The Bathurst 1000, Thunder on the Mountain from the land where men are men and kangoroos run scared. The 1000 Km race on the Mount Panorama rollercoaster, a track which makes the Nürburgring look reasonably safe, belongs among motorsports top ironman events along with LeMans, Indy, Daytona and the Nürburgring 24hours.
This is NASCAR done right: an entertaining mix of antidiluvian engine technology keeping costs relatively low while producing the wonderful sound we all love and proper racing, with turns and braking zones. Combine that with a reasonable 3000lbs weight and you have something truly exciting....
Other cost cutting measures include spec suspension layout (front double wishbones, rear live axle with Watts linkage) and a standard sequential transmission. The 5 liter Engines are fuel injected and make around 650 hp. Tires are spec and limited to 24 per week end.
But you can look up all of that elsewhere... lets start with the action! Part one will be some clips from practice and some of the minor races. Later the Shootout and finally some of the main event.
It's all good!
More clips after the jump
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I love Bathurst. My favourite track in video games and one that tops my list of places to visit.
ReplyDeleteI could watch this video of Greg Murphy on endless repeat - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WIM6ddI_SaU
two of the videos say "private" and that you have to log in to view them. :(
ReplyDeleteGreat post otherwise.
That mini crash hurt me to watch...thats insane, head on and only that small crumple zone to take the force...
ReplyDeleteAnd do you have the full mini race anywhere I can get it?
Thank you for posting content like this!
ReplyDeleteIt's a real shame about Radisich's crash, he's broken both ankles, some ribs and re-broken his sternum (broken when he crashed even more heavily at Bathurst a couple of years ago). I'm hoping he'll be back but you'd have to say that might have been career-ending.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite bit from the race this year was Greg Murphy's scream of utter frustration at his team a couple of laps from the end; they were on the radio telling him exactly how fast his car was falling apart and he was just driving the wheels off it trying to catch Lowndes. Magic race.