Bathurst lap record to be shattered

Triple Eight Race Engineering technical director Ludo Lacroix is certain the existing lap records for V8 Supercars at Mount Panorama will be smashed at the upcoming Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

In fact, after the $2 million resurfacing, he believes the circuit could almost be too fast. Lacroix's says the substantial extra grip generated by the new surface will mean extreme speed and a huge challenge for the teams and drivers to adjust.

The current lap records for V8 Supercars at Mount Panorama are Jamie Whincup's 2min08.4561sec (race), Greg Murphy's 2min06.8594 sec Lap of the Gods (qualifying) and Craig Lowndes' 2min06.8012 sec (practice).

While the rev limiter, installed essentially as a safety mechanism, will restrict speed gains made on Conrod Straight, Lacroix said the cars would be quicker up Mountain Straight and that would be a key factor in slashing the records.

"We will get every time the six (2min06sec race lap time) easy," he predicted.

The rev limiter issue raised its head at Sandown, where cars spent two seconds "hitting the wall" on the back straight because of better drive off fresh tarmac out of turn four and improved team understanding of the aerodynamics and rear-end stability of the New Generation V8 Supercars, which are now in their second year.

The #1 Red Bull Commodore's Sandown win showed off its power-down traction out of tighter corners, brilliant ability to ride the kerbs, excellent damping characteristics on the rough and patchy surface and strong engine.

But Bathurst is smooth and flowing, negating some of those advantages and Lacroix thinks that will bring at least the Holden Racing Team back on terms.

Lacroix has handed some incentive to the team's rivals, saying not to expect a Triple Eight dominance in the October 9-12 enduro in the same way Jamie Whincup/Paul Dumbrell claimed victory in the opening round of the Pirtek Enduro Cup, the Wilson Security Sandown 500.

"Nobody has got good traction," insisted Lacroix. "But we have the best of all of them.

"Even so I think HRT has good traction but they don't have mid-corner pace so they have to challenge the mid-corner pace of their car to get good traction.

"They have got now good engine so they show good pace in the straight. It is going to be interesting at Bathurst. They will be there."

Lacroix rated Red Bull a 3-1 chance of victory at Bathurst and HRT a 4-1 or 5-1 chance. He said the Volvo Polestar Racing S60 of Scotty McLaughlin and Alex Premat are on his next line of betting at 7-1: "They are the dark horse".

He attributed Red Bull's strong recent run of form to the team's improving understanding of its car, rather than wholesale changes.

Whincup has climbed from as low as sixth be to first in the Championship and win seven of the last 13 races. Teammate Craig Lowndes also moved into second after Sandown.

At the same Ford Performance Racing has crashed disastrously, with Mark Winterbottom giving up a 161 Championship lead since Darwin to be sitting third 279 points off the pace.

"There is new thinking around the car, not new generation," explained Lacroix.

"There is new generation parts in the car last year but this year we are using them. Last year we just fitted them. They worked, but now we are starting to use them.

"And the game has gone up too... it's not the Fords that keep dropping their pace, it's our pace which is going up. And they are still there, they just need to be a tenth or two not as quick and all of a sudden you are with a pack of angry drivers.

"We are optimising the use of the tyre definitely and we are always good on hards ... we are brilliant on hards and even more brilliant if Jamie has a good car. Then we are hard to beat."

The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 is conducted entirely on the Dunlop 'hard' control tyre.

Tickets are available for the event now, with a limited number of grandstand options still available.