BAT - TTM 2025 Round 5 - Mount Panorama

The decisive change

At Bathurst (Mount Panorama) - THR, the fifth round was settled not by a long escape but by a late alteration at the head of the field. Kuba Palubicki's BMW M3 E30 Sport Evolution had held the advantage through the opening 24 laps, with SDH-M ~ HappyKojot's Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth never allowing the matter to become settled. On lap 25 the Polish driver moved ahead, and from that moment the race belonged to him.

Palubicki remained close enough in the closing phase to ensure that the Sierra's advantage could not be treated casually. The two were still engaged in the final part of the 27-lap race, their contrast of machinery lending proper character to the contest: the Sierra's force against the compact BMW's persistence. HappyKojot reached the flag first, 2.949 seconds clear, and added the fastest lap of the race, a 2:13.242, to a victory which had been earned under continuing pressure rather than by circumstance.

It was a measured drive at the point where measure mattered most. There had been no need for flourish once the lead had been won; only the maintenance of the advantage over the final laps of a race that Palubicki had made him work hard to secure.

Celárek restores the Holden

Adam Celárek took third in the Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV, but his afternoon had briefly been less straightforward than that final placing suggests. He ran third before being shown fifth at the end of lap two, after incidents at Sulman Park and The Chase. From there, Celárek recovered the lost ground and restored the Holden to the podium by the conclusion.

His pace was emphatic. Celárek's best lap was 2:13.295, only 0.053 seconds slower than HappyKojot's fastest, a useful indication of the pace required merely to remain in the argument at the front. It also gave the first three a pleasing variety, the Ford, BMW and Holden representing three distinct answers to the demands of Bathurst.

Behind the podium, Boby Vakuinof's Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo Evoluzione S1 came home fourth, ahead of Valentin Knechtel in another Alfa. Knechtel had been ninth after the second lap and fought back to fifth, a recovery which gave some substance to a top order otherwise dominated by the lead contest.

A crowded middle phase

The race was far from quiet beyond its leading pair. From laps three to seven, FMG, Nat Stevenson, Adam Keefe, Knechtel, Ayrton Titos and Marc Orós formed a compact group covered by less than five seconds. Its personnel changed as the race developed, but it gave the middle portion of the event a restless character, with the Nissan Skyline, Alfa Romeo, Holden and Mercedes-Benz all involved.

For Orós, who had arrived at Bathurst as Championship leader, this was the difficult part of the day. The Mercedes-Benz 190E driver traded positions with Stevenson and later with Titos, but ultimately reached the flag only 11th. Titos was classified 12th and Stevenson 13th, the three having spent much of the race in each other's company.

There were formal consequences elsewhere in that traffic. Jaroslav Cerny received a 12-second penalty, SDH-M ~ Samu0332 15 seconds and NeckR888 30 seconds, following Race Control decisions. Cerny had already been dropped from 10th to 18th on the second lap amid incidents at Quarry Bend and Murray's Corner, before recovering to finish 14th. NeckR888 nevertheless came home eighth in the Skyline.

The table turns

The larger significance of HappyKojot's victory lay in the Championship arithmetic. Orós had begun the round on 108 points, four ahead of HappyKojot and Palubicki, who were tied on 102. Bathurst has changed that order decisively. HappyKojot now leads on 142 points, Palubicki is second on 139, and Orós has slipped to third on 132.

The narrowness of the immediate margin over Palubicki is plain enough, but the change at the summit is the more important fact. HappyKojot has risen from second to first in a round where the principal rival was directly behind him on the road, while the previous leader was left outside the top ten. In a Championship with one result discarded for each driver, the table after Bathurst has acquired its own particular tension.