Mount Panorama is totally unforgiving.Many of the overseas drivers who made up most of the field had not previously driven on the circuit.They are used to driving GT cars on wide open circuits such as Dubai and Silverstone where you can get away with a little looseness or even a spin. They pushed too hard on Mount Panorama.I hope that next year the drivers approach the track with more respect and that more of them stay on the island.
The situation was not helped by V8 Supercars-Australia's version of NASCAR-childishly holding a test weekend the same weekend as the Bathurst Race.This kept many experienced Bathurst drivers away from the race.Which of course was the intention as V8 Supercars like Formula One is owned by a private equity company and private equity companies do not care about fans or motor sport they just care about money and TV rights.The CEO of V8 Supercars is an ex-TV executive and he would have loved pooping in a rival TV channel's nest.Silly people.Greedy people.
The driver walked away from the accident below at the top of the mountain.It was a seriously hard hit at very high speed and was the worst crash of the day.The car was a Marc Focus GTC running in the non production invitational class.I don't know the details of the crash but I believe that the driver was not at fault-the car was possibly given a tap in the rear.
Firstly, thank you for your excellent blog. The photographs and commentary and stories are most interesting.
ReplyDeleteA small correction. MARC did enter three vehicles into the Bathurst 12 hour this year and all three were, under the skin, fairly identical. However this year they entered two Focus (Focii?) and one dressed as a Mazda 3. That wrecked car pictured being loaded onto the tow truck was the Mazda 3 version, not one of the Focus.
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ReplyDeleteMarc - tx for the correction .You are of course correct as the Mazda badge is clearly visible on the front of the car .I should have noticed.
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