Bathhurst 1000

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Discussion

cheddar

4,637 posts

173 months

Monday 22nd October 2012
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FredericRobinson said:
Is the track public road, or private with access to the properties off it?
Public.

I don't know about now but back in the 90's you could turn up in your Holden/Ford/Anything, take a deep breath, say two Hail Mary's, set a lap time and bugger off before the police turned up.

3 minutes 16 seconds, 3.3 litre Commodore rental car, no police - since you asked.

lfc888

33 posts

137 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2012
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Hi there!

Long time lurker here, just thought I`d finally getting round to registering and my first post is to tell you about my visit to the mountain this year.

Whilst travelling Oz about 5 years ago my girlfriend and I fell in love with the V8`s, we drove around Mount Panorama in a hire car whilst we were in the Blue Mountains, and we saw some racing at Hidden Valley, Darwin. Haven`t missed a race since, downloading them off the net.

Cut to the present, I`d always promised her we`d visit Sydney again so we planned our wedding and honeymoon to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Great Race (how romantic!)

We flew to Sydney the weekend before Bathurst and took a hire car down on the Wednesday of race week. I`d previously managed to get the camp site at Max Cameron by Hell Corner, by getting online at a stupid time several months before.

We got to our campsite with no worries and discovered the locals were keen to greet the Pommies, also known as ripping the P***. Actually the people around our camp were huge fun, very generous and generally bloody nice.

On the Thursday we went to the paddock area and found as many drivers as we could to sign stuff for us. We`d previously stood for 3 hours in Bathurst the day before at the driver signing tent and got a few scribbles. Thursday we headed for the TeamVodafone garage as we are huge T888 fans and managed to get Lowndes and Whincup to sign my 2 books I had brought from the UK. Also got Dutto, JJ, Roland Dane, Warren Luff and Paul Dumbrell`s autographs.

When we were in Darwin we got friendly with Michael Patrizi, and I`d contacted him to let him know we coming back. He said no worries, come by and he`d show us around if he had time. We went to see him and he gave us a full tour of his car, garage, transporter and tyre area. He really is a bloody nice bloke.

Eventually we saw some action on the track, we visited various corners trying to get some pictures and soak up the atmosphere. We took the shuttle bus to the top of the mountain (strange old place!) and headed back to see our new buddies. They had an area marked out on the first corner with plenty of camping chairs with a spot on the pit straight directly in line with the painted kerbs on the exit on turn 1. We came and went over the weekend, didn`t want my pictures all looking the same!

Race day we were up very early although as the spot was marked out we didn`t have to. It truly was a fantastic atmosphere, more a friendly ribbing between Holden and Ford fans, rather than football supporter hatred that we get here.

The race was a bit ordinary to start with but then it came alive. Lowndes was on the prowl and there was a fascinating battle at the front. The end of the race was some of the best racing I`ve ever seen.
At one point during the race I got this weird feeling that I was part of something rather special. What better Bathurst to come to than the last proper Holden V Ford, and the 50th race too?

After the race we took a walk around the track, something I`d wanted to do on our previous visit but it was chucking it down that day and had to make do with 7 laps in a hire car. This time, it was a shame to see all the rubbish the fans had left all over the track but we loved doing the track walk as you get a bit more incite as to what the drivers go through.

We got back to our tent and continued our friendly banter with our Australian buddies over beer, sausages and the camp fire.

Overall thoughts – truly awesome experience. One of the best things I`ve ever done , not just motor racing.

Some of my pictures can be seen here. I`m uploading more as and when I can.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69157302@N03/sets/721...

IainW

1,631 posts

174 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2012
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Brilliant. biggrin I've just looked through them all there one by one. I like the shots taken at Skyline, such a dramatic piece of the track. You sound like you had a great time. Do you think you'll end up going back for more?

I'd love to go one day. If not Bathurst, then something like Surfers or Adelaide. I have a great aunt in Australia, so that'd be accomodation sorted for a few days, but annoyingly, she's in Perth and there's only one circuit on the calendar over there. I'd prefer to try and get two races in a row, make the most of it.

lfc888

33 posts

137 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2012
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Thanks for checking them out, I`ll be putting some more up in a week or so. I have managed to narrow it down from 900 pictures!

I`d love to go back for more but the flight is a killer. It took us 33 hours to get from our hotel in Sydney to our front door in Norfolk!

Both Adelaide and Surfers are really good events to go and see from what I`ve heard from fans and drivers. Stay in Perth, go to Bathurst (7 hour flight) and stay for Surfers. Sorted.

Norbury90

6,897 posts

205 months

Tuesday 23rd October 2012
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Great story/pics!

The full race has just been uploaded to Youtube on the official channel. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNDlbLpsb0g&fea...

lfc888

33 posts

137 months

Friday 23rd November 2012
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Sorry it`s taken me so long to get the rest of my half decent pictures back up! My internet connection is poor, one of the things about living out in the sticks rolleyes

Anyway for anyone who is interested here they are.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69157302@N03/sets/721...

I have got more but these are the better ones. If anyone wants a specfic car let me know and I`ll have a look.

Cheers

chevronb37

6,471 posts

185 months

Friday 23rd November 2012
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I've had my annual leave approved for next year so we're booking flight shortly. Can't wait!