2018 Bathurst 1000

Mount Panorama, Bathurst - 7th October, 2018
Number of Laps: 161

The 2018 Bathurst 1000 was the 61st running of the Bathurst 1000, and the 58th time that the race was held at Mount Panorama. It was the 22nd running of the Australian 1000 race, which was first held after the organisational split between the Australian Racing Drivers Club and V8 Supercars Australia that saw two "Bathurst 1000" races contested in both 1997 and 1998. It was the 20th time the race had been held as part of the Supercars Championship and the sixth time it formed part of the Enduro Cup.

The defending winners of the race were David Reynolds and Luke Youlden. Shane van Gisbergen entered the event as the championship leader, 55 points clear of DJR Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin. Van Gisbergen's Triple Eight Race Engineering team-mate Jamie Whincup was third in the points standings, 338 points from the lead. In the Teams' Championship, Triple Eight held a 656-point lead over DJR Team Penske. In the Enduro Cup standings, Triple Eight team-mates Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell led the pairing of Van Gisbergen and Earl Bamber by 24 points.

Entries

As in 2017, there were no additional "Wildcard" entries entered in the 2018 Bathurst 1000. Four drivers would make their first start in the race however, they were two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Earl Bamber, Super2 drivers Will Brown and Bryce Fullwood, and 'main-gamer' Anton de Pasquale. Teams Matt Stone Racing and 23Red Racing would also make their debuts in 'the Great Race', however the former contained many crew members from the former Stone Brothers Racing outfit and the latter was a continuation of Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport under new owners.