Eric Thompson: Hard to predict Bathurst winner

Peter Brock at Baypark in 1979. Photo / Jimmy Joe Photography.

Over the years at Bathurst, hot favourites have been losers and dark horses triumphant. With this in mind, and a bit of time on my hands, I consulted the Delphi oracle, offered up burnt offerings, looked at various entrails, visited a soothsayer and gazed into a crystal ball - and I still have no idea who will hold up the Peter Brock Trophy on Sunday afternoon.

What is it about men and mountains? We always want to climb and conquer them and in Southern Hemisphere motorsport parlance, there's none bigger than Mount Panorama. That single race, has produced more joy, despair and great feats of driving than any other race meeting in Australasia.

A thousand kilometres around that place is enough to do in anyone's head and you have to be a special driver to stand atop of the podium come the end of race day. I raced the mountain in the late 1970s and early-'80s, but only over half the distance and it did my head in. Mind you that was on a motorcycle.

I didn't get anywhere near the podium, but it wasn't through lack of trying. I'll be honest and put my hand up and say that place, just outside the town of Bathurst, is one of the scariest places to race, and the most exhilarating.

The circuit itself is regarded as one of the greats, up there with the likes of the old Nurbergring, Spa Francorchamps, Brands Hatch and Laguna Seca.

Over the past 47 years, this battle of man versus mountain has mentally broken many an emerging race car driver, even killed a few. But it has forged some of Australasia's best. Some of those to have made their names on the beast include Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Jim Richards and Larry Perkins. And more lately Mark Skaife, Greg Murphy, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

Brock will be remembered as the best, not only for his nine wins, but for his absolute drubbing of the rest of the field. Brock's six-lap demolition of all-comers in 1979 rates as the best, considering he broke the lap record on the last lap just for the hell of it.

The race even attracted a few ex-world motorcycle champions, one of whom was Greg Hansford who partnered Perkins to a win in 1993. Another was Wayne Gardner who set pole in 2000 and also had a third-place finish.

If you ask any driver, especially Kiwi Jason Richards, how hard it's to win that race he'll tell you. He's been trying for God knows how many years now and all he's got is three second place trophies.

If Lady Luck isn't in that cockpit you can kiss goodbye to any chance of winning. The race is too long, too gnarly, too complicated, too congested and too damn hard strategy-wise for drivers to just go round and round hoping to stay out of trouble and waltz to a win.

Pairing up

Car 888 - Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife

This car has the only pairing of drivers who have both won at Mt Panorama and so have the wood on all the others. Mark Skaife proved he can still peddle a fast car around Bathurst as evident last year when he and Kiwi driver Greg Murphy finished a close fourth.

He backed that up by winning the last endurance race at Phillip Island with guess who? - Craig Lowndes. These two will be fizzing heading to The Mountain and between them have nine Bathurst wins, so it's hard not to think they'll be in with a better than even chance. Also, Lowndes won three Bathurst races back-to-back with Jamie Whincup and will want to put his fifth place from last year to bed.

Car 2 - Garth Tander and Cam McConville

Defending Bathurst champion Garth Tander has had a year he'll want to forget. His season got off on the wrong foot at the opening round in Abu Dhabi where he came away with minimum points. He's fought his way back to sixth, but needs to win this weekend if he's to make a push at being a championship contender.

Arguably McConville is the best co-driver in the field having only stepped down from a fulltime V8 gig last season. He'll be fired up to improve on his second place Bathurst finish last year with Kiwi Jason Richards. The two have previously driven together at Bathurst, and were teammates at Gary Rogers Motorsport, so know each other's driving abilities well.

Car 18 - James Courtney and Warren Luff

A difficult situation to be in for the championship series leader James Courtney. He and his team have a solid handle on their 888-built chassis as proven by his pace and points' haul. The dilemma is whether to go for the win and risk breaking the car, or play a strategic game and rack up the points. This year Courtney has been consistently on the pace and appears to have consigned his old inconsistency to the bin.

Warren Luff will be in a similar position, knowing he can't go for broke and crash, stuffing up Courtney's chance of increasing his series' lead. Having said that, Courtney must keep a cool head and not revert to his old ways just because he hasn't won an endurance race yet.

Car 8 - Jason Richards and Andrew Jones

Kiwi Jason Richards will not want to end up on step number two for the fourth time. He's had three second-place finishes at Bathurst, and by anyone's reasoning, will be pig-sick of glancing up at the winners. He was blindingly quick at Phillip Island a few weeks ago coming from a lap down to finish in a blistering second place with Andrew Jones doing a lot of the unwinding.

Brad Jones Racing has an impressive record at Bathurst and only needs to win to make it an outstanding record. Jones, a nephew of the team owner, will be heading to The Mountain for a sixth time and so will be no novice. His best result was in 2005 when he finished, with McConville, in a solid fourth place.

Car 1 - Jamie Whincup and Steve Owen

Jamie Whincup, like Lowndes, will be smarting having not been able to win in four consecutive Bathursts. The two-time V8 Supercar champion has been nigh on invincible for the past couple of seasons and was only recently knocked off his perch by James Courtney who now leads the series. As a three-time Bathurst winner, Whincup knows how to win on the mountain and will want to reassert himself at the top of the heap.

Steve Owen is a former Fujitsu V8 development series winner and is generally regarded as the best V8 driver who doesn't have a fulltime seat in the series. This could be his chance to shine and prove he can play with the big boys. The down side: His over-exuberance might put it in the wall.

Car 51 - Greg Murphy and Allan Simonsen

No sane punter would rule out a fifth Bathurst title for Kiwi, and fan favourite on both sides of the ditch, Greg Murphy. Something just seems to happen when Murph arrives at Mt Panorama and, despite a dismal year, he is the one man every other driver says can come good on the day and put everyone to the sword. He still holds the record for the fastest lap (who cares if it wasn't during racing) of the track, 2min, 06.8594sec set in 2003.

His year has been variously described as "s**t" (his words) and the worst he's ever had. So nothing to lose for Murph, and watch out everyone else.