much going into a wet session so hopefully the car is good in the wet if it rains.

“If not, then it’s going to be a long day but obviously Will (Davison, co-driver) has driven these cars as well so he knows what to expect if it does rain so that’ll probably help us.”

Tim Slade, co-driver to Scott McLaughlin in the #17 DJR Team Penske Mustang, might have to start the race and do so from second on a grid though despite never having driven the car in the wet, remains confident of its pace given the Kiwi’s exploits in wet qualifying last year.

“I don’t think it (the rain) will throw any surprises, Scott was on pole here qualifying in the wet last year,” Slade said.

“The thing is obviously pretty good, it’s got the grip there, it’s just normal race car driver stuff; if the car has grip, we’ll extract the most out of it. I don’t think it’ll be too much of an issue, it might have a bearing on who starts the race.”

Warren Luff proved his speed in the wet back in 2017, starting from nearly last on the grid as the only co-driver amongst main drivers and dragging the #2 car up the order, something he hopes he could emulate tomorrow in Chaz Mostert’s #25 Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden Commodore.

“A few years ago it was wet and we had a fair old crack at the start of the race,” Luff recalled.

“We were back in 19th or 20th but to be fast here in the wet you need a good car and to have confidence in your car.

“There’s 25 cars out there, all with drivers that are capable of doing the job if the car’s under them and especially in the wet around here, you need confidence in your car.

“We’re pretty confident that if it does or when it rains tomorrow, we’ve got a pretty strong package.”

After putting the car up to third on the grid in qualifying, Mostert remains calm about the prospects of rain, joking about some potentially lucky clothes that might be used tomorrow if it gets wet.

“At the moment I’m wearing duck socks that my missus gave me before I left home,” he joked”

“The weather predictions said it was going to rain so she bought me duck socks; we’ll put them on before the race and see how we go.”

With the rain expected to arrive before the race starts at 1100 Bathurst time, it looks unlikely that the race time record set in 2018 will be beaten over the 161 laps.