Just got home from a week away after attending the 2017 running of the Bathurst 12 hour race and having time to reflect on what a great race this years event was. My son and I went together again. This is our seventh B12H race and it just gets better every year. The 2017 race had it all. A great list of international teams and drivers and a stellar list of top shelf local entries.

Race reports are out there in great numbers from every man and his dog who were there to witness this years race, so I don’t feel the need to add my account on the actual race itself.

We arrived on the Friday night after our drive down from Brisbane. We had a minor annoyance to the start of our race weekend when I copped a speeding fine just out of Warwick heading towards Goodiwindi on the Queensland/NSW border . 3 points and a $243.00 fine wasn’t the ideal way to start the weekend, however there’s no point in whingeing or even arguing the toss with Queensland’s finest. Although, it did make us wonder at the time, as to why we counted 5 x motorcycle cops and 11 x police cars (not counting the unmarked ones we didn’t notice) on this 150 klm stretch of relatively light traffic area!  Never mind, we were on our way again, and had a great drive down the Newell Highway and arrived in Bathurst about 6pm on Friday evening.

After checking in to the Bathurst Explorer we were off to a pre-arranged dinner and get together with the guys from the Shakedown Sportscar and GT racing forum, at one of Bathursts fine restaurants, Pantano’s Bar & Grill. A brilliant night was had by all, meeting a lot of the guys we only know by their forum handles. Great to put faces to names. Interesting seeing a lot of the teams and drivers there as well. It was a real case of the Who’s Who of the international sports car racing world turning up. I had a bit of a fanboy moment when I literally bumped into Lena Gade from the Bentley team on the way out.

Saturday, we headed straight to the track. Qualifying and the top ten shootout followed. I don’t know if I’m a fan of the shootout, but hey…. if it generates a bit more excitement, why not! I’m probably a bit more of a traditionalist…..a straight out session, setting grid spots for race day would do me, with teams and drivers given a 20 minute session, timing their qualifying runs to perfection, would be just as exciting.

Both of us are not much into any of the support categories, so we were quite happy to spend part of the day around the back of the pit area, checking out what the teams were up too, and then getting our way up to the top of the mountain for the last qualifying session and the shootout.

I’ve said this before, I don’t think it’s possible to take any poor photography at this place. However, there does seem to be much more of the hated catch fencing springing up around the track every year. It’s becoming more of a challenge to find the better spots for photography each year nowadays. Never mind….. the harder it becomes, the better we like it. The keen amateur photographers at the circuit, manage to find ways to circumvent the barriers they place in our way.

We had brilliant weather all weekend, albeit a bit hotter that I would have preferred. Plenty of water kept the hot temperatures at bay. One of the things we’ve done over the last few years, has been to pick up a 24 pack of bottled water before leaving home, which generally keeps us well hydrated over the weekend.

With the circuit being literally only 5 minutes from the Bathurst CBD, we’ve found it just as easy to head into town for food, instead of purchasing the dodgy racetrack tucker.

Saturday night saw us hitting the hay at a realistic hour, ready to rise early for the 5.45am Sunday morning race start. For me, the jury is still out on the Sunday race start time. I follow the thinking of the 5.45am to 5.45pm, twelve hour race, with commercial free to air TV calling the shots, for a viewer friendly time frame to maximize their ratings, and I’m absolutely certain the promoters aren’t going to jeopardize the brilliant coverage of the race, that the Seven Network have provided over the last few years. However, to put my self interested, motorsport, race-fan hat on, a Saturday 8.00 or 9.00am start, with them racing into the darkness, would be a better option, leaving Sunday to travel home. As I understand it, this has been proposed in the past with the local council, who are now co-promoters, knocking it on the head. For the aforementioned reasons, I can’t see any day & time changes happening anytime soon.

I have long been critical of Virgin Australia Supercars (or the crowd formally known as V8 Supercars), who took over the running of the Bathurst 12Hour from Yeehah Events a couple of years ago, however I’ve got to admit, the race, under their control, has certainly gone ahead in leaps and bounds since they took over. That is certainly not a criticism of the way Yeehah, under the  leadership of James O’Brien ran the show. If anything, he and his team put the race out in front of the world, to the point where it is now.

Race day saw  a large crowd heading into the track for the 5.45am start. We took up our regular positions at the exit of Caltex chase, out in front of Rydges, well before the start to get ourselves organized. I have been considering watching the start at the top of the mountain, but this year, we decided to stay down the bottom again, for another reason.

Brad, (aka Maverick) from Shakedown had made arrangements to get the forum members into a great little spot on Conrod Straight, not accessible to the rest of the race day crowd. I don’t think I would be wrong in saying that just about any motorsport fan in the country, would be green with envy at getting up there at the B12H or the Bathurst 1000k race, held in October. What a brilliant spot! It’s something else watching the cars thundering down off Conrod at peak speed, around 280-290 kph and generally not backing off as they head into the chase. Listening to the different cars as they flew down through there, made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The scream of the Ferrari, the low ground shaking rumble of the Bentleys, the various notes of the Audi’s, Aston Martins, BMW’s, Lamborghini’s, McLaren’s, Nissan’s, Porsches and all the other racecars was insanely brilliant.

My son and I are track wanderers when it comes to race meetings we attend, so to head off from this great piece of real estate was a big call, but there is only one Bathurst 12 Hour per year, so we decided to head back up the hill to catch as much of the race from as many vantage points as possible. Which meant of course, to transverse as much of the top of the mountain as possible, from the cutting, across the top of the mountain, all the way around to Forrest’s Elbow.

We did, as we have done in the last few years, come down to the front straight, to witness the last couple of hours of the race, from up top of the pit complex. This year there was, thankfully, a fair bit more shelter on top, with a bar and shade facilities provided.

Thanks to Shane van Gisbergens antics late in the race, there was plenty of entertainment, which saw the race fittingly go to the Maranello #88 Ferrari, who were the far superior team all weekend.

The race lived up to expectations and more, but although we have noticed the big changes, like a lot more factory and corporate involvement, it still has that nice, small time race feel about it.

There is no doubt that it has hit the big time. More so this year than in previous years, but when you can see, meet and talk to the drivers and the teams over the weekend, get photo opportunity’s when they present themselves but without the arrogance of V8SC’s and F1, it makes it a great experience. I think the teams and drivers enjoy the relaxed, laid back Aussie atmosphere of the event as well.

Let’s hope the organizers can keep to the winning formula.