For the benefit of my overseas readers I should explain that my post today concerns the annual 1000km sedan car race that takes place early in October every year on a closed public road circuit at Mount Panorama, just outside of the central western city of Bathurst. This 6.3km stretch of road was built during the Great Depression as an employment project. Floated by the enterprising Councillor Griffin of the local council, the idea was to give unemployed men a job to do and provide the city with a scenic road from whose heights the surrounding countryside could be admired. What the good councillor DIDN’T tell the planners and the other government authorities who helped fund the project was that, the scenic road with its climb up one side of the mountain, traverse across the summit and plunge back down the other side, would make a fantastic motor racing circuit.
And so the employment project was completed, the good citizens of Bathurst and any tourist who might want to wander by got a great scenic lookout and Australia got its iconic closed-road circuit the like of which there is nothing else anywhere in the world. And, it became a magnet for racers on two, three and four wheels from all around the world.
So, yesterday saw the annual 1000km race, a race that pits the two major Australian car manufacturers (both manufacturers representing their American parent companies, GM and Ford) against each other in a NASCAR-style tin top race over 1000kms of the 6.3km circuit. Despite the fact that no other manufacturers compete (or are even ALLOWED to compete), the race attracts a huge following both at the track and on TV where it is broadcast in its entirety, live, on free-to-air TV.
And yesterday saw one of the truly epic battles, worthy of the races nickname, “The Great Race”. Holden against Ford for 1000kms, marque pride on the line. The best drivers from Australia and a smattering of overseas stars drafted in for the occasion. It was even broadcast in America, I understand, on SPEED Channel with Darryl “boogity, boogity” Waltrip doing the commentary.
So, what did we learn from yesterday’s extravaganza (well, a whole weekend of extravaganza, actually)? We learnt that the teams that spend the most money usually win. D’uh. Holden (GM) swept the podium with its 3, well-funded and supported teams cruising to victory. Ford, who spends far less money (and spends it less wisely) were massacred again, filling only 3 places in the top 10. But we learnt some other things too.
1. Put on a good show and the people will love it and forgive all manner of glaring inconsistencies. Fact is that the cars competing at Bathurst are Falcons (Ford) and Commodores (Holden) in name only. What they really are are kit cars, alloy tube frames and carefully matched for performance components with a riveted-on outer shell to make them look like the road cars whose names they bear. The formula is so controlled for “parity” that the Holdens have, for many years, sported a Ford-style front suspension and use a Ford 9″ rear diff! But the punter who drives his Commodore to work every day will have an extra spring in his step and an extra wary lookout for someone about to steal his lane this morning as he navigates his way through the traffic. HE is driving the car that won yesterday. And woe betide that Falcon driver who pulls up beside him at the lights this morning.. It’s as phony as a three dollar bill, but the fans lap it up. Why? because it feeds on the primal rivalries that exist in all mankind. The “mine is better than yours” feeling that makes you look sideways at the guy next to you at the lights and makes you think, “I can beat him.” Yes, it’s a great show and it gets bigger and bigger every year.
BUT….
While it succeeded as a spectacle, as a motor race its deficiencies are becoming more and more glaring. Primarily the, arbitrary and sometimes inexplicable deploying of the “Safety Car” is starting to look more and more spurious. Fact is that, though the track in now completely encircled by jersey strip (that metre-high concrete barricade that often divides roads and highways), there are frequent and numerous gaps in the strip to allow access to the myriad of private properties that exist on the “infield” of the circuit and also to allow for access to flag marshals, officials and service vehicles. In years gone by, before our race organisers had a look over the pond and saw how NASCAR officials often throw a full-course yellow to bunch up the field and make the racing more exciting…whoops, I’m sorry, did I say that out loud? I MEANT to say, “to allow debris to be cleaned off the track.”, cars that crashed or stopped out on the circuit were routinely pushed by the officials into one of these gaps between the walls and safely tucked away for the duration. And it was all done quite safely. But now, if a car stops or crashes, the FCY is shown, the “Safety Car” is deployed, the field is bunched up and tilt-tray is dispatched to pick up the car and return it to the pits.
The end result of this chicanery is that, what is supposed to be a 1000km endurance race, is “reduced” to a series of frantic sprint races indulged in by a huge group of cars all with very similar performance, driven by drivers of very similar abilities. Yesterday’s winning margin, after 1000km was less that 2 hundreths of a second, a plainly ludicrous concept. And, while the last 15 laps or so when Lowndes was hunting down Tander, were some of the most gripping that I’d seen for a long time on the mountain, I couldn’t help wondering how far apart they would have and SHOULD have been had not the race been punctuated by 8 Full Course Yellow and Safety Car interruptions.
That said, there were numerous passing manouvers performed during the day, including several for the lead, and, thankfully, the race has not degenerated completely to the level of Formula 1 and other areas where the outcome of the race is almost completely determined by how good your pit crew is.
And the performance of our trackside marshals, by almost universal assent regarded as being the best in the world, was without peer, yet again. The sight of two marshals, armed only with a small hand-held extinguisher each, attacking the fire on David Besnard’s car and undoubtedly saving him from serious burns or perhaps death, will live on long after everything else about this race has been long forgotten. I hope these two guys are put up for some sort of commendation, because they sure deserve it.
Was it a great motor race? No, not at all (well, with the exception of the last 15 laps). Was it a great show, undoubtedly, yes.
In other news, KTM have released a picture of their new Moto3 bike. Very pretty, it is, too.