2002 Bathurst 24 Hour
The 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour was an endurance motor race staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The race, which was the first 24-hour event to be held at Mount Panorama, started at 4:00pm on 16 November and finished at 4:00pm on 17 November. It was the first 24 Hour race to be held in Australia since the 1954 Mount Druitt 24 Hours Road Race. The race was open to several classes of GT and other production based cars and was intended as a showcase for the racing  categories promoted by PROCAR, which included Nations Cup, GT Performance and GT Production. While there was much speculation about the highly popular V8 Brute Utes class also being eligible there was resistance to the idea and they ran short sprint races as a support category. Ten classes were announced, but only five classes attracted entries. Group 1. The leading class contained vehicles from the international FIA N-GT category and Group 1 cars from the Australian Nations' Cup category. It featured the Ferrari 360 N-GT, Mosler MT900R, Porsche 996 GT3-RS, Porsche 996 GT3 Cup and the controversial Holden  Monaro 427C which did not have a production counterpart. Group 3. A class open to Group 3 cars from the Australian Nations' Cup category and to Supertouring cars. Only three BMWs entered, Supertouring versions of the 318i and 320i and a modified Z3 M Coupe. Group 5. A production based class featuring GT Performance Cars. The entry consisted of BMW ME Coupe, Ford Tickford T3 TE50, HSV Y Series GTS, Mazda RX-7 Series 8, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, Nissan 200SX, Nissan 350Z and Subaru Impreza WRX STi. Group 9. A production based class featuring cars from the Australian GT Production Car  Championship. The entry consisted of BMW 323i, Holden VX Commodore, Honda S2000 and Toyota MR2 Bathurst. Group 10. A mixed bag of leftovers, it included Future Touring Cars; Holden Commodores and a Holden V8 engined Mitsubishi Magna, a pair of Nürburgring VLN series BMW M3s and a late concession for Mitsubishi Mirage Cup one-make series cars. Top 10 Qualifiers. The top 10 qualifiers for the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour were as follows: