Our Ultimate Guide to the 2022 Bathurst 1000

This year’s epic Bathurst 1000 is almost upon us. For all of us fans, whether we’re watching on TV, listening on radio, or those lucky enough to be there in person, this is shaping up to be another great Great Race on October 9.

Finally, we can get excited about Bathurst without COVID hanging over our heads. Every available campground space is sold and we’re returning to the traditional October time slot. Bathurst is back with vengeance!

With massive crowds, a packed schedule and an extremely competitive field, it’s set to be one of the greatest races of all time. Have a read of our ultimate guide to the 2022 Bathurst 1000.

What’s New at the Bathurst 1000 in 2022

There’ll be a return of the normal and the familiar this year. We’re back in October, and that just feels right. The event will be structured in its traditional format, with The Great Race still 1,000 kilometres of Holden vs Ford, with 161 laps starting at the regular time of 11:15 a.m. (and everyone is still wondering why it started an hour later in 2021… something to do with the sunset apparently).

As for the specifics of the event, there will be more cars competing than in any Bathurst 1000 since 2013. This year there will be 28 V8 Supercars, each with a driver pairing, as three wildcards were granted a spot in addition to the 25 full-time entrants.

On the milestone front, Craig Lowndes will make his 300th round start in the race. And in a special anniversary for long-time Bathurst fans, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Peter Brock’s first Bathurst win. Let’s hope this year’s event lives up to the standards the King of the Mountain set for so long.

The Bathurst Racing Categories

This year’s schedule is absolutely packed, with a number of events helping to provide four full days of entertainment. We will see the likes of the Heritage Revival, the V8 SuperUtes and the Toyota 86. It will then all culminate with Race 30: The Great Race, on Sunday, October 9.

The other events are:

• Porsche Carrera Cup – which mixes Pro and Pro-Am drivers.
• Dunlop Series – also known as the Super2, which has become an important step for young drivers to improve their craft before progressing to the Supercars Championship.

We’ve listed two schedules below. The first covers the practices and times for the Bathurst 1000 specific events, and the second is an exhaustive list of all the other races times and categories across the four-day extravaganza.

Bathurst 2022 Schedule

Supercars Bathurst 1000 Races

All other Bathurst Races

Bathurst 2022 Entry List

We’ve got an incredibly competitive field this year. Last year’s winners will be on opposing teams, Chaz Mostert saying goodbye to Lee Holdsworth, having defected to Grove Racing, after getting his first chequered flag with Walkinshaw last year. Mostert stayed put, and has recruited experienced campaigner Fabian Coulthard in Car 2 this year.

Where to watch the Bathurst 2022

You can watch every race of the entire event on Foxtel, Fox Sports and Kayo. The good news is The Great Race is still a freebie on Seven.

Drivers’ pre-event banter

James Moffat and Cameron Waters are excited to team up once again. After a day focussed on on pit stop practice and driver change, the pair seem ready to go. As Moffat explained, “until you actually do them on pit lane where there are different variables that get thrown at you as circumstances. For Cam and I, we’ve both been doing it long enough that sort of just happens pretty easily without any hiccups.” This is the second time Moffat has partnered up Waters, and is his fifth consecutive Bathurst 1000.

The tension and excitement is building. This is truest for those actually competing in the event. At a recent test day, last year’s winner Chaz Mostert couldn’t resist a cheeky swipe at his former teammate Lee Holdsworth: “Just getting Fabs (Fabian Coulthard) up to speed, which he’s doing a great job out there, probably even better than Lee”.

Holdsworth responded by laying down the gauntlet: “When our helmets go on for the race we won’t be best mates anymore”.

Drivers to watch in 2022

Indeed, we all remember Mostert and Holdsworth teaming up for a memorable victory last year. As for this year, it’s hard to go past any team where Shane van Gisbergen is the lead driver. He has been a dominant force this year, and he and Garth Tander are favourites to take it out in 2022. The cousin pairing of Will and Alex Davison are expected to give it a fair shake as well. Will finished 7th last year but is currently 3rd in the Championship, so he’s expected to improve on last year’s result in 2022.

As always, there are a lot of uncertainties heading into the race. Will Brown’s massive crash at Pukekohe in the last round has led to a mad scramble to repair his car. Whilst he’s a massive outsider to win, it would be a devastating result to miss out on the race completely. Thankfully for Brown, as the star of Erebus Racing, he has the priority to take Greg Murphy’s wheel as part of the repairs. Of course, this would be terrible news for Murphy and the fans that are hoping to see another miracle from the “Lap of the Gods’ racer and four-time Bathurst winner.

In some better news, Bathurst 1000 newcomer Jaxon Evans has secured the final spot on the grid. The Europe-based Kiwi Porsche driver will team up with Jack Smith of Brad Jones Racing, as the pair will attempt to do the impossible. Evans, who has raced on Mount Panorama in Carrera Cup and 12 Hour, explained that “endurance racing isn’t new to me, and neither is Bathurst but heading there in a Supercar is definitely going to be a pinch me moment.” However unlikely it may be, we would love to see such an underdog pairing go all the way. New Zealanders punch above their weight at Bathurst; there’s a long list of multiple Kiwi Bathurst winners including Richards, Murphy, McLaughlin, Van Gisbergen… who’s next?

Who has won Bathurst more – Ford or Holden?

There will be one unique element to this event. We bid a sad farewell to Holden, knowing it will never be quite the same. Even the most ardent of Ford fans will surely feel this is a sad end to an era, and indeed a rivalry. Nonetheless, of the 28 cars in the main event, 19 of them will be Holdens, so they are likely to go out with a bang, by adding another Bathurst to their 2022 Manufacturer’s Championship.

So here we are at the end of an era, and it seems a perfect time to reflect on the great Ford vs Holden rivalry. Bathurst has been a mainstay on the Supercars Championship schedule since 1999, but going even further back, we can see a dominance over the various different eras of the event.

To properly contextualise the dominance of Holden and Ford, Nissan is the third most victorious brand in the history of the event; they’ve won it twice. Ford has won it 21 times, and Holden, a stunning 34. Such was their popularity and dominance, only Fords and Holdens were allowed to enter the event from 1997 to 2012. Surely the racing gods will help Holden sign off with win number 35?

We’ll soon be able to look forward to a new era and rivalry with the Gen3 launch from 2023, and when one rivalry ends, another begins, in Australia’s favourite racing category.

Camping at Bathurst 2022

All campsites at Bathurst have now been snapped up. For Reid & Sulman and McPhillamy Park campers, they are able to check in from 9am on October 1, while Paddock campers can enter 24 hours later. All other campers can check in from 9am on October 4th, almost two full days before the first race even commences. It’s going to be a long week for the campers, but we’re sure they’ll have an amazing time.

Get behind the wheel at Mt Panorama

Believe it or not, you can experience the ultimate V8 Supercar experience for yourself! With Fastrack Experiences, you can drive a purpose built V8 race car on Bathurst’s Mt Panorama. Because the track is usually a public road, experiencing the power of ‘The Mountain’ is usually limited to V8 Supercar professionals. You’ve got to get in early as this two day annual event always sells out. We hope to see you there!

Bathurst kicks off at 7:25am on Thursday, October 6. Don’t miss the top Ten Shootout at 5:05 pm on Saturday. It concludes with The Great Race, starting at 11:15am on Sunday, October 9. We absolutely can not wait!