Bathurst 12 Hour

Sheldon McIntosh · February 12, 2013, 01:00:32 AM

As anyone that follows me on twitter (@hoonanism) would know, myself and Phil Baskett went up to the Bathurst 12 hour this past weekend. Well, bloody hell, what a fantastic weekend, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's in my top three of motorsport events I've seen, and is definitely on my annual list of 'things-that-must-be-done'. BTW, a Rally NZ is number 1, a MotoGP at Phillip Island is number 2, this event is in at number 3.

The support classes were pretty average, but the event itself, and the qualifying on Saturday was just amazing. Spectating on the top of the mountain is every bit as good as everyone says, and really needs to be seen to be believed. The corners over the top are incredible in themselves, but then you also notice how far down the pit lane is and you realise just how far these guys are having to climb just to get to Reid Park. Spectating at The Chase was incredible also. It's amazing the speeds these guys are carrying through there (apparently about 280km/h), and then having to get the car straight before braking.

The race itself was incredible, and was a lot closer than the results would indicate. When Craig Baird was trying to catch the leading Mercedes, he was noticeably faster and more committed than every other car. Then with about 2 hours to go we felt the first spits of rain, followed by a huge thunderstorm, then a drying track, then more rain, and then etc...

It was a fantastic weekend. The cars sounded incredible, and all with quite a distinctive note (the Mercedes and Ferrari in particular sounded superb), and from what I've read, the fastest of them were about 4 seconds faster over the twisty mountain top than the V8 supercars; very impressive.

Attached a few pics from the race. Note how dark it was towards the end, the thunderstorm caused it to get quite dark, quite quickly.

Sheldon McIntosh · February 12, 2013, 01:26:03 AM

It was a fantastic weekend for real motorsport fans. It was obvious that everyone was there for the racing, rather than 'the event', if that makes sense.

We camped at the track, which was fantastic. Shame we couldn't see any of the track from our campsite though..... The crowd was good, nice and friendly, and not too many people. We arrived up the top quite late on raceday, but we still managed to find a nice shady spot to set up our chairs, and then when it pissed down we were able to drive the car up onto the bank and watch from the car while we listened to the commentary on the radio.

I really can't recommend this event highly enough, it was absobloodylutely superb. Bathurst delivered in spades too, we got sunburnt on Saturday, our tent was threatening collapse in the storm on Sat night (we managed to hold it up with some strategically placed chairs), and then when we came back to the campsite after the race on Sun the tent had pretty much collapsed and was starting to leak water inside. What a weekend!!

Some more pics.
1. An Aston One-77 that happened to be in the pits
2. We managed to meet the commentators on Sat evening. This is the most photogenic of them, Shea, who was doing the pits comments. The commentary was brilliant by the way. This girl will go far. We also met Brett Ramsey that night and had a few drinks with him. He's an interesting character.
3. Our camp site.
4. Our tent after the storm on race day.

TFJ100 · February 12, 2013, 07:17:01 AM

Hey Sheldon,

Nice - thanks for the summary! Looked good on streaming - the Mercedes Benzs sounded like WW2 Spitfires compared to the Ferrari.

BTW - Were you holding your stomach in for that photo?

Was she the one with the US accent (Californian?)?

Thanks
Torben

alfagtv58 · February 12, 2013, 11:32:08 AM

Agree 100% with what Sheldon said, there is not enough superlatives to convey how much I enjoyed that weekend. It is #3 in Sheldons list, it is my #1, but I'm a sports car fan. At the 11 1/2 hour mark both Sheldon and I were saying 'already? I'm ready for the next 12 hours', it flew by.

Torben, yes that was Shae Adams, she is from Florida. Superstar in the making.

I have been listening to the Radio LeMans crew for some time, both their excellent Midweek Motorsport podcasts and commentary from various endurance racing events, and to be able to shake their hands and enjoy a couple of quiet sherbets with John Hindhaugh, Eve Hewitt, Paul Truswell and Shae Adams (and a handful of other Aussie fans of their work) on Saturday night was a real highlight for me personally.

