F1's at Mount Panorama Bathurst

[louonline]

Also I was also against the proposal my some bike fraternity to cut into the track and put in a "kiddies' track" down the bottom part. If bikes want to race there they should do so on the track as it is and the money should be spent on making the whole track safe for them if that can be done in a practical way without altering the actual circuit. As you know bikes did race there before, it just that now the safety requirement are much more stringent. There has already been many safety changes made to the track in the last few years. Just let's be clear, I more than any one else does not want to see the Mount carved up or defaced.

[louonline]

Here is a comment from Craig Lowndes on twitter.
Note the bit, "Button said he loved the track!!!!"

Tank water level ind ‏@TankWaterLevel 20h
@craiglowndes888 Would like to see you and other V8 drivers in a short race similar as you did with Jensen Button. Let me know your thoughts
Expand
Craig Lowndes ‏@craiglowndes888 20h
@TankWaterLevel I would love to see a F1 race at Bathurst if the track can be upgraded. Button said he loved the track!!!!

[wnut]

Originally Posted by louonline

Here is a comment from Craig Lowndes on twitter.
Note the bit, "Button said he loved the track!!!!"

Tank water level ind ‏@TankWaterLevel 20h
@craiglowndes888 Would like to see you and other V8 drivers in a short race similar as you did with Jensen Button. Let me know your thoughts
Expand
Craig Lowndes ‏@craiglowndes888 20h
@TankWaterLevel I would love to see a F1 race at Bathurst if the track can be upgraded. Button said he loved the track!!!!

Good luck with this complete waste of time!

Nice track in the middle of nowhere, where is the money coming from for the upgrade? Where are Bernies 'people' going to be accommodated in VIP luxury?

Phillip Island, just outside Melbourne would be great, but that is deemed too far from the city ...

[Armco Bender]

Where are Bernies 'people' going to be accommodated in VIP luxury?

Tent on the mountain,tell them to bring thier own firewood,and 1 slab a day limit...

[Juarez Jed]

The track already hosts f3, I think that is about the limit as far as open wheelers should go.
Even if you were to try and hold the Tasman Revival meeting there for historics, I feel it would be too dangerous for the f5000's.
If the cars just circulate safely single file then it is waste of time as a spectacle, but to race there would be too risky for the cars and drivers. The f5000's are mechanically fragile enough without adding major accident damage to the list.
As for spending millions on moving concrete barriers for a one-off event, why bother ?
Just concentrate on the great events already there, the Bathurst 1000 is Australia's biggest race already, and the GT 12 hour event will grow if more attention is given to it rather than this fanciful F1 idea.

[Paradise City]

F1 should find a mountain and put a track on the top of it. Another mountain. Not this one.

And they should build a track like this but one fit for F1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrero..._Funes_Circuit

No, don't wreck that track either. Build another one. Somewhere else.

[Malfunction Junction]

Originally Posted by wnut

Phillip Island, just outside Melbourne would be great

This, even if lap time would be about 65 seconds....

[Casper]

I can imagine the consternation when Skippy gate crashes the event in front of a car!

[Go Harder.]

FFS, who is the genius behind this idea?

Don't ruin our track. LEAVE IT ALONE!

[louonline]

I am a bit puzzled by some comments here, you don't seem to be reading what I'm saying or more likely I'm not expressing my self correctly.
The track will NOT be ripped up or hacked up
A lot of people embraced the idea a few years ago when Jenson Button brought an F1 car to Bathurst and him a Craig Lowndes done a few exhibition laps. So much so that without any mainstream advertising some 25,000 people turned up just to watch an F1 backup car go around the Mount. That was a bigger crowd that any other event at Bathurst bar the Bathurst 1000 itself!
Most people would agree that the Iconic Mount is the focal point of Bathurst and has been a part of its culture for over 75 years (77 years by 2015) and no celebration of Bathurst would be complete without a main event at the Mount.
Given that the first official race at the Mount in 1938 was the Australian Grand Prix, what better event than modern day F1’s racing again at the Mount as part of the Bicentennial Celebrations!
What council is looking to do is make the track safe for a field (10 - 12 ?) of F1's
do the same thing in a racing atmosphere. They know that sooner or later they will have to add more safety features to the track (even for V8's) so they are looking to do this now and for it to be good enough for a one-off F1 race as part of the Bicentennial Celebrations. If it means they are going to have to wreck the track, then they wont do it. Of course if they don't get funding or the F1 mob haven't got the balls to be REAL racers and take on the Mount, then nothing will happen.
One thing is for sure, if 25,000 people came to watch ONE car without any advertising, then with advertising at least 250,000 would turn up to see ten cars!
I would say that all of you here that have been critical would turn up just out of curiosity

[DAVID PATERSON]

Instead of spending more money, I think they need to lower their costs.

As it is, it is far, far, far more expensive to hire Bathurst than any other track in the country. Plenty of prospective promoters have costed a meeting there and walked away. The facilities are exceptional, the track is fantastic, but it is under utilised because promoters struggle to break even, let alone anything more.

If more money is spent on "upgrades" who will pay for it? Hire fees will go up even further and that will kill the chances of amateur competitors racing on Australia's greatest track.

[miatanut]

Originally Posted by louonline

I am a bit puzzled by some comments here, you don't seem to be reading what I'm saying or more likely I'm not expressing my self correctly.
The track will NOT be ripped up or hacked up

Part of the appeal of Bathurst is the pucker factor even with cars much slower than F1 cars.

Concrete walls imposing discretion. Something that's been lost on F1 tracks for many years.

