“The Mountain”, that mystical place where all rev heads dream of visiting at sometime in their lives. Just to go there and witness the place is special, just driving into town and seeing the Mount Panorama sign up on the hill sends shivers down your spine. I don’t know what it is, probably the combination of history, the uniqueness of the terrain. Maybe it’s the fact that every year, the place is only a racetrack 6 times, the rest of the year it is a mere 60km/h tourist road.
During those 6 times a year when the road is closed, only 1 x time do ordinary Speed Licence holders like you & me get to go ontrack for real, the event is Challenge Bathurst. Over 500 entrants across 4 days come from all over the country to participate. Thursday/Friday is a full out Sprint event, the only limit is a maximum speed of 300km/h on Conrod Straight. Saturday/Sunday is the same but is a more relaxed version called regularity, where you have a minimum lap time that cannot be broken.
The event is a well-oiled machine as you can imagine with so many entrants to sign in, give stickers, document checks, scrutineering, it really makes what we do at Wanneroo look like a piece of cake. There were 50 entrants just in our 1 x group which all go out on track together. More about the running of the event later.
2 x trucks with 11 cars left Perth on the Saturday before the event, 1 enclosed trailer and 1 open, its always stressful watching your pride and joy dangling on a tail lift 3m above the ground trying to feed it into the back of the truck, especially when you are Paul Kingston and you have a fat boy 2 tonne+ VE and the tail gate says get off me!!! A bit of shuffling of spares etc out of the boot and up she went.
All the drivers flew over Wednesday and hired various cars to make the 3hr trek up over the Blue Mountains to Bathurst. Me, Mike Miller and Paul Kingston shared each other’s company and because this was Paul’s first motorsport fly-away round so to speak, the questions were coming thick and fast. This only heightened the sense of excitement as we rolled into town. We drove straight past the motel and onto pit straight, wow we are actually here.
We were all running in Regularity on Saturday/Sunday, so we had the chance to watch the big boys race around and get a feel for it before we hit the track. We were adamant that we should go straight to the top of the mountain and survey the track from up there. Pictures/video do not do the place justice, the sheer steep incline and blind rise/fall of the track is unbelievable to the naked eye. Add to that the speed and flowing nature of the track and you basically have a high-speed rollercoaster without rails.
Unfortunately, the gates to the top spectator area were shut, this did not deter us, we jumped the fence and proceeded to march up the hill with esky in tow until we found a spot to sit all on our own and take it all in. The bliss did not last long, security came flying up the hill, bailed us up, threw us in the back of the ute (photo attached) and hauled us back to our hire car. They were nice about it but shit it was funny, even Mr Miller magic (Hi, I’m Mike Miller from WA) would not wash with these guys, something about no insurance or something, we are lovers not fighters so we left willingly.
Poor old Paul’s nerves took an even bigger battering when the cars were unloaded off the truck, it was noted the VE was bleeding from somewhere, thought to be diff oil. Turns out it was brake fluid, luckily it hadn’t bled all over my VK on the trip across the Nullarbor thanks to the truck having a solid top floor, phew!!! Thanks to Kirk Beardwood who luckily brought a full pitcrew with him, BJ, Tyson and Aaron were straight into work, not on Kirk’s VE but Paul’s.
Some great bush mechanics theory and work put into practice had a great result, Paul’s car had a solid brake pedal and some nerve calming agent was applied to all and sundry via the esky. This is just one benefit of going as group to a big event like this, cannot imagine what Paul would have done if those guys were not there, awesome effort and that’s why we love this club so much.
The production line of processing paperwork, licence checks etc was truly impressive, picture a Sprint Day at Wanneroo but with 270+ people trying to all get thru & get to scrutineering all at once. It all went smoothly, we were in/out pretty quickly. Scrutineering was stressful, all the WA competitors had all their spares etc still in the race car, obviously that is not how to turn up to scrutineering. The Officials were super cool about it & welcomed us thru, no problem.
The bump in & out of the pit area was something to behold, you had 250+ Sprint competitors that had to pack everything up & vacate the entire pit area by 5.00pm Friday night and you had 270+ Regularity competitors chaffing at the bit to get in @ 5.00pm. As I said before, it was a well-oiled machine, everybody just went about their business, we were all set up by 6.30ish in garage 05, can you believe the omen!! That was the same garage Walkinshaw Andretti were set up in just a month before to win the 1000, unreal!
