Today marks one of the emerging endurance race classics on the planet, the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour from Mount Panorama.
And today also marks a day - or week - of envy for those drivers, onlookers and participants who haven’t yet been to Bathurst but are salivating at the prospect of heading to one of the world’s most iconic race circuits.
The Bathurst race generally draws a mix of international sports car stars beyond the locals in Australia, and today alone, a swath of Verizon IndyCar Series drivers expressed both their interest and desire to race at Bathurst while watching via the event website, Radio Le Mans, or NISMO’s YouTube channel (NISMO.TV).
It seems surprising that as a New Zealander, Scott Dixon has never raced at Bathurst. But the four-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion kicked off a bit of discussion about it earlier today:
Tuning in to watch @Bathurst12hour would love to do that race one day. #B12hr
— Scott Dixon (@scottdixon9) February 4, 2017
Dixon’s endurance race teammate in one of the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs, Sebastien Bourdais, has won overall at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, and he added a class win in the Ford at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Bourdais added his enthusiasm for racing there:
Sounds like we need @FordPerformance to give us a GT3 version of the GT! I am in!
— Sébastien Bourdais (@BourdaisOnTrack) February 4, 2017
Fellow IndyCar veterans Oriol Servia and JR Hildebrand have also chimed in, and that’s in addition to other drivers (Connor De Phillippi, Dion von Moltke, Felix Rosenqvist, Pipo Derani, Wayne Boyd, Mike Hedlund and more), media folk and other onlookers who are desiring and dreaming of making the pilgrimage.
Let's work on it RT @scottdixon9: Tuning in to watch @Bathurst12hour would love to do that race one day. #B12hr
— Oriol Servia (@OriolServia) February 4, 2017
seems like a good place for an NSX...!
— JR Hildebrand (@JRHildebrand) February 4, 2017
Gold wheels on the 488 are 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/6QDbZo1JBP
— JR Hildebrand (@JRHildebrand) February 4, 2017
Fun seeing the #indyCar drivers plotting to go race at @Bathurst12hour. Do it! @OriolServia @JRHildebrand @scottdixon9 @BourdaisOnTrack pic.twitter.com/Vkj0vAD5rn
— Peter Leung (@BaronVonClutch) February 4, 2017
This is where I queue up the Liz Lemon in “30 Rock” clip and say, that yes, I want to go to there.
And someday, this needs to happen for those drivers too. Because as we’ve seen, Dixon and Bourdais have already tackled Le Mans - well - and adding Bathurst to their already glittering resumes would be even more to fun to watch.
Dario Franchitti, the four-time IndyCar champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 champion, also extended his best wishes prior to the race. Franchitti was the Rolex 24 at Daytona grand marshal last week.
Good luck to everyone at @Bathurst12hour ,what a mega track!!! thanks @radiolemans for the usual excellent coverage 👍🏼
— Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) February 4, 2017