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Quick takes -
1) Enjoyed the weekend, but the low car count in the main event was a bummer. Cars got strung out and ran alone much of the time. Multi-class racing can be a challenge, but creates some excitement and challenges.
2) I love endurance racing, but the event never really had an endurance feel to it (at least to me). After 2 hours or so, teams were just lapping with little dicing or racing. We didn't get much of the never say die, fix it to get it back out and finish feel.
3) No spectators. Even with friends and family of the teams, there was a pretty empty venue.
4) The track PA announcers were dreadful. I can't even humanly recall let alone replicate the pronunciation of driver names. Awful. Disrespectful.
5) There was clearly odd SRO/World Challenge/SCRAMP dynamics, but mostly worked out as people just went with it. But there was wierdness. The fan grid walk was a good example. Another example was that we were told in the briefing for media photographers that a firesuit and helmet was required to be anywhere in pit lane - even behind the wall. I've heard of that for over the wall, but never behind the wall. Of course, many team members, friends, etc. didn't have firesuits and helmets, so created an odd position of whether to respect the advice and put your credential at risk. I did, but not all did when it became clear it wasn't being enforced.
Will it be another Bathurst? I'm skeptical. Was it fun? Absolutely.
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