Can you also believe the photo of pitlane that night, all the WA guys sitting in their camp chairs, having beers, Bathurst pitlane, and it seemed everyone else had gone home, simply sublime I tell you. The challenge was not to get too carried away with festivities that night thou, a pretty big day of motorsport was happening in the morning, but what happens on tour, stays on tour!!!
Did I mention the weather, absolutely perfect late 20’s bright sunshine, wow this is going to be perfect. The program for the day was impeccably laid out to the last minute, including specific driver’s briefings for each group; remember there is 6 groups of 50 cars competing. It was laid down in no uncertain terms, be on time or you will miss out and they were good to their word. Whilst 1 x group was on track, the next 50 cars were in the marshalling area waiting to go out. This was regimented all weekend and was impressive to witness.
Saturday was made up of 3 runs for the day, each 20-minute sessions. First was a sighting/familiarization, then practice, then we had 1 x timed run to end the day. Sunday would be much the same, but 3 x timed sessions of 20 minutes each. Being newbies to Bathurst, for the familiarization run, we were put at the back of the pack, which was fine. Heading out pit exit and up Mountain Straight for the first time is something you will never forget. You don’t need the added pressure of holding anybody up on their trip of a lifetime so we all just rolled around basically taking it in.
The problem came in the next session, practice, we were told at drivers brief that the time you set in practice would dictate the starting order for the first timed session. This was different to what we thought, we were lead to believe that everybody had to nominate a time prior to the event. The regularity has a fastest time of 2min 36sec lap time, so most of us WA guys set a 2min 40sec thinking that was pretty accurate. The problem was being at the back of the pack for the start of practice meant carving our way thru some cars that were doing 3min+ lap times during a 20minute session to set a reasonable time. This was going to get serious really quick!!!
I can only say wow, that session was fun, for what’s supposed to be practice, blowing past a plethora of slower cars first time up Mountain Straight makes you feel pretty good. There was that much traffic I thought “gee this is going to be interesting what times come out of this”. Once you get to the Cutting, there is really only one place to pass (Skyline) before you get all the way to Conrod unless someone lets you pass that is. But you really want to be sure they have seen you and are indeed letting you passed because the concrete walls do not move out of the way.
You have to be so careful on Conrod, the car picks up speed so fast, the closing speed on the slower cars is 250km/h versus 200km/h at best. The gap closes pretty damn fast I can tell you. Anyway 20 minutes went by in a flash, 5 or 6 laps were completed depending on where you were in the pack. Remember the 2min 36sec floor time you could not break, I ended up 3rd fastest with a time of 2min 36.7, the 2 x Datsun 260Z’s in front of me were in that 0.7sec, unbelievably tight at the top. The other guys had a really great run as well, you can see the results table in this report. Paul Kingston, self-confessed rookie, in P10 on a 2min 46sec out of 50 cars, outstanding effort.
The vibe back in garage 05 after that session was absolutely buzzing, everyone had a battle story to tell, could have done this, should have done that. Special times indeed and is what makes trips like these so special. The process then was set for the rest of the event, the running order every session would be based on these practice results. This was good for most of us, as it meant that the slower cars were all behind us and it gave us someone to chase in front.
First timed session or what they call in Regularity – a Trial – was Saturday afternoon, my theory was to stick hard with the 2 x 240Z Datsun’s, they being hard on the 2min 36sec barrier. I thought they know what they are doing and if I stick with them, I shouldn’t go too fast. Rolling out of pitlane at the front of a 50-car pack was pretty special, we were at the Cutting before every car had even left pitlane.
Across the line to start the first flying lap and I was hanging with the Datsun’s when old mate from QLD in his AC Cobra with a roof on it, decided that he wanted to win Bathurst on the first lap going up to the Cutting. Go for it mate I thought, problem was he was slow as a wet weak across the top of the mountain. Faark, c’mon mate, we get to Conrod and this thing turns into a jet again and I cannot get by him. By this time, the Datsun’s had disappeared down the road and I was left to have fun at least with the Cobra until we got red flagged, a car had stopped in a dangerous spot and before you know it, the session was done.
What a day and as we sat there thinking how good is this. Then it dawned on us, we had 3 more sessions tomorrow. Dinner and the festivities were as expected, brilliant fun, the talk amongst everyone was never ending.
