Top 6 Best Moments from Mount Panorama

It is the greatest racetrack in Australia, and one of the best in the world. Mount Panorama, located in New South Wales plays host to the 17th edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend.

One of the highlights of the motorsport calendar, Bathurst has quickly become a favourite for many held every February on the tight and narrow New South Wales roads.

If you want a circuit that challenges the drivers, look no further than here: Driver vs. Mountain; Risk vs. Reward; Bravery vs Commitment. Fans adore every bit of the 3.86 miles track and to see the GTs and touring cars do battle will be brilliant.

The classic circuit creates lots of on-track battles and memorable moments, as even the very best can makes mistakes. Get it right though, and it’s so rewarding and the feeling as a driver must be special.

An incredible 40 entries are lined up for this weekend, split amongst five different classes. A number of manufacturers, including Lamborghini, Porsche, Nissan, Ferrari, McLaren, BMW and Aston Martin pack the top class, as it is Audi who will look to defend their title.

Ahead of the 12 Hour race, here are Six of the Mount Panorama’s most memorable moments:

#6: 2012 Bathurst 12 Hours – Allan Simonsen Breaks Multiple Lap Records

One of the greatest drivers and Mount Panorama’s biggest supporters to never win the event was the late Allan Simonsen. After starting the 2012 race behind the leaders, Simonsen had worked his way to the front in the opening four laps and from there proceeded to break the lap record, the first time it had been held by a GT car.

With clear air and cool early morning conditions, Simonsen broke the lap record multiple times during the 24-lap stint in his Ferrari 458. It put the Australian-run Maranello Motorsport team in a comfortable position for the opening half. Sadly, like his career, it would soon too soon for the outfit as mechanical problems ended their run after 114 laps.

#5: 2014 Bathurst 1000 – Crazy race, crazy ending

The 2014 Bathurst 1000 is perhaps one of the most chaotic races that the mountain has witnessed. It was the longest race in Bathurst 1000 history after a red flag and arguably the greatest. Having started dead last, having been in the wall at one point and having been over a lap down, Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris somehow managed to take victory.

The Ford duo only led one lap during the whole race but it was the most important one, the last lap. Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell were on for redemption after narrowly missing out on victory a year before but Whincup did not listen to the calls to save fuel and found himself having to massively fuel save to get home. Mostert pounced and took the lead with just a few corners remaining. All this came after numerous lead changes and huge drama as contenders dropped out on contention one by one, through collisions, accidents or bad luck.

#4: Closest Ever B12H Finish

2014 proved to be perhaps the greatest year in Bathurst history for not just the Supercars, but the GT’s too. The 12 Hours had already been built up with classic names but after a dramatic race of many twist and turns and a record number of laps it came down to Australian hero Craig Lowndes vs Maximilian Buhk.

The Maranello Motorsport driver hung on to beat Buhk by 0.4 seconds over the line, securing a win for the Ferrari, just eight months after former driver Simonsen’s Le Mans crash took his life. In total five cars from four manufacturers finished on the lead lap, cementing the event for foreign audiences for years to come.

#3: When Jim called the crowd a pack of…

The 1992 Bathurst 1000 was a controversial race as the leading Nissan crashed out in torrential rain. The race was red flagged so that Nissan that crashed won on countback, to the annoyance of the Ford fans who booed the winners, Mark Skaife and Jim Richards as they came out onto the podium

Richards was not happy with the crowd and had informed of the death of his friend and former F1 driver Denny Hulme during the race before he got to the podium so he called them “a pack of ars*holes.”

#2: Brock’s protégé winning the Peter Brock Trophy

2006 saw Mount Panorama play host to one of the most emotional moments in motorsport after the death of Peter Brock (nine-time winner of the Great Race, the most ever) just weeks before the 2006 Bathurst 1000. Craig Lowdnes, Brock’s protégé, and Jamie Whincup won the race on what was a hugely emotional weekend and a tearful podium. It was the perfect day for Mount Panorama, with the perfect result. You have to feel that fate played a part on that Sunday.

This race was also the first wins of Bathurst 1000 hat-tricks for Whincup and Lowndes as they would go on to win in 2007 and 2008. They are not only united for this weekend’s 12 Hour race but also the endurance part of this year’s Supercars season, including the Bathurst 1000 in October.

#1: The Dramatic End of 2018

As we prepare for the start of the 2019 race, we should look no further than last year to how dramatic the spectacle can be. Having seen a number of his rivals drop out due to dramatic incidents earlier in the race, Markus Winklehock was leading in the German driven Audi R8 LMS. To the despair of the 37-year-old though, it would be short lived with his car coming to a stop in the closing stint.

The result handed control to the rival Audi Sport Team WRT, but it wouldn’t be a traditional run to the line as the race was red flagged due to a crash at Sulman Park where John Martin plowed into the helpless Ashley Walsh in the #69 Superbarn Audi. It would be a race of many firsts. The first time the race had been called before time and the first win for a British and Dutch driver and first for a Belgian-run team.

The 2019 race starts 05:45 Local Time (NSW, Australia) on Sunday Morning or 18:45 UK Time Saturday night.