Bathurst success

THREE GENERATIONS OF BATHURST SUCCESS

Bathurst has been a very special place for the Bargwanna family. They’ve enjoyed success at the hallowed 6.2 kilometre racing circuit in various motorsport events and categories across three family generations.

The 2021 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst Six Hour Production Car Enduro took place over Easter weekend (April 2-4), marking the debut of a third Bargwanna generation driving duo competing at Australia’s majestic mountain of motorsport.

The Bargwanna family Bathurst story starts with family patriarchs Harry and Alf, the fathers of Jason and his cousin Scott. who first competed at Mount Panorama in the late 60s.

The second family generation cousins, Jason and Scott, both 20-year-olds, teamed up in a small family-run team to join the elite group of Bathurst winners by taking the Class C victory at the 1992 Bathurst 1000. This was the same epic race that ended prematurely due to a major accident at the top of Conrod straight in abysmal weather conditions. The red flag that marked the end of that race handed the overall victory to Mark Skaife and Jim Richards (Nissan GTR) and the Bargwanna cousins in their family prepared Class C Toyota Corolla.

Both Jason and Scott Bargwanna progressed to enjoy successful racing careers, following in the footsteps of their fathers, Harry and Alf, who still race to this day. Jason Bargwanna won the Bathurst 1000 with Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2000, and Scott Bargwanna won the Class A2 trophy in the 2017 Bathurst Six Hour.

Fast-forward to 2021 and history has repeated itself, with the small family team entering the 2021 Bathurst Six Hour Production Car classic with another Bargwanna family driver pairing. The third Bargwanna generation to take on the mountain are teenage cousins, Ben Bargwanna (19) and Jude Bargwanna (just 16 years old).

Ben, who is starring in his debut season of TCR Australia racing this year, and his young cousin Jude, who is currently third in the National Formula Ford Championship, competed in this year’s Bathurst Six Hour with a VW Golf GTI in the highly competitive Class D category.

Their team was overseen by first-generation Bargwanna racers, Harry and Alf, along with second-generation Bargwanna Bathurst champions Jason and his cousin Scott, making this a major family effort to repeat history and gain the Class D silverware with this third generation of the Bargwanna family motorsport dynasty.

by Paul Marinelli

With this highly experienced guidance, young Ben and Jude raced to an impressive second in the Class D category, after having comfortably led the category battle for most of the gruelling six-hour race. An urgent fuel stop under green flag conditions during the closing stages saw the third-generation Bargwanna duo lose track position that they could not regain in time before the end of the race.

“It’s just one of those things,“ Ben Bargwanna stated. “The lap after our final fuel stop there was a Safety Car period and that helped our competitors. With all the other Safety Car periods until the end of the race, we couldn’t make up the lost ground.

“Jude drove a great race for his debut Bathurst at just 16 and the family did a great job in preparing our Golf, which didn’t miss a beat all day,” he added.

“Having Harry, Alf and all of the family involved in this year’s race was very special, too. We overcame a lot of obstacles including a busted steering rack in the lead-up. As usual, the family got to work, miraculously found the

"WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD GREAT SUCCESS HERE AT THIS SPECIAL PLACE"

parts over Easter weekend and solved the issues to allow us to gain a top result,” Ben Bargwanna recalled.

According to Jason Bargwanna, “This was something very special, for Scott and I to have shared a podium result so many years ago and to be able to come back to Bathurst as a family and do the same with our sons was pretty cool.”

Scott stated, “We have always had great success here at this special place, but I was more excited and very nervous watching Jude roll out of the Bathurst pit lane for the first time at only 16.”

The newest Bargwanna duo also used race number 71 for this epic Bathurst race, just as Jason and Scott Bargwanna did in 1992.