DJR Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin qualified on pole with a lap time of 2:03.8312, the fastest lap of the Mount Panorama Circuit recorded by a Supercar.[N 1]
The event was the 60th running of the Bathurst 1000, which was first held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in 1960 as a 500-mile race for Australian-made standard production sedans, and marked the 57th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 21st running of the Australian 1000 race, which was first held after the organisational split between the Australian Racing Drivers Club and V8 Supercars Australia that saw two "Bathurst 1000" races contested in both 1997 and 1998. It was the 19th time the race had been held as part of the Supercars Championship and the fifth time it formed part of the Enduro Cup. The defending winners of the race were Will Davison and Jonathon Webb.
Twenty-six cars were entered in the event. It was the first time since 2008 that no additional "Wildcard" entries had been received for the race. The race would see the Bathurst 1000 debut of four drivers - Super2 drivers Todd Hazelwood, Richard Muscat and Garry Jacobson and main-game debutant Alex Rullo. Rullo (at 17 years, 4 months and 23 days) would become the fourth youngest Bathurst 1000 starter after Cam Waters (17 years, 2 months and 6 days in 2011), Paul Dumbrell (17 years, 2 months and 14 days in 1999) and Bryan Sala (17 years, 2 months and 15 days in 1991).
Three one-hour practice sessions were held on the Thursday prior to the race. Practice 1 and Practice 3 were open to both regular drivers and co-drivers, while Practice 2 was for co-drivers only. The first session saw Mostert set the fastest lap time of 2:06.3033. Lowndes was second fastest, six hundredths behind while Todd Kelly was sixteen hundredths further back.[5] Tim Slade caused a red flag as a result of losing control in the Esses before heavily impacting the wall on the entry to the Dipper. The session was halted again with nineteen minutes remaining after Alex Rullo stopped on Conrod Straight having found the wall at Forrest's Elbow.[6]
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
Broadcast
The event telecast was produced by Supercars Media and carried domestically by Fox Sports Australia (via Fox Sports 506), a paid service which covered all sessions including support categories, and Network 10 (via free-to-air channels 10 and 10 Bold), which covered select sessions from midday Friday onwards. The coverage won a Logie in 2018 for Most Outstanding Sports Coverage.[17]
