Bathurst 1000 daily: Thursday

Go behind the scenes of a tense opening day of the 2026 Bathurst 1000 – more off-track than on it – with the Thursday edition of our daily podcasts.

The pre-Bathurst parity war continued into the first day of track action at Mount Panorama with Ford finally granted its engine wishes.

The decision came so late, however, that the changes couldn't be applied in time for the first practice session.

Meanwhile, the ongoing TRC and calendar negotiations added to the tension in the Bathurst paddock.

Out on track the spoils were shared by Kai Allen and Lochie Dalton across the two sessions, giving Ford and GM an early win each.

But where were the Toyotas?

Andrew van Leeuwen, Stefan Bartholomaeus and Simon Chapman unpack all of those topics, and more, in the Thursday edition of the daily podcast.