The Bathurst 1000 is just weeks away and the hype is starting to build with a hilarious new Repco TV commercial starring Supercars greats like Neil Crompton, Dick Johnson – and musician Shannon Noll, who puts a ute into the wall by the end of the ad.

Crompton – who spent years as the focal point of the Supercars Championship’s TV coverage once his racing career was over – stars in Repco’s annual production as one of the instructors at the Bathurst Driving School.

Two men in black jackets with red zippers stand and speak in a garage overlooking a racetrack.
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After one student calls Garth Tander “the voice of Bathurst”, Crompton kicks the former Supercars champion off the screen to take his place as the real voice. What follows is a comedic introduction to the other famous instructors as they try to teach the novices “how to tackle the mighty Mount Panorama”, as Crompton puts it.

Greg Murphy, whose “lap of the gods” during qualifying in 2003 is one of the highlights of Bathurst folklore, jokes about the five-minute penalty he was slugged with for driving out of the pits with a fuel hose still attached to his Commodore in 2002.

The students are shown how to dodge the kangaroos that famously stray onto the track – and how to avoid a huge rock that suddenly pops up out of nowhere. That brings back some memories for Dick Johnson, who famously struck a boulder in his Falcon in the 1980 race. 

After the students are shown a series of intense and fiery crashes, David Reynolds delivers a message about hydration by doing a “shoey” with some champagne and a racing boot. 

Older man with white hair wearing a black jacket with red lining, writing on a red clipboard at a race track behind a chain-link fence.
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When Crompton then says, “Righto you lot, time to get behind the wheel. Who wants to go first?” a voice from the back of the classroom says, “What about me?” and of course, it’s Shannon Noll, who bins the Repco car soon after.

“I actually grew up not two and a half hours from Bathurst, so it’s just a monumental event,” Noll said in a behind-the-scenes look at the ad. “I remember when I was a kid, it was all anybody talked about when it was on.”

This year’s race runs from October 8 to 11. Matthew Payne of Penrite Racing currently leads the drivers’ championship on 2275 points, followed by Broc Feeney and Kai Allen.