The 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour was a motor race staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, 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 race featured five car classes and was intended as a showcase for the racing categories promoted by Procar Australia, 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, Greg Murphy, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly driving a Holden Monaro 427C.
The leading class contained vehicles eligible for international FIA N-GT, American Grand-Am GT and the Australian Nations Cup Group 1 category. It featured BMW M3 GTR, 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 427C
Consisted of Nations Cup Group 2 cars: Ferrari 360 Modena, Porsche 996 GT3 Cup and international GTs of varying kinds, Morgan Aero 8, Porsche 996 GT3 S and a modified BMW M Coupe.
A production based class featuring cars from the Australian GT Performance Car Championship. The entry consisted of BMW M Coupe, BMW M3, FPV GT, HSV X Series GTS, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, Nissan 200SX, Nissan 350Z and Subaru Impreza WRX.
A production based class featuring cars from the Australian Production Car Championship. The entry consisted of Alfa Romeo 156 GTA, Ford Falcon XR6T, Holden Commodore VY, Honda Integra, Honda S2000 and Toyota Celica SX.
The class catered for a variety of vehicles which included Future Touring Ford Falcon, Holden VX Commodore & Holden VY Commodore, a Nürburgring VLN series BMW M3, a Supertouring BMW 320i, an old GT-Production BMW M3-R, New Zealand Schedule S touring car Toyota Altezza and Mitsubishi Mirage Cup one-make series cars.
The top 10 qualifiers for the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour were as follows: [1]
Pos | No | Team | Driver | Car | Qual |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pole | 427 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Garth Tander | Holden Monaro 427C | 2:13.2856 |
2 | 05 | Garry Rogers Motorsport | Greg Murphy | Holden Monaro 427C | 2:15.9739 |
3 | 420 | Prancing Horse Racing Scuderia | John Bowe | BMW M3 GTR | 2:17.6832 |
4 | 900 | Rollcentre Racing | Martin Short | Mosler MT900R | 2:18.1074 |
5 | 54 | John Teulan | Paul Morris | Porsche 996 GT3 RC | 2:19.3319 |
6 | 20 | Mark Coffey Racing | Paul Stokell | Lamborghini Diablo GTR | 2:19.5626 |
7 | 48 | BE Racing | David Brabham | Ferrari 360 N-GT | 2:21.1258 |
8 | 6 | Jürgen Alzen Motorsport | Jürgen Alzen | Porsche 996 GT3 S Cup | 2:21.7062 |
9 | 7 | VIP Petfoods Racing | Marcus Marshall | Porsche 996 GT3 Cup | 2:22.8980 |
10 | 8 | Cirtek Motorsport | Peter Floyd | Porsche 996 GT3-RS | 2:23.2392 |
Results as follows: [2]
Peter Geoffrey Brock, 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, although he raced vehicles of other manufacturers including BMW, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Peugeot. He won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, the Sandown 500 touring car race nine times, the Australian Touring Car Championship three times, the Bathurst 24 Hour once and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2001. Brock's business activities included the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) that produced Brock's racing machines as well as a number of modified high-performance road versions of his racing cars.
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.
The Bathurst 1000 is a 1,000-kilometre (621.4 mi) touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recent incarnation of the Australian Touring Car Championship. In 1987 it was a round of the World Touring Car Championship. The Bathurst 1000 is colloquially known as The Great Race among motorsport fans and media. The race concept originated with the 1960 Armstrong 500 at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, before being relocated to Bathurst in 1963 and continuing there in every year since. The race was traditionally run on the Labour Day long weekend in New South Wales, in early October. Since 2001, the race is run on the weekend after the long weekend, normally the second weekend in October.
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Mark SkaifeOAM is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bathurst 1000 winner. On 29 October 2008, he announced his retirement from full-time touring car racing. Since retiring from driving, Skaife has worked as a commentator and presenter for the series for both the Seven Network and Fox Sports Australia.
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The Holden Dealer Team (HDT) was Holden's semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1986, primarily contesting Australian Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and Sports Sedan races during the 1970s. From 1980 the Holden Dealer Team, by then under the ownership of Peter Brock, diversified into producing modified road-going Commodores and other Holden cars for selected dealers via HDT Special Vehicles.
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Garry Rogers Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team. It is owned by retired racing driver Garry Rogers who began the team to further his own racing efforts. Based in Melbourne, originally out of a Nissan dealership owned by Rogers, the team has competed in a variety of touring car series in Australia ranging from relatively modest Nissan production cars to Chevrolet NASCARs to building the GT specification Holden Monaro 427C. The team won the Bathurst 1000 in 2000 and also won both of the Bathurst 24 Hour races which were held in 2002 and 2003. In 2013 the team celebrated its 50th year in racing since Rogers made his debut.
The Australian Nations Cup Championship was a motor racing title sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) from 2000 to 2004.
The 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour was an endurance motor race staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The race, which was the first 24-hour event to be held at Mount Panorama, started at 4:00pm on 16 November and finished at 4:00pm on 17 November. It was the first 24 Hour race to be held in Australia since the 1954 Mount Druitt 24 Hours Road Race.
Henry Leslie Firth was an Australian racing driver and team manager. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager with first the Ford works team and then the famed Holden Dealer Team (HDT) well into the 1970s. Firth’s nickname was "the fox", implying his use of cunning ploys as a team manager.
The Australian GT Championship is a CAMS-sanctioned national title for drivers of GT cars, held annually from 1960 to 1963, from 1982 to 1985 and from 2005. Each championship up to and including the 1963 title was contested over a single race and those after that year over a series of races. The categories which have contested the championship have not always been well defined and often have become a home for cars orphaned by category collapse or a sudden change in regulation.
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 races were won by V8 Supercar team Garry Rogers Motorsport with Holden Monaros.
The 2004 Australian Nations Cup Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for modified production-based coupes complying with "Nations Cup" regulations. Contested as part of the 2004 Procar Championship Series, it was sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport as a National Championship with PROCAR Australia Pty Ltd appointed as the Category Manager.
Procar Australia was a motorsport category management company which operated in Australia from 1994 to 2004.
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The Holden Monaro 427C was an Australian built and designed GT style race car based on the Holden Monaro CV8 road car. The car ran in the Procar Australia-run Australian Nations Cup Championship and at the short-lived Bathurst 24 Hour race at the famous Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst.