Auto Action Premium Magazine | October 2026

AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTS ONLY.

In this issue

The Great Race is here. This edition of Auto Action Premium is a full Bathurst 1000 special, headlined by our complete preview of the race, a team-by-team, car-by-car and driver-by-driver rating of every entry in the field, and our verdict on who wins and why as the grid converges on Mount Panorama for the Peter Brock Trophy.

Beyond the mountain, it is a big issue: six great Bathursts revisited across six decades, a look at whether artificial intelligence could one day help decide the Great Race, the enormous logistical operation behind getting a team to Bathurst, and the story of the Lotus 88, the radical twin-chassis car that helped break Colin Chapman. And, as always, Inside Line brings you race reports and results from Australia and around the world.

Bathurst 1000 preview
Everything you need ahead of the Great Race. Auto Action sets the scene for the 2026 Bathurst 1000, the storylines, the contenders and the questions hanging over Mount Panorama as Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota all eye the Peter Brock Trophy.

Rating the Bathurst field
Team by team, car by car and driver by driver, we analyse every entry in the Bathurst 1000 field. We have even introduced a new star rating system, although explaining exactly how it works may require another magazine. Our full form guide to who wins, who surprises and who has the pace to matter when it counts.

Bathurst by the decade: five great races
From Minis filling the first nine places in 1966 to Tekno's upset in 2016, we revisit six landmark Bathursts at 10-year intervals. Along the way Craig Lowndes reflects on his breakthrough 1996 win with Greg Murphy and his emotional 2006 victory with Jamie Whincup, the first race for the Peter Brock Trophy.

Can AI win Bathurst?
Artificial intelligence is already reshaping engineering, strategy and data analysis in motorsport. We look at how far it could go, and whether AI could eventually help decide the outcome of the Great Race.

The other Bathurst race
Bathurst is as much a logistical challenge as it is a motor race. Bruce Williams compares preparing Team 18 for the modern Bathurst 1000 with tackling the same event on a shoestring budget in 1997, and finds out just what it takes to get a team to the mountain.

The car that broke Chapman
The Lotus 88 was one of Formula 1's last truly radical inventions, a twin-chassis machine that pushed the regulations to breaking point. It also became part of the battle that consumed Colin Chapman and Team Lotus.

Young gun: Darcy Heyne
A broken back nearly stopped his career before it really started. Now the 18-year-old South Australian has fought his way back through karts and Excels to finish third in the Toyota 86 Scholarship Series, with the GR86 Cup firmly in his sights.

Supercars debrief
The latest from the Supercars paddock as the championship heads to Mount Panorama, taking in the technical, political and sporting issues shaping this year's Bathurst 1000. The parity fight rolls on, but have the rules changed? Plus the Team Racing Charter dramas.

News
Winton passes its first Super Series meeting under Motorsport Australia sanction, running "like clockwork" following the Benalla Auto Club's split with the AASA and the continuing legal dispute over its ownership. Plus the latest from Supercars and Formula 1, young Aussies doing great things, and key dates for the Winton Historics, the Australian Grand Prix and MotoGP.

F1 News
Luis Vasconcelos brings the latest Formula 1 news and analysis as the season heads into its final stretch, with the key paddock stories, technical developments and political battles shaping the championship.

Inside Line
Race reports, results and all the action from Australia and around the globe: Supercars at The Bend, the Italian, Spanish and Azerbaijan Grands Prix, MotoGP, WEC, WRC, IndyCar and NASCAR, plus drag racing and the Nationals and state-level racing.

Archives and Crossword
We turn back the clock across five decades of Australian motorsport history, and a Bathurst-special Auto Action Crossword returns. Pens ready, Google banned.

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