Bathurst Motor Festival

The Bathurst Motor Festival was an annual motor racing event held at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia during the Easter long weekend.^[1] The event was first held in 2011 as a replacement for the Festival of Sporting Cars and as a way to give a higher number of drivers the opportunity to drive on the circuit.^[2] The event played host to a variety of racing categories, including production cars, sports cars, open-wheel racing cars and historic cars, which took part in sprint races, endurance races and regularity sessions.^[3] Around 300 vehicles were entered for the event each year, with crowds of up to and over 10,000 people attending the event.^[1][3][4] Car clubs also attended the event, displaying their cars within the confines of the circuit and performing parade laps.^[5]

The Bathurst Motor Festival is held at the Mount Panorama Circuit.

In 2016, the Bathurst 6 Hour production car race was introduced as the showpiece race of the event.^[6] The Festival was not held after 2016 although the Bathurst 6 Hour continues to be staged.

History

The start of a one-hour Production Sports race at the 2015 Bathurst Motor Festival.

During the 2014 event, Formula 3 driver Simon Hodge set a new lap record for the circuit of 2:02.6701.^[7] Hodge's time remained as the lap record until the 2016 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, where Shane van Gisbergen set a time of 2:01.567 in a McLaren 650S GT3.^[8]

During the 2016 event, Nathan Morcom and 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert won the inaugural Bathurst 6 Hour, which also saw the event's biggest weekend crowd to date.^[4]

Racing categories

The following categories have raced at the Bathurst Motor Festival.^{[3][9][10][11][12][13]}

• Aussie Racing Cars
• Australian Drivers' Championship
• Australian Formula Ford Series
• Australian Pulsar Racing Association
• Australian Saloon Car Series
• Commodore Cup
• Formula Vee
• Group N Touring Cars
• GT World Challenge Australia
• Heritage Touring Cars
• Historic Formula Ford
• HQ Holden
• Hyundai Excel Racing
• Improved Production
• Production Sports
• Production Touring
• Radical Australia
• SuperMini Challenge
• TCR Australia
• Trans Am Australia