2008 Bathurst 1000

[masonite]

Well, its bathurst time again.... PRobably should have made this thread a bit earlier, seeing as the race is on tomorrow, but oh well. Anyone else watching it?

Going to karaoke tonight, then hopefully i'll get back home in time tomorrow to watch the start (and the rest) of the race.

My predicted top 5:

1. Tander/Skaife - After phillip island they've got my hopes up, as long as skaife doesn't bin it they'll be up there - barring any stupid brake problems like last year...

2. Lowndes/Whincup - The team to beat these last couple of years, and they're going for the hat-trick for the first time since Brocky. Will definately be sharp.

3. Richo/Winterbottom - Led for 141 laps last year before binning it, they've got even more pace this year, and will be definately up there. Just remains to be seen whether they make any mistakes...

4. Davison/Johnson - they've found some pace of late, and are usually around the top 5. If luck goes their way, they could find themselves in an even better position...

5. Ingall/Morris - Can't stand morris, but ingall still has some pace and the car has speed. As long as Morris' ego (or whats left of it) doesn't get in the way, they could be a darkhorse, along with Murph/Richards, Holdsworth/Caruso, Jones/McConville and Courtney/cant remember who.


Just heard that Radisich has broken his ankle badly, after shunting a wall due to a jammed throttle - Looks like Rick Kelly will be lucky to even start the race tomorrow... :( Weel is out too, along with the TKR car, due to another crash....

[Smokey]

ya rick kelly is hoping in the other HSV car with Dumbrell. im hoping for Tander/Skaife. but any HOLDEN will do LOL
Tander got Pole so thats a good start. dont mean shit over 161 laps though

[GTAce]

I wish i could watch this in TV. 8(

[speed stick]

Yeah its not on tv here either. Well for what I've got anyways. And I've honestly never heard of this event.

[The Dude]

I wish I actually had time to follow a race series. Even though Speed channel is usually limited to CRAPCAR and ricer-tv, they occasionally have some good events being covered.

[masonite]

****SPOILERS IN THIS POST IF YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW THE RESULTS****
(I think that's pretty much just aimed at you smokey, if you didn't catch the race;))




Bathurst 1000 is a part of the V8 supercars race series here in australia, but it's actually much older than the category itself (it's just been incorporated into the series). It started off in the 60's as a production car race with "showroom" regulations - production cars went out in a 1000km (500 mile back then) race to see who had the best showroom models. Inevitably this led to more and more powerful road cars, usually with unlisted "options" or "packs" that could be bought by the general public (if they knew about them) on their cars - things like triple weber carbies instead of standard ones, bigger brakes, sports suspension, etc.

Of course, this lead to an inevitable power race ending with what's known as the "supercar scare" of the 70's - a newspaper announced plans from GM Holden, Chrysler and Ford to produce new production cars capable of 160 mph (a big deal back then) in order to get success at the race track. This ended show room regs, and saw homologation regs which evolved over time.


For a short time in the 80's and 90's it was a part of the Intertational Touring Car Championship (Group A), but when that dissolved the different coutries went their own ways - Germany with DTM, UK with BTCC, and Australia with V8 Supercars.

In many ways, the race is bigger than the championship its now a part of - Winning the race is considered a bigger deal by some drivers than the championship, and due to the need for co-drivers during the race, it allows a lot of retired and international drivers to come back to the race.



As for todays race that finished about 1/2 an hour ago.....well, it wasn't the result i was hoping for, but it was a decent race nonetheless. I'll give a run down of how my picks went:


1. Tander/Skaife - Cooked the clutch on the line, went from first to last before the first corner. :( But, as always at bathurst, it mean nothing - after 50 laps they hit the top 15, and got as high as the top five before Skaife put it into the wall. Recovered, but ended up a lap down due to one car a lap ahead of them deciding not to pit (when really, it should have) when a safety car came out, which meant they were stuck a lap down behind it. Really, i think Skaife needs to hang up the helmet, he's had his success and he needs to move over for a younger driver to come through.

2. Lowndes/Whincup - Won the race, had some competition at some points but were always at the front, kept the car straight and brought it home well - first time since Peter Brock in the 80's for the same driver combo to win a hat trick at the mountain.

3. Richo/Winterbottom - had issues getting heat into front tyres and brakes early on which slowed them down, recovered well to be in contention towards the end of the race, but rear tyre wear at the end of the race saw them lose two places and finish 4th. Good effort though.

4. Davison/Johnson - Looked very promising, and had the pace and ability to stay at the front of the pack until tyre delamination started to affect lots of cars - and it affected them quite badly, having to make multible unscheduled stops for more tyres.

5. Ingall/Morris - Punched well above their weight, and looked set for a top five finish before a power steering pump failed with about 20 laps to go, and they had to put it in the garage. Pretty heartbreaking considering how well they were doing.

Rick Kelly ended up having a throttle problem, so his weekend couldn't have been much worse than it was.

Murphy/Richards recovered from early contact with Lowndes/Whincup to make a great lunge at the end, taking second place with about 4 laps to go and holding on despite low fuel and very high engine temperatures to finish there. Very impressive result for a team that has been behind the eight ball a bit the last couple of seasons, have looked on the cusp of improving dramamtically and they finally did it.


Holdsworth/Caruso, Jones/McConville - both cars didn't really do too much - Holdsworth hovered around outside the top ten before problems at the end of the race saw the car lose all power, but the big surprise was the sister car of Jones/McConville - With Max Wilson and Brad Jones (the uncle of Andrew Jones, who was partnering McConville) finishing 5th ( i think) but leading the race for much of the first half of the race, and hovering around the top three before losing a couple of places towards the end.

Cortney/Besnard rounded off the podium, showing great speed early on before misdiagnosing a problem, making the car much worse, and then recovering late in the race.



Overall a great race, with a lot of the smaller teams stepping up and demonstrating great ability and drive.

Should also mention there was a pretty massive crash in practice, with Paul Weel and Chris Pither coming together very heavily. Both are ok, with Weel spending a few days in hospital for checks.

[Smokey]

excellent rundown masonite :) i missed first 100 laps but as usual it only comes alive in the last 20 or so laps. but wholly shit they had a few safetycars in that time lol. not the finish i wanted either but they deserve what they got. its hard to see ford dominate after basically having holden dominate for the last 15yrs.
i wish murph had got around richards 10 laps earlier it would have been a great finish. i dont think he would have got lowndes as i think lowndes is in the same position as skaife was in the late 90s early 00s where if someone got to close he was able to pull away without much effort.
still a great race as always but i wish it wasnt part of the championship as it should be what it used to be a "balls out race"

[masonite]

yeh, i'd like to see it removed as well, and in some ways i'd like to see "privateers" as well - i miss the fields of 40 or so cars running around the mountain (there were only 26 starters in todays race - unbelievable!)

The first half of the race was pretty incredible that there were no safety cars, and i was kind of worried - Lowndes managed to lap most of the field, an ill-timed safety car could have seen everyone except the top 5 or 6 go a lap down... But yeh, it turned back into typical bathurst towards the end, hehehe, safety cars causing more crashes than they prevent ;) I was pretty dirty about Luff putting Baird into the wall, even if it was still a long shot, it would have been great to see seto standing on the podium in red :) If the rumours of Skaife hanging up his helmet at the end of this year are true, it'd be great to see him and seto back in a HRT car at the mountain next year...