D'Arcy Waldegrave: The insane performances of Bathurst

The greatest spectacle in racing? Nope, that’s the Indy 500. The race that stops a nation? Nah, that’s the Melbourne Cup. The great race? Yeah, that’s it – the Bathurst 1000.   

The magnificence of the mountain is back. The 1000km Supercar squirt around Mt Panorama just outside the NSW town of Bathurst gets its rev counter red-lining tomorrow afternoon just before 2. Six hours of man and machine savaging the circuit, originally built as a sedate mountain drive for tourists.   

This will sound a bit a bit geeky, so be it. 

A constant source of fascination for me is the astonishing propinquity of the lap times across the field. 

Consider this. Qualifying yesterday threw up this: over one lap, 6.213 kilometres, the first six cars were separated by one tenth of a second. Brodie Kostecki’s provisional pole position time was 0.0064 of a second quicker than the number 2 placed driver Broc Feeney.  

Six and four-tenths of a thousandth of a second. Over 6.2 kilometres.   

Different cars. Different teams. Different set ups. Different lines. Different drivers. Separated by essentially a click of the fingers.   

Get on your phone and try to start and stop your stopwatch to the same nth. I’d hazard a guess you can’t.  

It’s insane. It amplifies the how the teams wring every last millisecond of performance out of the equipment, the track, the driver, and they can’t really be split.  

Then they do it for over six hours through rain and shine, tyre wear, equipment failure, and the odd errant marsupial.  

Mental.   

It’s all the fun of the circus, or a leisurely drive in the country, which was what the road was built for.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You know I've got a problem with motorsport, right if
you don't, well, you do know now the greatest spectacle
and racing on that day, that's the Endy five hundred,
the race that stops the nation, and that's the Melbourne Cup.
The great Race. Yeah, that's it, the great Race. The
Bathurst one thousand, the magnificence of the mountainous back one

(00:34):
thousand k supercar squirt around Mount Panorama just outside the
New South Wales town of Bathurst, gets its rev counter
redlining tomorrow afternoon, just before two six plus hours of
man and machine savaging the circuit, which is originally built
as a sedate mountain drive for tourists. Go figure. This

(00:55):
will sound a bit geeky, so be it. The conson
source fascination for me is the astonished propinquity of the
lap times across the field. Consider this qualifying yesterday threw
up this odd stat over one lap that's six point
two one three kilometers. The first six cars were separated

(01:16):
by one tenth of a second. Brady Stecky's provisional pole
possession and time was zero point zero zero six' four
of a second quicker than the number two place driver
Brock feeni six and four tenths of one thousandth of
a second over six point two. Kilometers different, cars different,

(01:39):
teams different, setups different, lines different, drivers separated essentially by
click of the. Fingers you get on your phone and
try to start and stop your stop watch to the
same enh it'd ads it against you. Can't it's. Insane
it amplifies how the teams ring every last millisecond of

(02:00):
performance out of the, equipment out of the, track out
of a, driver and they can't really be. Split then
they do it over six hours through rain and shine
and tire wear and equipment failure and driver, changes and
the list goes. On it's mental and quite, frankly all

(02:20):
the fun of the circus and the time mac so
looking forward to, this ladies and, gentlemen start your.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Engines for more from The Your Sport breakfast With Darcy,
Watergrave listen live to news talks s'd be On saturday,
mornings or follow the podcast On. iHeartRadio