BATHURST’S role within the broader Supercars championship picture has always been up for debate.
The traditionalists wish that it remained outside of the title race picture, a stand-alone one-off event as it was for much of its history.
Others are convinced that it should be part of the broader season with the implications of a Bathurst failure, or indeed, success, playing a role in the fate of any given drivers’ championship tilt that year.
I am in the latter camp: there’s no reason why the race shouldn’t be part of the point scoring season.
Many say that it should be the ‘Grand Final’ – and indeed it is, at least in terms of being the biggest stage of the year – but the Indy500 has never suffered because it’s the fourth or fifth round of the IndyCar series and the same can be said for Monaco in the F1 calendar.
There’s nothing that says the biggest race of the year should also be the season finale; it’s just the way that the Aussie calendar always worked out – Bathurst was for years and years the last major race of the year.
However, the world has changed and Supercars is at a place where it’s finale’ needs to happen in November or December rather than Bathurst’s traditional October slot.
In many aspects Bathurst is bigger than the championship and it hardly needs a title decider to add to the importance of winning the biggest motor race in the country.
With that in mind, I am really glad that the title won’t go down to the wire there next month.
The fact is the requirements surrounding determining a championship winner and also the champion of Australia’s biggest motor race just end up cannibalising attention and lustre from each other.
The last thing anyone wants is the year-long work of a title winning driver and team to be overshadowed in the crowing moments by the winners of another typically dramatic Great Race.
Which is exactly what would happen, and the 1 in 24 (or 25) odds of the winner of Bathurst also being the champion are not ones I’d stake my cash on.
On the other side, there’s the risk element: if you’re a title contender you’re hardly going to put it all on the line to get a Bathurst win if it also means you might end up parked in the fence at McPhillamy watching not only the Great Race slip away, but your title as well.
Most would naturally play it safe and think of the title picture and that would be a detriment to both the championship and the race itself.
Then you’ve got the variable element of co-drivers and those not in contention for the title.
If you’re not battling for the championship and the guy in front of you is, and he’s the one standing in your way of etching your name on to the Peter Brock Trophy, he’s going to move whether he likes it or not.
You don’t want a championship decided that way.
And think of the pressure for the co-drivers – this year more than any other.
While usually they have a championship burden to bare, because in a normal year the three enduro events are worth 900 points, at least there’s more single-driver rounds to follow should things go awry.
This year they’ve had little or no warm-up and will head into Bathurst without a 500km precursor for the first time in just about ever.
It’s a lot of pressure which may have boiled over had Tim Slade (who will share Scott McLaughlin’s car) or Craig Lowndes (Jamie’s) found themselves involved in the title fight too – though admittedly you’d back both of them in particular to do a good job for their regular-season drivers.
As it turns out, we’ve got the best result possible. The main championship is decided so all that matters is who becomes the next Bathurst winner.
And the sub-plots of the minor placings and teams title can continue to play out in the background and be discussed during quieter moments.
The bottom line is that Scott McLaughlin closing the deal last Sunday was the best outcome for the sport.
It reinforced his domination of the season, freed any weight from his shoulders when it came to closing the deal at Bathurst and set the stage for a Bathurst 1000 that while likely very different from those past, will be ferociously competitive on-track for millions of fans watching from home.
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