Border reprieve for Bathurst 6 Hour

The event was plunged into uncertainty this morning with news that Brisbane will go into a snap three-day lockdown at 5pm tonight to deal with a growing COVID-19 cluster.

That prompted fears the Queensland/New South Wales border would be closed and Queensland competitors across all classes would be unable to travel south for the event.

Included on the list of potentially-affected teams was Triple Eight Race Engineering, which has its Mercedes entered for the GT World Challenge Australia races.

But while a number of states have responded to the outbreak by shutting their borders to Queensland, New South Wales hasn't followed suit.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announced today the border will stay open for now, although didn't rule out that changing should the situation to the north worsen.

“New South Wales is in a cautious position, we are not shutting down our border,” said Berejiklian.

“Please know it is an evolving situation, so if we get further information in the next few hours, NSW will respond. If we get further information in the next few days, we will respond.

“But we’ve been through this a number of times, and we know what works, and we also have confidence that when we ask people to take extra precautions our community does.”

NSW's reluctance to close the border is good news for Bathurst 6 Hour organisers who have been in contact with Queensland-based competitors since news of the lockdown first broke.

As it stands the only restrictions are for people entering NSW from Queensland to fill in a self-declaration form. Anybody who has been in a 'area of high concern' – a specific place linked to the contact tracing effort – will be refused entry to NSW unless they are a resident.

Track action at Mount Panorama is set to kick off on Friday, the event headlined not just by the six-hour production car race but by rounds of both GT World Challenge Australia and TCR Australia.