I'll be trying to book next years campsite this week!!

alfagtv58 · February 12, 2013, 11:52:13 AM

Quote from: Sheldon McIntosh on February 12, 2013, 01:26:03 AM
(we managed to hold it up with some strategically placed chairs)

We.....WE

If I remember correctly, when those chairs were strategically positioned someone said 'WTF are they gunna do' hehe. It was pretty funny having to pack up a wet and collapsed tent into the back of the car and drive 1/2 an hour to a town that had a motel room!! The worst thing about that was not getting to drive a lap of the circuit first thing Monday morning.

Incidentally, the race winner completed 1662kms over the course of the race, we managed 1675kms over the weekend. 2 more laps and it would have been pretty much exactly the same!

Evan Bottcher · February 12, 2013, 01:43:23 PM

You shared a tent? Shenanigans!

Paul Gulliver · February 12, 2013, 02:32:09 PM

Sheldon , if you & Phil intend another weekend of "swinging hands in the tent " next year you may want to spend a bit of time making sure the tent stays up. That "Love Shack " didn't look to good in the last photo.

Sheldon McIntosh · February 12, 2013, 02:56:50 PM

Quote from: alfagtv58 on February 12, 2013, 11:52:13 AM
We.....WE If I remember correctly, when those chairs were strategically positioned someone said 'WTF are they gunna do' hehe.

This is all true. It was physically very hard to hold up the poles which were collapsing, so I didn't think a camp-chair would be able to do it. Obviously I didn't understand the physics behind Phil's suggestion.

Quote from: Paul Gulliver on February 12, 2013, 02:32:09 PM
Sheldon , if you & Phil intend another weekend of "swinging hands in the tent " next year you may want to spend a bit of time making sure the tent stays up. That "Love Shack " didn't look to good in the last photo.

The tent was definitely as secure as it could be, it was just badly designed and couldn't cope with the wind. The fact that one of the guy-ropes came off while we were trying to tighten it certainly didn't help. Or the fibreglass pole that broke. Shit tent. We spent that Saturday night huddled together and holding hands, as far away from those corners as we could. Pic attached from Sat night at about 3am.

Sheldon McIntosh · February 14, 2013, 11:33:02 PM

Incredible on-board of the fastest lap in qualifying, in a Ferrari. This lap actually went under the 'barrier' of 2.06.00, imposing a 50kg penalty on the team for the race. Don't worry about why they have that rule for now (it's to do with ensuring the sportscars aren't too much faster than the production cars, ensuring full grids, and some more bollocks like that).

Just watch and enjoy, 'cos it's pretty amazing. As always, open in youtube, put it on HD, and turn up the sound.

Sheldon McIntosh · February 14, 2013, 11:49:06 PM

The way he closes in on that Vantage GT4 at The Dipper is mind-blowing to me. Rewind it, and as the Aston goes over Skyline, he would have looked in his mirror just before going through there, and seen nothing behind him, probably assuming he had a free ride down to Forrest Elbow. An Aston Vantage GT4 is not a slow car.

And the Aston was far from the slowest car on track. With speed disparities like that, it's amazing there weren't more incidents during the day really.

Sheldon McIntosh · February 16, 2013, 12:26:04 AM

No love for that Ferrari lap? Alright then, have a look at this Porsche lap then...

This lap is pretty amazing, the commitment over the top of the mountain is just breathtaking, especially after the amount of understeer he gets at Griffins. And then the way he threads the needle through the 'slower' cars at The Chase before braking, it's just awesome.

colcol · February 16, 2013, 09:42:22 AM

Notice how smooth Alan Simonson is, no shuffling of hands on the wheel, no see-sawing, just turns the wheel and holds it through the corner, good to show at a driver training day, i wish they would have these races at V-8 taxi racing events, rather than the bogan utes, Colin.

Sheldon McIntosh · February 16, 2013, 11:01:49 AM

Quote from: colcol on February 16, 2013, 09:42:22 AM
Notice how smooth Alan Simonson is, no shuffling of hands on the wheel, no see-sawing, just turns the wheel and holds it through the corner, good to show at a driver training day, i wish they would have these races at V-8 taxi racing events, rather than the bogan utes, Colin.

I couldn't agree more, good call Colin. That lap blows my mind every time I watch it.

Unfortunately, it would appear that the V8 organisers know their crowd very well. That said, the GTs will be supporting at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, and they'll be racing at Phillip Island in May at the Nationals. After seeing how awesome they are live at Bathurst, I'll definitely be going down to see them at Phillip Island, these guys through Turn One will be incredible I reckon.