V8: Leigh Diffey On The Bathurst Co-Driver Pressure Cooker

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V8: Leigh Diffey On The Bathurst Co-Driver Pressure Cooker

SPEED host and V8 Supercar insider Leigh Diffey looks at the challenges and pressures facing co-drivers during the six-hour Bathurst 1000 race.

Leigh Diffey | Posted October 07, 2011

When it comes to the heavy lifting, primary drivers like Craig Lowndes handle things like qualifying during the endurance races. (Mark Horsburgh/V8 Supercars)

With the Bathurst 1000 ranking as Australia’s biggest and most important auto race, there's an enormous weight of responsibility placed on the fulltime V8 drivers. However, for the endurance races on the V8 calendar like Bathurst, think about the pressure that’s placed on their co-drivers.

Some of these guys are doing the development series, the Fujitsu Series, the equivalent to our NASCAR Nationwide Series, and so they are regularly behind the wheel of the car. Others like Greg Ritter and few more co-drivers are not. And they get two big chances to shine a year; at Phillip Island and Bathurst. They're not in the groove, don’t race that often, and there’s a heavily restricted test program in V8 Supercars preventing them from getting warmed up before both events.

And all of a sudden, you're throwing them onto the most daunting track, in the biggest spotlight of the year, where basically 10 percent of the population of the country is watching for the majority of the day. In America, that would be like 25 million people watching Daytona or Indy. It's a huge responsibility.

So it comes two-fold. The main driver in the car is thinking about the championship and thinking about the glory of Bathurst. The secondary driver, if he's not doing a lot of driving throughout the year in other categories is thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, I can't afford to stuff this up and I have to deliver and I’ve got to be the best I've ever been, because this is Bathurst!’

So for that, the storyline and the philosophy and the thought patterns behind it are just fascinating. The primary driver will have a ride after the event, but for the co-drivers, if they do everything correctly, they’ll get the call to come back next year. If they make a mistake, their invitation might be revoked and their reputation could be tarnished. For guys with so few laps to work from and so much to lose, it’s a pressure cooker, for sure.

In terms of here in the U.S., think about all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup stars, who for 36 races plus two non-championship races a year, it's all about them; their car, their team, etc.

All of a sudden, take a group of guys out of the Nationwide Series and say, ‘Oh, by the way, you’ve got to share your car, your team with this guy and try and win the biggest race of the year. You’ve got a share your car at Daytona 500.’ Think about that situation because for every race other than these two V8 endurance races, that’s what these V8 supercar drivers do.

Ford's Mark Winterbottom looks on pensively as his co-driver, Steven Richards, wheels his Falcon around Bathurst during one of the co-drivers-only sessions. (Mark Horsburgh/V8 Supercars)

There are some adjustments required and not too many of them have long-term teammates; it's just the nature of the category. Very few partnerships stay together for a long time. There are only about six or seven combinations of the 29 cars for this year's Bathurst 1000 that were in the same car, same team last year. It's an enormous turnover. So not only are you getting used to sharing your situation, you’re having to cycle through the co-drivers maybe every other year or more frequently, maybe every other year.

The primary driver/co-driver dynamic is so unique with all the concerns and constraints I just mentioned, and when it’s all said and done, the only thing that matters to the big names in the series is getting the win. No matter how it happens, what it takes or how much a co-driver has to endure, the stars of the series are fixed on crossing that finish line first on Sunday.

As reigning series champion James Courtney was asked on the grid last year, “You're in the championship league, is this about points this or is this about Bathurst?” He said, “You've got to be kidding, this is about Bathurst!”

That to me says it all. Do you want to go to bed at night in your retirement knowing that you were a champion? Or do you want to go to bed knowing you’ve won the biggest race in Australia? And I think probably for the majority of the guys they would rather trade a championship for Bathurst. That puts it all in perspective.

But without the right co-driver to help get you there, it will never happen.

~Leigh

Leigh Diffey brings his considerable hosting talents and personality to a number of SPEED's road racing broadcasts after years of covering every major form of international motorsports in his native Australia and abroad.

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Leigh Diffey

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