Bathurst (Mount Panorama Circuit)

(UPDATED: October 8, 2011)

The Bathurst 1000 is Australia's Daytona 500. Except for one weekend out of the year, Mount Panorama can actually be driven on even without the V8 Supercars racing this classic course. Just that the speeds are strongly enforced when the track isn't used for racing. It is a mountain where a number of stars have contested racing such as Peter Brock, Greg Murphy, Mark Skaife, and Craig Lowndes among many others.

UPDATE:

OCT 8 2011 - made some edits, added a personal note

PERSONAL NOTE:
Hello to all of my readers! With the 2011 Bathurst 2011 underway, I want to welcome you to John's Blog Space. I hope you enjoy your stay here. If you love my work, please feel free to "like" my Facebook fan page, or get social with me any other sort of way. Thank you for visiting, and I hope you enjoy your time here!

--- Mount Panorama Circuit ---

Here is a map of this circuit:

^ from: hsv.com.au - Mount Panorama Circuit.


This is Australia's version of a roller coaster. It is a 3.861-mile (6.213 km) roller coaster where you go on the ride of your life on an imposing and tough course. It is a real driver course that is not for the weak or the passive. It is a roller coaster ride with plenty of elevation changes and 23 intense corners. You have to be really brave to try to cut or dig deep into almost any corner on this track. It is a semi-permanent race course which has some corners that are like an average street course. But rather than concrete walls with catch fences, you just have some walls deep inside that make you think twice about trying to pull any kind of bold manuvers.

One Lap Description.

Your trip through this purgatory begins progressively downhill into [appropriately named] Hell Corner. It is a sharp left-hand corner. The road ahead is the Mountain Straight. It goes progressively downhill, uphill, greatly downhill, then somewhat uphill heading into right-handed Turn 2 (Quarry). A big hill is to your left as you head into The Cutting. Turns 3 and 4 are left-handed corners that basically serves as a double-apex corner. Turn 3 is merely just a kink in the road that sets you up for Turn 4. Though it's called The Cutting, if you try to cut into this corner, then your car is going to eat the inside wall. A brief trot uphill leads to the right-handed Turn 5. Turn 6 is a smooth right called Griffin's Mount. Turns 7 (Reid Park), 8 (Frog Hollow), and 9 (Sulman Park make up one long sweeping left. The road begins to dip at Turn 9 (Sulman Park). You head into Turn 10 (McPhillamy Park) next, which is a sharp left-hand kink. After that, it's an uphill trudge to a part of the track that separates contenders from pretenders- the Esses (Turns 11 through 17). The Esses feature some characteristics that make it like an average street course- narrow with walls on the outside and inside of the road and corners. Don't even think about going far to the right because concrete walls are ready to scuff up your car if you try to go far inside or outside of any of the corners in the Esses. Skyline (Turn 11) is a blind downhill right. There is a wall on the inside of the corner, so don't even think about trying to cut right into the far inside. There's no curbing or grass to help you cut as deep as you can. Proper entry into Turn 11 sets you up for the left-handed Turn 12 goes a bit downhill. Turn 12, unlike any other corner in the Esses, is completely open. So there is no wall on the far inside of Turn 12 because there is mostly grass and gravel to your left through Turn 12. The walls return for Turn 13 on out, however. Turns 13 and 14 are tight. Turn 13 is a right-hander, and Turn 14 is a tight left-hander that goes downhill. Walls are to the far inside at Turns 13 and 14. After Turn 14, the road is almost street course narrow. Turn 15 is a smooth right-hand kink while Turn 16 is a moderately sharp left-hand corner. Turn 17 is a somewhat long right-hand corner. Turn 18 is The Dipper- a banked, left-handed, double-apex hairpin corner. The fast left-hand kink that follows out of The Dipper is Forrest's Elbow (Turn 19). Conrod Straight follows as you go through more undulations in the road. Conrod Straight begins progressively downhill, somewhat uphill, and slightly downhill before heading into the Turn 20-22 complex called The Chase. A very fast right-hand kink at Turn 20 can be taken at full speed. Be ready to slow almost all the way down when heading into Turn 21 (The Chase). The Chase was added back in 1987 to help slow the cars down after this very long straight. Between Turns 20 and 21 is a road that goes downhill, then somewhat uphill. Turn 22 is merely a sweeping left-hand corner that increases in radius. The road ahead goes somewhat uphill, then downhill as you enter the final corner, Turn 23 (Murray's Corner). Murray's Corner is a slow left-hand corner. The front stretch awaits you as you go downhill towards the finish line. That's one lap at Bathurst. And if you're doing the Bathurst 1000, then it's 1 lap down... 160 more laps to go!


Lap times around Bathurst take just over 2:05.000 to complete (mostly in an Australian V8 Supercar). The Bathurst 1000 takes a long time to complete. The 2009 Bathurst 1000 saw the winning team (Garth Tander and Will Davison) complete the race at 6:40:24.884. I have two videos for you. The first video is an in-car lap around Bathurst, and the second video is a bonus to you- Greg Murphy's epic record lap around Bathurst.


One lap around Bathurst (in a V8 Ute):


Greg Murphy's epic lap around Bathurst in 2003 (2:06.859):






To learn more about the Mount Panorama Circuit, visit Mount Panorama Circuit's official website. Learn more about the Bathurst 1000 by going to the Bathurst 1000 official home page.

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