2002 Bathurst 24 Hour

Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit

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.

The race was open to several classes of GT and other production based cars and was intended as a showcase for the racing categories promoted by PROCAR, which included Nations Cup, GT Performance and GT Production. While there was much speculation about the highly popular V8 Brute Utes class also being eligible there was resistance to the idea and they ran short sprint races as a support category. Ten classes were announced, but only five classes attracted entries.

Group 1[]

The leading class contained vehicles from the international FIA N-GT category and Group 1 cars from the Australian Nations' Cup category. It featured the Ferrari 360 N-GT, Mosler MT900R, Porsche 996 GT3-RS, Porsche 996 GT3 Cup and the controversial Holden Monaro 427C which did not have a production counterpart.

Group 3[]

A class open to Group 3 cars from the Australian Nations' Cup category and to Supertouring cars. Only three BMWs entered, Supertouring versions of the 318i and 320i and a modified Z3 M Coupe.

Group 5[]

A production based class featuring GT Performance Cars. The entry consisted of BMW ME Coupe, Ford Tickford T3 TE50, HSV Y Series GTS, Mazda RX-7 Series 8, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Nissan 200SX, Nissan 350Z and Subaru Impreza WRX STi.

Group 9[]

A production based class featuring cars from the Australian GT Production Car Championship. The entry consisted of BMW 323i, Holden VX Commodore, Honda S2000 and Toyota MR2 Bathurst.

Group 10[]

A mixed bag of leftovers, it included Future Touring Cars; Holden Commodores and a Holden V8 engined Mitsubishi Magna, a pair of Nürburgring VLN series BMW M3s and a late concession for Mitsubishi Mirage Cup one-make series cars.

Top 10 Qualifiers[]

The top 10 qualifiers for the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour were as follows:^[1]

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	Qual
Pole	888		Brad Jones	Ferrari 360 N-GT	2:15.0742
2	427	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Garth Tander	Holden Monaro 427C	2:16.8792
3	24		David Brabham	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	2:19.5861
4	11			Mosler MT900R	2:21.4492
5	52	Seikel Motorsport		Porsche 996 GT3-RS	2:22.7314
6	6			Porsche 996 GT3-RS	2:23.8472
7	33		Bob Pearson	Mazda RX-7 Twin Turbo	2:28.4775
8	19			BMW 320i	2:28.7187
9	40	Compuware		Mitsubishi Magna	2:28.8974
10	15		Ian Donaldson	BMW M3	2:29.0311

* During the first qualifying session, the #999 PHR Scuderia Porsche 996 GT3-RS driven by Jim Richards set a time of 2:20.4364 which would have placed the car 4th on the grid. However, later during that same qualifying session, crashed on the top of the mountain which damaged the car beyond immediate repair. PHR were then forced to substitute team owner Maher Algadrie's Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car in the race. Due to having to substitute cars, the original lap time did not count and the GT3 Cup car eventually qualified in 14th place.

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Laps	Qual Pos
					Engine
1	1	427	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Garth Tander Steven Richards Nathan Pretty Cameron McConville	Holden Monaro 427C	532	2
					Chevrolet LS6 7.0L V8
2	1	11		Dilantha Malagamuwa	Mosler MT900R	509	4
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8
3	10	16			BMW M3	505	12
					BMW M52 3.2L I6
4	10	15		Ian Donaldson Rob Wilson	BMW M3	497	10
					BMW M52 3.2L I6
5	3	35			BMW M Coupe	496	16
					BMW M54 3.2L I6
6	5	71	Peter Boylan	Peter Boylan	BMW M3	491	15
					BMW M54 3.2L I6
7	5	23			Subaru Impreza WRX STi	482	17
					Subaru EJ 2.0L Turbo Flat-4
8	5	60		Scott Anderson	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	475	23
					Subaru EJ 2.0L Turbo Flat-4
9	5	17	Trevor Haines		Ford Tickford T3 TE50	474	24
					Ford Windsor 5.6L V8
10	9	62	Scott Loadsman	David Russell	Holden Commodore VX SS	463	34
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8
11	10	44	Mal Rose		Mitsubishi Mirage	459	30
					Mitsubishi 1.5L I4
12	10	14	David Borg	Jack Elsegood	Mitsubishi Mirage	457	31
					Mitsubishi 1.5L I4
13	9	26	Novacastrian Motorsport		BMW 323i	455	35
					BMW M52 2.5L I4
14	9	29		Hermann Tilke	Honda S2000	451	32
					Honda F20C 2.0L I4
15	1	99		Jim Richards Maher Algadrie	Porsche 996 GT3 R	451	14
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
16	5	200	Haysom Motorsport	Chris Smith	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	448	33
					Nissan SR20DET 2.0L Turbo I4
17	10	32	Steve Williams		Holden Commodore VX	438	13
					Holden 5.0L V8
18	5	220	Haysom Motorsport	Tony Alford Grant Denyer	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	426	27
					Nissan SR engine 2.0L Turbo I4
19	10	28	Mal Rose		Mitsubishi Mirage	425	29
					Mitsubishi 1.5L I4
20	5	45	Allan Walls		HSV GTS 300kW	424	20
					Chevrolet LS1 5.7L V8
21	5	222	Haysom Motorsport	Rodney Woods Hugh Harrison	Nissan 200SX Spec-R	424	28
					Nissan SR engine 2.0L Turbo I4
22	10	40	Palmer Promotions	Warren Luff	Mitsubishi Magna	420	9
					Holden 5.0L V8
23	5	33	Pro-Duct Motorsport	Bob Pearson Bruce Stewart	Mazda RX-7 Twin Turbo	364	7
					Mazda 13B-REW 1.3L Rotary
24	9	13	Osborne Motorsport		Toyota MR2 Bathurst	324	36
					Toyota 3S-GE 2.0L I4
25	9	31	Osborne Motorsport		Toyota MR2 Bathurst	196	37
					Toyota S engine 2.0L I4
DNF	1	24	Cirtek Motorsport	David Brabham Allan Grice	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	488	3
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
DNF	5	77	Nathan Pilkington		Nissan 350Z	436	25
					Nissan VQ35DE 3.5L V6
DNF	5	9	Anton Mechtler		Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VII	387	26
					Mitsubishi 4G63 2.0L Turbo I4
DNF	5	27	Novacastrian Motorsport		BMW M Coupe	384	21
					BMW M54 3.2L I6
DNF	10	41	Geoffrey Parker		Holden Commodore VY	348	11
					Holden 5.0L V8
DNF	3	19	Bruce Miles		BMW 320i	263	8
					BMW S14 2.0L I4
DNF	5	5	Graham Alexander		Mitsubishi Lancer RS-E Evo VII	230	19
					Mitsubishi Sirius engine 2.0L Turbo I4
DNF	1	6	AD Holdings		Porsche 996 GT3-RS	195	6
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
DNF	3	22	DCH Motorsport	Dennis Chapman	BMW 318i	126	22
					BMW S14 2.0L I4
DNF	1	888		John Bowe Brad Jones Paul Morris	Ferrari 360 N-GT	96	1
					Ferrari 3.6L V8
DNF	1	52	Seikel Motorsport	Andrew Bagnall Jürgen Alzen	Porsche 996 GT3-RS	58	5
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
DNS	1	999		Jim Richards Maher Algadrie	Porsche 996 GT3-RS		4*
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6