Mount Panorama street racing circuit in Australia

The 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour was a motor race staged at the

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama (Wahluu) and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October ...

just outside Bathurst in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The race started at 2:00pm on 22 November 2003 and finished at 2:00pm on 23 November. It was the second

Bathurst 24 Hour The Bathurst 24 Hour was an endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales in 2002 and 2003. Only two races were held before the collapse of the management organisation PROCAR. Both r ...

. The race featured five car classes and was intended as a showcase for the racing categories promoted by

Procar Australia Procar Australia was a motorsport category management company which operated in Australia from 1994 to 2004. Procar was founded in 1994 by Ross Palmer,

, namely Nations Cup cars, GT Performance Cars and Production Cars. It was also open to various other categories which included FIA Group N-GT and Grand-Am GT. The race was won by

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, a ...

Greg Murphy Gregory Murphy (born 23 August 1972) is a New Zealand professional racing driver, best known as a four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. Greg Murphy joined Jeremy Clarkson and James May presenting Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear Live, when ...

Jason Bright Jason Bright (born 7 March 1973) is a retired Australian racing driver who competed in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He drove the No. 56 Ford FG X Falcon for Britek Motorsport, a satellite team of Prodrive Racing Australia, ...

and

Todd Kelly Todd Kelly (born 9 October 1979) is a retired Australian professional racing driver who competed in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He is the older brother of fellow Supercars driver and former Bathurst 1000 winner, Rick Kelly. ...

driving a Holden Monaro 427C.

Class structure

Class A

The leading class contained vehicles eligible for international FIA N-GT, American

Grand-Am Grand-Am Road Racing or Grand-Am was an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize road racing competitions in North America. Its primary focus was the Rolex Sports Car Series, an endurance racing championship series. ...

GT and the Australian Nations Cup Group 1 category. It featured

BMW M3 GTR The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial mod ...

, Ferrari 360 N-GT, Mosler MT900R, Porsche 996 GT3-RS, Porsche 996 GT3-RC, Lamborghini Diablo GTR, and the "Nations Cup" version of the

Holden Monaro The Holden Monaro ( ) is a rear-wheel drive coupé manufactured by General Motors Holden in Australia from 1968 to 1975 and later reintroduced from 2001 to 2005. It was also manufactured as a 4-door sedan from 1973 to 1977. Three generations o ...

, the 427C

Class B

Consisted of Nations Cup Group 2 cars:

Ferrari 360 Modena The Ferrari 360 (Type F131) is a two-seater, mid-engine, rear wheel drive sports car manufactured by Italian automotive manufacturer Ferrari from 1999 until 2005. It succeeded the Ferrari F355 and was replaced by the Ferrari F430 in 2004. Dev ...

Porsche 996 GT3 Cup The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

and international GTs of varying kinds,

Morgan Aero 8 The Morgan Aero 8 is a sports car built by Morgan Motor Company at its factory in Malvern Link, England (an area of Malvern in Worcestershire). The Aero 8 shape evolved in the traditional Morgan way of form follows function and the main player ...

, Porsche 996 GT3 S and a modified BMW M Coupe.

Class D

A production based class featuring cars from the Australian GT Performance Car Championship. The entry consisted of BMW M Coupe,

BMW M3 The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial mo ...

FPV GT The Ford Falcon GT is an automobile produced by Ford Australia from 1967 to 1976 as the performance version of its Falcon model range. Its production was resumed by a joint venture in 1992 and 1997 with Tickford, and then again between 2003 and 2 ...

, HSV X Series GTS, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII,

Nissan 200SX The Nissan 200SX (originally Datsun 200SX until the early 1980s) is an automobile nameplate that has been used on various export specification Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanes ...

Nissan 350Z : The Nissan 350Z (known as Nissan Fairlady Z (Z33) in Japan) is a two-door, two-seater sports car that was manufactured by Nissan Motor Corporation from 2002 until 2009 and marks the fifth generation of Nissan's Z-car line. The 350Z entered pro ...

and

Subaru Impreza WRX The is a compact car that has been manufactured by the Japanese automaker Subaru since 1992. It was introduced as a replacement for the Leone, with the predecessor's EA series engines replaced by the new EJ series. It is now in its sixth gen ...

Class E

A production based class featuring cars from the

Australian Production Car Championship The Australian Production Car Championship is an Australian motor racing title for production cars, sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS). The championship was first contested in 1987 and from 2008 to 2015 the title was ...

. The entry consisted of

Alfa Romeo 156 GTA The Alfa Romeo 156 (Type 932) is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo. It was introduced at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show as the replacement for the Alfa Romeo 155. The 156 received a positive re ...

, Ford Falcon XR6T, Holden Commodore VY,

Honda Integra The , marketed in North America as the Acura Integra, is an automobile produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda from 1985 until 2006, and then since 2021. It succeeded the Quint as a more luxurious and sport-oriented derivative o ...

Honda S2000 The Honda S2000 is an open top sports car that was manufactured by Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda, from 1999 until 2009. First shown as a concept car called the SSM at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1995, the production version was launched on ...

and

Toyota Celica SX The is an automobile produced by Toyota from 1970 until 2006. The Celica name derives from the Latin word ''wikt:coelicus, coelica'' meaning 'heavenly' or 'celestial'. In Japan, the Celica was exclusive to the ''Toyota Corolla Store'' Car deale ...

Class F

The class catered for a variety of vehicles which included Future Touring

Ford Falcon Ford Falcon is an automobile nameplate applied to several vehicles worldwide. * Ford Falcon (North America), an automobile produced by Ford from 1960 to 1970. * Ford Falcon (Argentina), a car built by Ford Argentina from 1962 until 1991. * For ...

Holden VX Commodore The Holden Commodore (VX) is an executive car that was produced by Holden from 2000 to 2002. It was the second iteration of the third generation of the Commodore. Its range included the luxury variants, Holden Berlina (VX) and Holden Calais (V ...

Holden VY Commodore The Holden Commodore (VY) is an executive car that was produced by Holden from 2002 to 2004. It was the third iteration of the third generation of the Commodore. Its range included the luxury variants, Holden Berlina (VY) and Holden Calais (VY) ...

, a

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around the village a ...

VLN series

, a

Supertouring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

BMW 320i, an old GT-Production BMW M3-R, New Zealand Schedule S touring car

Toyota Altezza The is a compact executive car sold by Lexus, a luxury division of Toyota since 1999. The IS was originally sold under the nameplate in Japan from 1998 (the word ''Altezza'' is Italian for 'height' or 'highness'). The IS was introduced as an e ...

and Mitsubishi Mirage Cup one-make series cars.

Top 10 Qualifiers

The top 10 qualifiers for the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour were as follows: Back Holden Heroes Grab Pole Position For Bathurst 24-hr International Race
/ref>

Official results

Results as follows:Mount Panorama - Bathurst 23/11/2003 Bathurst 24hr 2003
National Software retrieved 4 April 2008

References

Statistics

* Pole Position - #427 Garth Tander - 2:13.2856 * Fastest Lap - #427 Garth Tander - 2:14.4894 (lap 524) * Average Speed - 136 km/h

External links

Bathurst 24hr - 19th to 23rd November 2003 - Supplementary Regulations, bathurst24hr.com, as archived at web.archive.org

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20031206213212/http://www.procar.com.au/results/Results_B24_03a_Race.html Bathurst 24hr - Race results, www.procar.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org
Race results, www.natsoft.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org
{{Bathurst 12 Hour Motorsport in Bathurst, New South Wales

Procar Australia