Ahem... I went to the Bathurst 12 Hour this year.
The drive up was pleasant.... although we had to go on the Highway for the first part, as the Bells Line of Road was closed due to an accident
We turned off and took the back road through Tarana (highly recommended). My silly mate got huge air through a dish drain, and I thought we were going to roll as we landed sideways.... but the X5 recovered.
It was stinking hot (39C) on Saturday.... and not much different on race day, yesterday
We camped in the pit area... and it was such a nice balmy night, I just slept under the stars.... didn't bother throwing the tent up. Dined on kangaroo steaks.
Race start was 6:15 am
This chrome and orange Ferrari is the one that was in the big prang
There was even an old Daytona Coupe running. His whole team cheered when he actually made the start - from pit lane - after an all-night effort to fix problems. Here he is, back in after 3 laps... and they took an angle grinder to the front right. I think he'd got a 'roo.
Anyone want some cheap Ferrari bits... left over from a practice incident
Wandering through the pits on Saturday, a couple of the lads had their photo taken with Mika Salo and Craig Lowndes (who won it, along with Bowe)... and it was no problem to wander into the pit bay with them. Alan Webber (Mark's dad) was there too... sussing it out for next year, perhaps?
Race day, we sat at the Chase... here's the V8-engined Ford Focus having an "off"
Years ago, I saw a friend of mine have an "off" there on a bike. There was a second hump at the end of the straight in those days (mid 70's) and Peter Walker took a ride on a modified Kawasaki 4 in the Aria 3 Hour, after another friend, the late Duncan "Rat" Read rode it and declared it a death trap.... hot engine, no frame mods. Peter went through the speed trap on the first hump at 137 mph.... and then the bike simply spat him over the handlebars at top speed. He picked it up.... rode it back to the pits, got patched up and raced his TZ the next day.
Back to the here and now...
Here's the Fezza again....
Three laps later and the ambulance was on the track after the big shunt at the top of the mountain. He'd spun on his own radiator fluid and was collected at high speed by the Nissan GTR that was in 3rd place
Here's Eric Bana's car. Group B. I'm pretty sure this is the same Lambo that was at Winton Raceday when I was last there for a track day with the M5 guys
AMG SLS and Subie
Three nice little Abarths were running around
Plenty of Audis
Lovely Bolwell Nagari
