JUST how fast a lap time Supercars will get down to is always a fun element of every Bathurst visit, and the numbers suggest it will be a pretty bloody decent number at this year’s Great Race.
Like mid-2m03s fast, pending weather/track conditions of course (noting it has been a damp start to Thursday).
To set the scene, the Gen3 Supercar qualifying lap record is a 2m04.2719s.
That was mustered by Brodie Kostecki in the Top 10 Shootout two years ago – complete with a scruffy run through Turn 1!
The fastest ever Supercar lap of the Mountain came another two years prior to that, a 2m03.3736s courtesy of Chaz Mostert in the 2021 Shootout.
Now, to get into the nitty gritty.
The new-for-2025 soft tyre is not only more durable, but unquestionably faster than its predecessor which was used in the 2023 Bathurst 1000 (the hard compound was rolled out for last year).
There have been plenty of bits and pieces change and evolve since the first Gen3 season, but three particular events make for a nice, direct comparison.
Sydney Motorsport Park, Townsville and The Bend.
They are the only three rounds thus far this year that have been run exclusively on the new-spec soft compound, and they all exclusively featured the old-spec soft in 2023.
Circuit2023 fastest time2025 fastest timeMargin (sec)Margin (%)Sydney1m29.2806s1m28.6908s0.5898s0.661%Townsville1m12.8387s1m12.5262s0.3125s0.429%The Bend1m49.4822s1m48.6548s0.8274s0.758%
It is worth noting that Feeney’s 2025 benchmark time at The Bend came in a late-afternoon Shootout, as opposed to a qualifying session earlier in the day per the 2023 event, so that comparison is somewhat skewed.
Nevertheless, there is an undoubted trend of times being substantially faster.
The average of the three margins is a 0.616 percent improvement. When applied to Kostecki’s 2023 Bathurst pole time, that equates to a gain of 0.7655s.
Which would make for a 2m03.5064s lap time – within striking distance of Mostert’s all-time record.