Re-scheduling the Bathurst 1000 top-10 shootout to Sunday morning was considered by Supercars officials, who ultimately determined it wasn’t practical.
Long-range forecasts had suggested the worst of the weather would arrive on Saturday afternoon, and it did so right on 3pm as the Toyota 86 race started.
The Carrera Cup race after the Toyotas was the first to be cancelled, before the Dunlop Series was also abandoned.
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Hope remained for the top-10 shootout as rain began to ease, but drainage issues on the pit and Mountain Straights left Motorsport Australia little choice.
The final decision was made at 4.55pm – 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the shootout.
The cancellation handed pole position to Cameron Waters, who had set the fastest time in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Speaking to media following the cancellation, Supercars chief executive Shane Howard said the time taken to change the cars from a one-lap shootout set-up to a race set-up meant it was impractical to hold the shootout on Sunday morning before the race.
”Obviously we look at all the options that are open to us, but it would be very difficult to be able to redirect that top-10 shoot out and the time taken to do that,” Howard said.
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“The cars run a different set-up in a shootout than race, so we don’t have the ability to manage that in the time available tomorrow.”
Supercars have a 20-minute warm-up session scheduled for 8am, with the race scheduled for 11.15am.
Support races from the SuperUtes, Carrera Cup and Toyota 86 will also take place.
Howard said the biggest issues were the massive puddles on pit and Mountain Straights – water which was being funneled out of the campgrounds, paddock and down the driveways that line Mountain Straight.
Race director James Taylor said marshals had almost got the track back to an acceptable level before a second front came through.
“That just basically damaged the works we were putting in place to correct it,” Taylor said.
“We can’t beat mother nature, and we need to make sure the venue is perfectly safe and everyone involved is going to be well protected.”
Supercars head of motorsport Adrian Burgess said the teams were all in support of the shootout being cancelled.
Waters said he felt like he had “only done half the job” to secure his second Bathurst 1000 pole, but conceded that feeling would disappear once he took his place on the grid.
“The shootout for me is probably one of the highlights of the year,” Waters said.
“I love getting into it and then putting it all on the line for a lap … but the water that was on the track was crazy.”
Waters says drivers in the shootout drive with their egos more than anything.
“The drivers do drive to the conditions … but in the shootout it’s our egos driving it a lot of the time.
“If we end up in the fence and tear the car up and then not be able to race tomorrow, that’s probably the bigger issue for for me.
“We’ve got 28 cars starting the race tomorrow, and that’s the biggest thing that we all want to win.”
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