Bathurst Motor Festival

The Bathurst Motor Festival is 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 plays host to a variety of racing categories, including production cars, sports cars, open-wheel racing cars and historic cars, which take part in sprint races, endurance races and regularity sessions.^[3] Around 300 vehicles are 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 attend the event, displaying their cars within the confines of the circuit and performing parade laps.^[5] Since 2016, the Bathurst 6 Hour production car race has been the showpiece race of the event.^[6]

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

History

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

The start of a TCR Australia race during the 2021 event.

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] In winning the 2017 Bathurst 6 Hour, Paul Morris, driving with Luke Searle, became the first driver to win all of the three current major events at Mount Panorama; the 6 Hour, the Bathurst 1000, which he won in 2014 with Mostert, and the Bathurst 12 Hour, which he won in 2007 and 2010.^[9]

Racing categories

The following categories have raced at the Bathurst Motor Festival.^{[3][10][11][12][13][14]}

• 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

Bathurst 6 Hour

Bathurst 6 Hour

Venue	Mount Panorama Circuit
Corporate sponsor	Hi-Tec Oils
First race	2016
Duration	6 hours
Most wins (driver)	Jayden Ojeda (2) Simon Hodges (2)
Most wins (manufacturer)	BMW (8)

The start of the 2016 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour.

As of 2025, BMW has won every running of the race. Pictured is the M3 F80 Competition of 2019 winners Beric Lynton and Tim Leahey.

The Bathurst 6 Hour, currently known as the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is a race for Group 3E Series Production Cars and other invited cars that has been held as part of the Festival since 2016. The race is held on Easter Sunday, with practice and qualifying sessions taking place on the preceding two days.

History

The race is not to be confused with the 1962 Bathurst Six Hour Classic, a one-off event held for production touring and sports cars.

The Bathurst 12 Hour was an endurance race held for production cars from 1991 to 1995. It was revived in 2007 and continued as a production car-only race until 2010, before GT3 cars were made eligible for the race in 2011. Over the following years there was growing focus on the outright GT3 cars, while the number of production cars in the race declined. In April 2015, the former promoters of the 12 Hour, Yeehah Events, announced a six-hour race for Group 3E Series Production Cars, called the Bathurst 6 Hour, to be held at the Bathurst Motor Festival in 2016.^[6] Cars conforming to other regulations, such as V8 Utes and Saloon Cars, were also allowed to compete in the Invitational class.^[15]

The 2020 running of the race was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was to be part of the inaugural Bathurst International event in November,^[16] however this event, along with the 6 Hour, was eventually cancelled due to border closures within Australia arising from the pandemic.^[17] The 6 Hour returned to its traditional Easter date in 2021.

Class structure

Entrants in the Bathurst 6 Hour are divided into six classes:

• Class X: Ultimate Performance
• Class A1: Extreme Performance (Forced Induction)
• Class A2: Extreme Performance (Naturally Aspirated)
• Class B1: High Performance (Forced Induction)
• Class B2: High Performance (Naturally Aspirated)
• Class C: Performance
• Class D: Production
• Class E: Compact

Winners

Year	Drivers	Vehicle	Entrant	Laps	Distance
2016	Nathan Morcom Chaz Mostert	BMW 335i E92	Direct Plasterboard Outlet	125	776.625 km (482.572 mi)
2017	Luke Searle Paul Morris	BMW M135i Hatch F20	Roadchill Freight Express	113	702.069 km (436.245 mi)
2018	Grant Sherrin Iain Sherrin	BMW M4 F82	Sherrin Rentals	109	677.217 km (420.803 mi)
2019	Beric Lynton Tim Leahey	BMW M3 F80 Competition	Bruce Lynton Bodyshop	1311	813.903 km (505.736 mi)
2020	Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021	Shane Smollen Robert Rubis Shane van Gisbergen	BMW M4 F82	Prestige Connex	120	745.560 km (463.270 mi)
2022	Thomas Sargent Cameron Hill	BMW M2 Competition	CHE Racing	130	807.690 km (501.875 mi)
2023	Jayden Ojeda Simon Hodges	BMW M4 F82	Secure Wealth Advisers	112	695.856 km (432.385 mi)
2024	Jayden Ojeda Simon Hodges George Miedecke	BMW M4 F82	Secure Wealth Advisers	123	764.199 km (474.851 mi)
2025	Dean Campbell Cameron Crick	BMW M2 Competition	DA Campbell's Transport	122	757.986km (471.091 mi)
Source:[18]

^1 – Race record for laps & distance covered.

Multiple winners

By manufacturer

Wins	Manufacturer	Years
8	BMW	2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Source:[18]