Bathurst 1000 - The Great Race

No one could ever say I am not a motor sport nut. Four wheels or two, on road or off road, touring cars or open wheelers. I love all of it. I especially like the Australian V8 Supercar series. Ford versus Holden and it doesn't get bigger than the Bathurst 1000 which is held around this time every year.

The Bathurst 1000 is held on the 6.2 kilometre Mt Panorama circuit which winds up what appears from the lowet point of the track to be just be a hill. The road in fact climbs steeply to the top which has a vertical difference of 174 metres, and then drops off in a series of tight,steep corners at the end of which is Conrod Straight where the cars reach just under 300 kph. 161 laps is race distance, which takes roughly 6 hours on a good day. There are always lots of crashes, spins and off track excursions.

Bored yet? I'm not! This weekends TV coverage is no less than 20 hours and I have been watching every minute of it. The only thing better is being there which I did in 2006 and in 2000. I thought I had better do a Bathurst blip today rather than tomorrow because I am likely to be a little under the weather by this time tomorrow after watching the race and drinking beer all day.

Bathurst is a bit of an institution amongst motor sport fans. People flock there from all over the country. The most popular place to camp is on top of the mountain. I have been up there on race weekend and it is literally lawless. The police stay right away. Not really the kind of place to take your wife or girlfriend unless you have been there before and know what to expect. The track has very good access because most of the year it is a public road that winds amongst sheep and wine properties. Seeing the cars come across the mountain for the first time doing 200 kph makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. They go so fast!

Last year after Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock was killed in a rally, I decided at the last minute to go to Bathurst. I managed to persuade my mate Brad to tag along and he brought his brother too. We drove down on Friday night after work which is a 14-hour drive. The idea was to have a bit of a snooze when we got there. In the end we soldiered on and went straight to the track as soon as our tent was up. The day ended around 9.30 in the evening after much drinking at the top of the mountain. We had been awake for around 40 hours! On Sunday we got up bright and early, packed up the tent and went straight to the track. After the race we jumped in the car and drove 14 hours back home because Brad had to be at work on Monday morning. It was one of the most tiring but fun boys weekends I have ever had. It took me a week to recover and then I jumped on a plane to the UK, but that's another story.

So, today while watching the TV and sampling a few beverages I had this crazy idea to blip the TV, which I have never done before. Firstly let me credit Channel 7 Australia, which covers the event. It was from their TV footage that I captured my blip. There, that covers the blip rules obligations.

This photo is Mark Skaife on his top ten shootout lap.

Here is a link to all my Bathurst photos from last year.

My Blip of the day is this stunning beach Black and WHite