Fantastic Bathurst race discovers new Ozzie talent

[Valve Bounce]

Wel, for some of you who had the good fortune to watch on TV the 1000km race at Bathurst for V8 saloons, you will have noticed that Garth Tandy who drove the last stint in the winning car is the youngest winner of this race. The significance may have escaped those who have never heard of the Mt. Panorama circuit, but suffice to say that this is probably one of the most difficult and scariest racing circuits I have ever seen. So what is this post doing in an F1 forum. Well, I have posted this before - the popularity of saloon racing in Oz is probably the biggest deterent to our development of good drivers for single seater racing and ultimately F1. Today's race was held in attrocious conditions, starting with rain pelting down and then the track drying out later, then rain, then dry again. Cars were going off all over the track, and it was fantastic to see this youngster driving so well under these conditions. The tragedy in my opinion is that he should have been in England competing in F3 during the year instead. To many Aussies including the co-winner, victory at Mt Panorama for this annual race is the ultimate, a dream come true. Even our former F1 World Champ Alan Jones was racing there today. But there is no possibility of any advancement to F3 or F3000 for this young winner. And we can forget about corporate support- these big spenders are more interested in a horse race than a motor race. And for the dreamers, the answer is "NO!!", we will never see an F1 race at Mt Panorama.

[marcus]

while i agree totally with what you have said valve bounce i must make one correction..tander has just become the second youngest winner ever at bathurst ..the yougest being Craig lowndes back in 96..other than that I agree totally with what you say about Tander in that he should have gone to Europe because he is an amazing driver ..but he was happy to stay here in Oz and race V8's and I guess thats where his future lies..maybe ????

[DJ]

There will never be an F1 race at Mount Panorama because:

1. It's a public road. There are houses around the track.
2. The surface is not smooth enough for F1 cars. Not even Formula Holden's race there do they?
3. The Council won't spend the money to get it up to speed.

Amongst other reasons