5 key storylines to watch as battle for Bathurst reignites

Australian motorsport's biggest weekend is upon us, as the 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000 is now less than a week away.

This year's Great Race is shaping up to be a classic, with a three-way title fight heading into Mount Panorama with five races remaining in the 2024 Repco Supercars Championship.

Although Will Brown swung the championship momentum firmly back in his favour with a Sandown 500 win alongside Scott Pye, Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney are by no means out of the fight just yet.

As we've seen across more than 60 years of endurance racing at Bathurst, anything can and probably will happen this weekend.

We also have the unusual (but not unprecedented) scenario of having been to Bathurst already this season, where the three championship contenders got their seasons off to strong starts at the Thrifty Bathurst 500.

Whilst there is a lot to look forward to on track this weekend, there is also a lot that has been announced in the past few weeks post-Sandown.

Here are some of the key storylines to watch at the 2024 Repco Bathurst 1000.

To win a championship, or to win a Bathurst 1000?

A dominant display at Sandown saw Will Brown claim 300 points as he fights for his maiden Supercars crown, stretching his lead to 189 points over Chaz Mostert. By no means is it one hand on the trophy for Brown at this point, but he is in a reasonably comfortable position with 900 points on offer across the remaining five races of the year. With 300 of those points to be handed out on Sunday, Bathurst could prove to be the pivotal race in the championship. Brown could possibly afford to play a slightly conservative game, but being a racer's racer you would imagine that is unlikely. Mostert and Broc Feeney will almost certainly be going for the win given their 189 and 222 point deficits respectively, ditto Cam Waters who has showed Bathurst-winning speed for years. At 446 points behind Brown, Waters will be desperate to break his Bathurst duck, and will probably need a bit of help in the form of troubles for both Red Bull Camaros and the Optus Mustang, which feels highly improbable. However, you can always expect the unexpected at Bathurst...

How does Toyota news impact WAU?

In the three week gap between Sandown and Bathurst, the biggest Supercars story of the decade broke with the major announcement of Toyota joining the field in 2026. A full-scale model of the car will be unveiled in pit lane at Mount Panorama on Friday, and you can imagine there will be a tonne of media surrounding the reveal, particularly with Walkinshaw Andretti United as the homologation team. Ryan Walkinshaw has come out publicly and said that WAU's focus will remain on continuing their success with Ford until the end of next season, something that Ford executives would've been relieved to hear given they've been the leading hope for the Blue Oval this season. Whilst Chaz Mostert has been around the game long enough to know how to manage these big events, it will be interesting to see how Ryan Wood performs this weekend with the increased attention surrounding Toyota. Whilst you'd expect next year will be a bigger challenge for WAU juggling homologation and testing with running another Mustang attack, the first event post-announcement could also prove a big test, especially with Mostert in title contention.

How will new SC, FCY procedures impact strategy?

After the Safety Car and Full Course Yellow procedures caused consternation up and down the Supercars paddock at Sandown, Supercars and Motorsport Australia have tweaked the process for Bathurst. There is no longer a minimum lap count under FCY before the deployment of the safety car in an SC situation, and the FCY speed limit has been increased from 80kph to 120kph after consultation with drivers. With a minimum of two laps run under FCY at the Sandown 500, that handed teams the opportunity to pit their cars on consecutive laps, removing the double stack element of strategy for teams with evenly matched cars in terms of track position. The double stack risk should once again become a factor with the longer lap meaning there should theoretically be less laps run under FCY conditions. The changes should also eliminate the opportunity to react to pit stops made by those around them, and be covered by the FCY in doing so. Will teams now be forced to split strategies to alleviate any double stack concerns, and if so how will that change the complexion of this race compared to Sandown?

Will the co-driver stint be just as wild as it was at Sandown?

The new-for-2024 rule mandating that primary drivers had to start at the enduros gave the Sandown 500 a different strategic feel. Instead of the usual strategy of co-drivers starting the race, clearing their minimum lap count, and handing over to their main driver to complete the 500km, the co-drivers had what essentially became their own race within a race in the middle of the day. The co-driver stint was arguably the most important stint of the day at Sandown, with several high-profile co-drivers making big mistakes that cost their entry a chance at a podium at the very least. At Sandown, those who minimised mistakes (both on and off-track) got the greatest benefits, with the three Camaros that made their way onto the podium all getting there with minimal mistakes and damage. Now that the co-drivers have got their eye in and blown off the cobwebs at Sandown, will we see the co-driver portions of the race be just as chaotic, or with the FCY changes, will we see more of a split in strategy after the main drivers start?

Will Ford's reliability concerns be squashed?

Richie Stanaway's early crankshaft failure at Sandown might not have been a sign of things to come in the rest of the 500km enduro, but it was a sign of things to come on Monday when a further three Mustangs were parked up at the ride day with engine dramas. This has led to Ford having to homologate and ship crankshafts from Ford's Mustang GT3 car to Australia to fit to the Supercars, with new part having been rigorously tested over two days last week. However, with such a tight turnaround between events, it's unlikely that Ford will have enough of the new parts to distribute to all of the Ford teams. If all of the Mustangs do get new crankshafts to fit in time for Bathurst, then the question will be if any of the spare engines will get the GT3-spec crankshaft. There is also the potential for further changes to be made to both the Ford and the Chevrolet engines as a result of the AVL dyno testing in America, with both engines likely to be fine-tuned as opposed to wholesale changes.