How many times?

[Alan Jones]

I feel alot safer now Roe

[tickfordchick]

hahahaha!

good, so you should

[DAVID PATERSON]

I've been there 3 times.

In May 1994 I was on holiday in Sydney, so Dad and I decided to make a day trip to Bathurst. Dad had a HSV enhanced VN Berlina and we did about 6 or 7 laps each and checked out the Museum. Great day!

1995 I took my mum to Sydney and Canberra for a holiday and we went via Bathurst and spent Sunday at the Shell sprint round. We were at the approach to McPhillamy and had a great day, saw Bowe nearly hit a big black dog. First time Mum saw the V8s and she was pretty impressed by the speed. We weren't so impressed by the marshalls standing around while McLeod's car was burning away.

1999 on holiday in Canberra, Dad and I went to the Super Touring 500. It was the addition of Club Cars and Historic Touring cars to the support programme that made us decide to go. We had a great time and saw some good racing. Saturday night we packed up and drove to Canberra, watched the 500 on TV. Turned out to be a very good decision.

Next time I go to a meeting at Bathurst will be as a competitor.

[RWC]

HAHA ,the hire car comments made me think of somethink i read years ago.Apparently in the past ,when the race cars were closer to production cars(&maybe more recently as well at prod races),some unscrupulous commpetitors would hire a simple commodore (for example)
and 'borrow' certain parts for the duration of the race!! hey,you've got all these mechanics just standing around....Of course they had to check that the car they hired had a good diff/gearbox /whatever.It was a hire car after all!

[FalconEL]

My five trips to Bathurst have been amongst the highlights of my life so far. I was lucky enough to be a part of my fathers race team in 1983, 1984 and 1986, and they were pretty special times for me.

Some memories for me include:
- Walking back from the temporary paddock showers in the Bathurst night with the wind knifing through you turning water droplets into iceicles.
- Waking up to a huge BBQ of bacon, eggs etc for the crew of 14 guys.
- The first lap of the first practice session on Wednesday, standing at Hell Corner and watching the gleaming machines head out of pit lane all healthy and unmarked, hoping your own car would come around for lap two!!
- The relief of having a trouble free practice and qualifying - and no that didn't happen often!
- The enthusiasm of the crew as they attacked and solved problems with the car.
- The pride of having your car lined up with 50 odd of the best cars in Australia on the access roads waiting for the paddock gate to open on race morning to be grid marshalled.
- The jitters on race morning and the atmosphere before the start, the waiting for your own car to come around lap after lap (hang on a sec, he was suposed ot be behind car ##, where is he.. oh here he is...), flipping the old lap scoring board around every lap as the car came down into Murrays.
- The drama as the end of the race approaches and the camaraderie as fellow teams will your car to the line and you do the same for others.
- The euphoria of actually finishing the race and the party afterwards, the packing up on Monday mornings with the regulation hangover and many empty beer bottles strewn around the place.

It's a special place.
CD.