SINCE its inception, the Bathurst 6 Hour has been utterly dominated by BMW.
The German brand has won all seven editions of the production car enduro held to date, including three successive podium lockouts.
In fact, BMW accounted for the top six places this Easter a fortnight ago, in a race won by Jayden Ojeda and Simon Hodges aboard an M4.
However, the story might have looked a little different had an alternate course of history played out.
V8 Sleuth has learnt Triple Eight explored taking on BMW for one of the key Mount Panorama trophies on offer each year.
That came in 2021, when still under foundation supremo Roland Dane’s watch.
It involved investigating building an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio to race in the outright Class X.
Nothing ultimately came of it, with Dane concluding that GT4 was a better route to tip resources into. GT4 is growing in Australia, and has been mooted for its own three-hour Mount Panorama enduro as part of the Bathurst International next year.
Triple Eight has also become increasingly central in the GT3 sphere, announcing late last year an expanded relationship with Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing.
Triple Eight ran the SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG which won the 2022 Bathurst 12 Hour, and fielded two of its own entries in this year’s edition.
It also has entered two cars in each of the Australian and Asian 2023 GT World Challenge series, on top of its Supercars Championship efforts (which include being the General Motors homologation team).