We woke to another picture-perfect day on Mount Panorama; our group Z’s first run was 9am. My theory for Trial 2 was the same, stick with the 2 x fast 240Z’s and see what happens. Across the start finish line to commence flying lap 1 and the mighty VK had to be held back up Mountain Straight. The want to blow by these 2 in a straight line was almost too much to handle. Different story once we got to the BP sign at the tree, these guys were super quick across the top of the mountain. They managed to gap me by around 150m by Forest Elbow. That’s fine I thought, deploy the cubic inches off Forest Elbow and suddenly I was backing out on Conrod to stay behind them again.
That was cool, next lap, same thing except when we got to the start/finish line, there was a black flag waved at me with my number on it – Bugger – I must have gone too fast. Had to come into pitlane next time around and get a slap on the wrist from the Clerk of Course. I had to sit out the rest of that session in the pit and when all the WA boys came back after the session, they all thought I had broken something in the car.
When the word went around that I got black flagged for “going too fast” there were high fives all round. Pretty cool to be told you are too fast but then I realised the 2 x Z’s had broken out as well and now how were we going to stay over the 2min 36sec in the next 2 x tTrials. I went and chatted to the Z boys and although happy with the result, they to were concerned about going too fast again.
Meanwhile all the WA boys were doing a great job sticking to their nominated time, that’s what regularity is all about, Phil in the old E Type Jag was 1st with Mr Miller in the mighty red VH 2nd. Once again everybody had their own war stories to tell and if I relayed them all here, I could write a pretty thick book.
Trial 3, the guys at the front of the pack decided we would have some fun and have a bit of a dice without trying to go too fast and break out. That was great and although people might say “oh but you aren’t going as quick as you can” you have to balance having fun or risking a loose and a big crash chasing a lap time. That’s why they impose a minimum time, if you want to go all out, enter the Sprint category, which is more expensive, and risk binning it because everybody is going ten tenths.
The last run for the weekend was at 3.15pm and it was decided we would have a crack trying to hit right on 2min 36sec for 2-3 laps then have a real try and if we get black flagged, ignore it for a lap and maybe we will get away with it. I finally could not resist the urge to pass the Z’s going up Mountain Straight but then after turn 2, I waved them back past approaching the cutting. The red GT40 had red mist in the eyes as well and promptly stuck it around the outside entering the Cutting. I had visions of Murph & Ambrose coming together in that exact spot and promptly let him thru.
Then it was on, the Z’s gapped us across the top, the GT40 holding me up until Forest Elbow and I thought I am going to keep it pinned here, lets see what this legendary red beast has. Well, it was neck and neck to the 1st crest on conrod, I saw 260km/h and thought, yep that’s enough as the VK got very light in the front end, plus she was nearly out of revs with the 3.7 diff gears. Across the line and the GT40 got black flagged, I checked the dash data later and either we both got flagged or I was right on 2min36.
The GT40 pitted at the end of the next lap & the Z’s had some mechanical issues so I was left at the front with no markers to gauge my lap time. Across the line and I thought lets have a go. It was truly surreal having a proper dip heading into turn 2 (Griffins Bend) feeling the car have a little oversteer and thinking do I really want to crash this thing. There are so many spots on this track where a tiny error turns into a monumental crash simply because there is zero run off, concrete both sides 1.4m high. The respect for the pros at that moment was very high.
I did get black flagged, no official time but dash data said 2min 33sec, I was pretty stoked with that. The other boys had a great last session as well, except for Mikey Miller. Starting the first flying lap on the last Trial, the mighty VH broke a panhard rod into turn 1, this would have been serious anywhere else on the track, possibly crash causing. Typical MM, he immediately pulled off the track & pulled straight into the pit side gate so as not to inconvenience all other competitors with a red flag. Mr Miller, always thinking of others before himself.
As when we got into pitlane on Friday night, everyone had to vacate the entire pitlane by 5.30pm. For all the WA boys, that meant everything packed up & cars loaded on the truck and out by that time. And just for added pressure, the weather was changing rapidly with a storm front bearing down on the mountain. Our blessings kept coming thou, just as the last car was going into the back of the truck, it absolutely hammered down rain/wind the whole shooting match. It was the mountain saying, you have had your fun – now piss off!!!
The best part of any motorsport event is the de-brief session afterward, everyone is on a high. Even people that have dramas, are happy to talk about what could have been. The debrief for the WA boys on this trip continued well into the night at one of the many awesome pubs in town. I could talk for hours about this once in a lifetime trip, if you ever get the chance, make sure you do everything in your power to go, truly bucket list stuff.
Author Mike Clynk and willing participates!
