Me again, I know so soon after my last entry and here I am with another contribution to the internet. This of course was aimed at a release for Friday but the video took longer than expected and then the upload to the world of youtube took until 2:30am so I didn't feel like composing something at that time of night and still be in control of the concept of language and grammar. Although saying that the Canada pre-race was written in the small hours of the morning while watching Le Mans after an evening performance.
But this time I am appearing before you with a small track insight into the other great race that will be happening this weekend, kicking off in just over a few hours time in Australia but I shall be asleep at the time, resting before the start of the Japanese GP. I am of course cryptically alluding to the Bathurst 1000 an endurance race in the Australian V8 Supercar series which produces some of the greatest racing in the world of motor racing - this time racing for 1000km round the magnificent Mt Panorama circuit.
The Track
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| Image from Wikipedia |
In the second half of the mountain section comes a series of corners with extreme undulation as the track begins to descend back down the mountain. Once more twisting between high concrete walls which conceal a significant drop on the other side. The layout mixes the fastest phases of the entire V8 Supercar season which opens the window for frighteningly large accidents. Last year Fabien Coulthard suffered a tyre faliure at the end of the Conrod Straight - the fastest point in the lap and ended up rolling the car into oblivion in the gravel. Fortunately he was able to walk away from the ruins of his Holden.
The race also highlights the peak in the national rivalry that exists in Australia between Holden (Australian version of Vauxhall) and Ford as the only two competing manufacturers. A competitiveness which extends deeply into the oceans of fans who attend the mountain where fan groups share a devout loyalty to their manufacturer and this is derby day. Well every race is derby day but this is the highlight of their season and Australian motorsport as a whole marking it as a prominent international event.
Being an endurance race the regular team drivers have to pair up with an co-driver to work the differing stints across the 7hr event. Normally the second driver in a car is drawn from the V8 support series or other national series. But drivers from across the world have been asked to compete in the great race, drivers from the BTCC, WTCC and even Champcar have taken part to add more depth to the grid for an exciting event. The length of the race also means the weather has more of a chance to intervene and because of the enclosed nature of the mountain phase of the circuit a damp circuit makes the walls seem a lot closer and makes it all the easier to visit them.
Now in the tradition of my other pre-event posts there is also a video and like with Le Mans and the Nurburgring 24h races I have driven a car round the lap - partially because it's a whole lot of fun to have a go and to add something to this post. Now due to time constraints with two fantastic events running this weekend requiring two videos this one has no annotation just the visual and it was run on the first timed lap without practice or car setup so the time isn't that great. But that aside here is a lap in a current 2011 V8 Supercar of Mt Panorama
This will be the only post on the weekend as I won't really see the race until a few days from now as a result of other commitments - I know weird isn't it, me doing something else other than sitting here typing these things out and watching motor-racing. That would be an ideal life, but who really has them any more, so simulated driving around shall have to do
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