Mount Panorama 500

The Mount Panorama 500 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Mount Panorama 500) is an upcoming Supercars Championship motor racing event to be held in 2021 at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. A championship sprint event at the circuit was previously held six times between 1969 and 1996.

Not to be confused with the Bathurst 1000, formerly known as the Bathurst 500, an endurance race held at the Mount Panorama Circuit since 1963.

Mount Panorama 500
Race Information
Venue Mount Panorama Circuit
Number of times held 6
First held 1969
Race Format
Race 1
Laps 41
Distance 250 km
Race 2
Laps 41
Distance 250 km
Last Event (1996)
Overall Winner
John BoweDick Johnson Racing
Race Winners
John BoweDick Johnson Racing
John BoweDick Johnson Racing
John BoweDick Johnson Racing

History

The Mount Panorama Circuit is best known as host of the Bathurst 1000 endurance race for touring cars, an event which was first run in Bathurst as the Armstrong 500 in 1963. In addition to the endurance race, generally held in October, the circuit had traditions of hosting a major event over the Easter weekend, dating back to the circuit's first major event, the 1938 Australian Grand Prix.[1] The first four ATCC sprint rounds at the circuit were held as part of the annual Easter event, with the races held on Easter Monday.

The Australian Touring Car Championship, first run in 1960, was held as a single-race event until 1968, with Mount Panorama hosting the championship in 1966. At the event Ian Geoghegan won the second of his five championship titles, and he also went on to win two further sprint rounds at the circuit, including in 1969 when the championship expanded to a multi-round series.[2] The Easter 1972 round, Geoghegan's third win at the event, has been considered as one of the greatest races in championship history due to the close battle between Geoghegan's Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III and Allan Moffat's Ford Boss 302 Mustang.[3][1] The battle between the distinctive Ford models, in which the lead changed hands multiple times, culminated in Moffat needing to loosen his seatbelts to see out the side window with his windscreen covered in oil. From 1974 onwards, the Easter event only featured motorcycles and continued until 1988.[1]

After a championship absence of over two decades, a sprint event returned to Mount Panorama in 1995 and 1996. The event was not on the Easter weekend, however it was still the second major annual event (the maximum permitted at the circuit under the New South Wales legislation of the period) following the demise of the Bathurst 12 Hour after 1994. Both of the 1990s rounds were won by John Bowe, winning the 1995 round without winning either of the two races and then winning all three races in 1996, both of which in the 1994 Bathurst 1000-winning chassis.[4] In 1995, Bowe's team-mate Dick Johnson, who was the first to match Geoghegan as a five time series champion, won his final championship race before suffering a rear wing failure at approximately 280 kilometres per hour while talking to the Seven Network commentators on RaceCam in the second race.[5]

The sprint round did not remain on the calendar in 1997, with two Bathurst 1000s being held instead after a promotional split, while from 1999 the unified Bathurst 1000 itself became a championship round.[2] In 2020, the return of the sprint round was announced to be held in February 2021 as the final round of the extended 2020 season, in a shuffled calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] One month later, the event was removed in a further revision of the calendar, which was truncated to again finish within the 2020 calendar year.[7] Subsequently, an event in February 2021, known as the Mount Panorama 500 (or Repco Mount Panorama 500 for sponsorship reasons), was again announced, this time as the first round of the 2021 Supercars Championship. The event will feature two single-driver 250 kilometre races.[8]

Winners
Year Driver[2] Team Car Report
1966 Ian Geoghegan Team Total Ford Mustang Report
1967
–
1968		 not held
1969 Ian Geoghegan Mustang Team Ford Mustang Report
1970 Norm Beechey Norm Beechey Shell Racing Team Holden HT Monaro GTS350 Report
1971 not held
1972 Ian Geoghegan Geoghegan's Sporty Cars Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III
1973
–
1994		 not held
1995 John Bowe Dick Johnson Racing Ford EF Falcon Report
1996 John Bowe Dick Johnson Racing Ford EF Falcon

Multiple winners

By driver
Wins Driver Years
3 Ian Geoghegan 1966, 1969, 1972
2 John Bowe 1995, 1996

By team
Wins Team
2 Dick Johnson Racing

By manufacturer
Wins Manufacturer
5 Ford
1 Holden

Event sponsors
  • 1966, 1969–70, 1995–96: Bathurst
  • 1972: Better Brakes 100
  • 2021: Repco Mount Panorama 500

See also

References
  1. Dale, Will (22 April 2019). "Easter Flashback: Was this the ATCC's greatest race?". Supercars. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
  2. Greenhalgh, David; Howard, Graham; Wilson, Stewart (2011). The official history: Australian Touring Car Championship - 50 Years. St Leonards, New South Wales: Chevron Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-9805912-2-4.
  3. Fogarty, Mark (15 April 2016). "The best of the V8 Supercars 500". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  4. Frood, Andrew (14 February 2018). "RIP RACERS THE DJR 94 BATHURST WINNER". V8 Sleuth. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  5. "Saturday Sleuthing: The Shell Sandown 500 Winner". Supercars. 6 September 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  6. Chapman, Simon (17 May 2020). "Supercars releases revised 13-round 2020/21 calendar". Speedcafe. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  7. "Sandown Takes Traditional Spot on Newly Revised Supercars Calendar". Auto Action. 18 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  8. Chapman, Simon (2 December 2020). "Supercars reveals long awaited 2021 calendar". Speedcafe. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
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