ACE WEEK for the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour Event has begun with excitement building ahead of the three-day Event to be held on the famous Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst this weekend.
Race fans have several ways of keeping in touch with the Event that not only features the return of GT cars to Endurance Racing at Bathurst, but a support cast of five categories and over 230 cars with something catering for everyone.
Event Tickets start at $50 for a three-day General Admission pass, and $60 for a grandstand seat, with tickets availabe for sale at the Gate.
The 2011 Event will also feature record levels of broadcast exposure thanks to the return of live internet streaming, plus a three-hour post-produced show to be aired on ONE HD.
The ONE HD show will be helmed by experienced Motorsport commentator Greg Rust, with special insight into the drivers’ seat from the network’s Formula One and MotoGP expert Craig Baird – who will share a Porsche 911 GT3 R with Tony and Clark Quinn in the race proper.
The three hour program will be broadcast on ONE HD in primetime, on Saturday 19 February at 7:30PM.
International coverage will be beamed to a potential audience of millions with the highlights package set to air on Sky Sports New Zealand, Motors TV in Europe and via Motorsport program ‘Racemax’, to be shown on Sky Sports UK and Fox Sports in the United States.
The combined broadcast package ensures the Event can reach a potential audience of more than 30 million homes around the world.
The internet will play a larger role this year with the popular live streaming package set to return, bigger and better than ever.
Available through the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour Event website, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, the live broadcast will this year feature more interactivity with the audience via social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.
Fans will be able to log on and ask questions of the experienced broadcast team that includes 1503 2BS presenter and Event anchor Phil Cole, expert pit reporter Grant Boyden and race commentator Richard Craill. A host of expert commentators, drivers and industry identities will also take their turn in the commentary box throughout the weekend allowing fans to interact with the people actually competing in, and running the Event.
The website will also feature Live timing throughout the race, giving fans every possible way to keep track of their favourite car or driver combination.
Event commentary will also be broadcast via 87.8 MHz at the circuit.
The Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour will feature more than 300 volunteer officials, providing their experience as flag marshals, gate officials, information booth attendants, fire / recovery marshals and more.
The Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour is one of the major Events held at the famous Mount Panorama circuit each year and is estimated to turn over $10 million in the local Bathurst economy when flow-on effects are taken into account.
The race has this year again attracted major corporate support from major sponsor Armor All, and is supported by Events New South Wales and the State Government.
Major brands including Clorox, Coca-Cola, Falken Tyres, Tyrepower, Elf, , Kraft Foods and Bundaberg brewing are corporate partners of the Event.
GT vehicles will join with production cars for the first time in 2011, with entries secured from Audi, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Ford, Holden, Lotus, Mitsubishi, Mosler, Nissan, Porsche and Subaru.
Historic Group N Touring Cars, Group C & A Historic Touring Cars, Improved Production, HQ Holden’s and Formula Vee will feature throughout Friday and Saturday’s action, ensuring a racing program that caters to nearly every type of Australian Motorsport fan.
“The three hour program will be broadcast on ONE HD in primetime, on Saturday 19 February at 7:30PM.” Can anyone explain how ONE HD is going to be showing a package as above, when the race isn’t on until the following weekend.
Seeing as the race is going to be streamed via the Internet, why doesn’t ONE HD make an event of it and show it live. It will get an audience as it is potentially of considerably more interest than the V8 Supercars version, at least this event uses real cars, production cars which we can better relate to! More like the original Bathurst race which was in my view a far a better event
An explanation…..If you note the date of this press release being January 31st 2011 you will realise that the date refers to this years event not next years event. Live streaming allows world wide viewers to watch the race, if the event was broadcast live by a television station then they would not be able to view the event.
You are right paradigm, I didn’t notice, perhaps its time for someone to update the page and give us the low down on the next race. It doesn’t alter the fact that it will be a good show and in my mind is considerably more interesting and enjoyable than the alternative version put on by the V8 crowd and would probably be able to attract a bigger TV audience in not many years than the V8 Supercar version which is but a two horse race. I must also say that in my humble view, TEN/ONe, have a fantastic record in doing a great job broadcasting car racing. Their V8 package and supplementary shows were more enjoyable and better produced than the current version on SEVEN whose presentation better suits a “timed’ version of racing rather than the “lap” version and who do not seem to be able to actually show a live to air race.
With the cutbacks of One HD will it still be aired on free to air tv?
The Bathurst 12 hour is FAR more interesting than the V8 slot cars. I attended Bathurst for 13 years in a row back in the late 1970′s and 1980′s. Many classes, many capacities, even Volvos and Jag’s…it was full on hard racing and a fantastic spectacle.
I know the current V8 supercars are popular but why completely puzzles me, the racing whilst fast is suffering from the old F1 problems of little passing, no discernible advantage of various brands etc. The current Holden/Ford thing has well and truly run it’s race for these dinosaurs. Stick them into a museum somewhere!
I’ll certainly be glued to whatever needed to watch the 12 hour and it’s support races.
By the way, if you haven’t been to Bathurst….the 12 hour meet would be the one to go to. Great track…needs to be seen to be believed!
Cheers
David
I was a little puzzled by your comments about the V8′s, easily the most interesting class to watch around the world at the moment, but you are obviously a race fan otherwise you wouldn’t be posting here. Personally I too feel a little homesick for the 70′s and 80′s, Group C was an awesome category, Group A a little less so but still good to watch, especially around the Mount Panorama circuit. For now the V8′s are the closest thing we have to those glory days and while I agree with you that having only two makes of car is visually less enthralling, even you can’t deny the appeal of the noise and the close racing they provide. Hopefully the addition of Nissan next year will suit you, but in my book good racing is good racing, my mate Norm and I race slot cars and it doesn’t matter if we race Mini’s or F1 cars, if the cars are evenly matched and the laptimes are close enough so that one mistake means the difference between first and last then it’s a great race. Just been looking at the practice times for today and it seems that it’s only the fact that this race goes for 12 hours that will really make it a “race”, mechanical and physical attrition definitely to play a part. The difference in lap times between the teams and the drivers tends to suggest that there will not be a great deal of door to door racing however. Even between the top ten cars there is quite a gap in the lap times, hopefully it will be closer on Sunday. Still, I’m not going to let that stop me watching most of it, great to see drivers and cars from all around the world enjoying Mount Panorama.
Hope you enjoy the race.
Regards,
Andrew