For a single F1 car exhibition you could leave it just as it is, and the lap would look like an F1 car at Nordschleife where you can tell they aren't pushing all out, for good reason. It's a completely inappropriate track for F1.

To achieve any sort of safety on it, you would have to make changes to it that would destroy it for everything else.

For me, Bathhurst and Nordschleife are the two greatest tracks in the world, and outside of Le Mans, the races at those two tracks are the only races I've watched the last three years. They are the only relatively big time races on tracks that have the technical challenge F1 circuits had when I was a kid.

They are very special to a lot of us, which is the reason for the reaction you are getting.

[Armco Bender]

Its all pretty pie in the sky as theres only one source of F1 cars and I dont think Bernie will let you play with his toys.

[Peat]

LouOnline, don't you get that by moving walls back and increasing run-offs, you are altering the character of a circuit? The mountain without the walls is just.....a circuit. What makes people speak of Bathurst in hushed tones of respect is the fact that there is genuine jeopardy for an error.

Eau Rouge (Spa) used to be 'the' corner. In the name of F1, they neutered that to a point that it is easy flat (in an F1 car), and if you make a small mistake, hey-ho, just use the run off.

[louonline]

"LouOnline, don't you get that by moving walls back and increasing run-offs, you are altering the character of a circuit? The mountain without the walls is just.....a circuit."
--------------------
I hear what you are saying.
But before the concrete walls the was armco , before that there was a barb wire fence to keep the stock out! In other words the walls were not always part of the mount. Like it or not the safety aspect has always evolved and will have to keep on evolving if they want to race ANYTHING there.
Just this year it became a requirement to have debries fencing and its in place NOW.

Within reason what they do on the peripherals is of no real concern (make the changes or no racing at all!) so long as the don't touch the layout of the track.
Of course they have made a change to the track many years ago when they put "The Chase" in at the bottom of Conrod straight in case you've forgotten!

[Casper]

Originally Posted by louonline

Of course they have made a change to the track many years ago when they put "The Chase" in at the bottom of Conrod straight in case you've forgotten!

Yep, they sure stuffed things when they did that. It needs returning to the way it was and let 'em use the run off the way it was. I suppose they could put a round a bout in to turn around on when they miss the corner. At the same time get rid of the safety car and start using tilt trays again for a bit of interest, that'll liven things up.

[AndyS]

Originally Posted by Peat

LouOnline, don't you get that by moving walls back and increasing run-offs, you are altering the character of a circuit? The mountain without the walls is just.....a circuit. What makes people speak of Bathurst in hushed tones of respect is the fact that there is genuine jeopardy for an error.

Eau Rouge (Spa) used to be 'the' corner. In the name of F1, they neutered that to a point that it is easy flat (in an F1 car), and if you make a small mistake, hey-ho, just use the run off.

Exactly.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Originally Posted by louonline

The track will NOT be ripped up or hacked up
A lot of people embraced the idea a few years ago when Jenson Button brought an F1 car to Bathurst and him a Craig Lowndes done a few exhibition laps. So much so that without any mainstream advertising some 25,000 people turned up just to watch an F1 backup car go around the Mount. That was a bigger crowd that any other event at Bathurst bar the Bathurst 1000 itself!

For that exhibition run, wasn't the car set up with "huge" ride height in order to deal with some of the drop off angles coming down off the mountain.

I can't see a race scenario like that.

[louonline]

Originally Posted by ScotsBrutesFan

For that exhibition run, wasn't the car set up with "huge" ride height in order to deal with some of the drop off angles coming down off the mountain.

So what?? I'm sure they always adjust their suspension to suit whatever track they are racing on. not sure, but I think the F1's can even do it on the run.

I DO know that our beloved V8's run a different suspension for Bathurst!

The V8's lap record is around 2:06. That F1 backup car done a lap of 1:48 with whatever suspension it was running.

That's part of the game I would have thought, choosing a set-up that suits the track AND you to try and get around quicker than the other bloke!

[Razzzor]

Ah yes the annual "bring f1 to bathurst" thread.

It'll fizzle out soon.

Bathurst will never be suitable for F1. If Melbourne's loses support, then send them back to Adelaide. I always liked the Adelaide circuit.

[naca]

Much more likely for Perth to get a Grand Prix than Adelaide. Suites the slack n lazy europeans better and they have lots of $.

A "short" circuit at bathurst would be good, although I'm sure it would **** the locals off no end. I don't think the locals would be too thrilled if there was a race on the mountain every other weekend, and the magic of the place would be sort of lost too.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by louonline

What council is looking to do is make the track safe for a field (10 - 12 ?) of F1's

talked about getting whacked indeed!

sad reality is that even if the work is done in the 'right' way and after your community has spent who knows how much money to get it done you still wont get 10-12 F1 cars there.

but if you did the rules would require them to all run on demonstration tires so you certainly wouldnt see them race each other anyways.

there is an old Simpsons episode where a traveling conman shows up and convinces the town to build a monorail that breaks down on its first run and leaves the town bankrupt...sadly thats what doing business with F1 is like.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

talked about getting whacked indeed!

there is an old Simpsons episode where a traveling conman shows up and convinces the town to build a monorail that breaks down on its first run and leaves the town bankrupt...sadly thats what doing business with F1 is like.

and

To the annual thread!

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by Razzzor

Ah yes the annual "bring f1 to bathurst" thread.

There's an annual F1 to Bathurst thread?!

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

There's an annual F1 to Bathurst thread?!

Yup, Razzzor pinned it, and it will be back next year!