Re-set The Alarm

Rain at Bathurst means it’s time to re-set the alarm clock for race day.

The lights will go out 30 minutes earlier than planned at Mount Panorama tomorrow as the race-day timetable becomes the newest change in the year of Covid.

The official start time for the Bathurst 1000 is now 11am.

The pre-race Supercars warm-up has also been moved forward, to 8.30am.

As the weather moved in rapidly over Mount Panorama on Saturday afternoon, in the lead-up to the crucial Top 10 Shootout, the reason for the change became as obvious as the rain that threatened the final Super2 race of the season.

Wet weather is now an 80 per cent probability for the 2020 running of The Great Race.

The official forecast is for somewhere between 4 and 10 millimetres of rain through the day, with the possibility of thunderstorms.

2017 was the last year when rain had a heavy impact on Bathurst, but there are plenty of years when a wet track made a difference to the outcome – including the infamous early finish in 1992 when Jim Richards and Mark Skaife were awarded the win on an official count-back for a Red Flag, even thought their Nissan GT-R was eliminated by a massive crash during the final downpour.

The change should allow Supercars to meet its television deadlines, even if the pace is slowed considerably by a wet track.

REVISED SCHEDULE
BATHURST SUNDAY 2020

8.30am Supercars warm-up
9.00am Toyota 86 Series race
9.35am Aussie Tin Tops
11.00am Bathurst 1000