Bathurst 1000 2011

GT grabs top spot in qualifying

"Garth Tander on provisional pole for the V8 Supercars Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama."

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Qualifying positions for Top Ten Shoot-out:

1. Garth Tander
2. Mark Winterbottom
3. Jamie Whincup
4. David Reynolds
5. Greg Murphy
6. Craig Lowndes
7. James Courtney
8. Lee Holdsworth
9. Shane van Gisbergen
10. Steve Owen

PMSL @ Bargs who splattered it into a wall late in qualifying. What a short, fat roob. Yes, yes, I know he fluked a win in 1998.

Bring on the Shoot-out and the Great Race.

I heard that some 16 y.o. kid on his L plates had won some TV reality show contest & got a start in this years race. HTFdoes that work?

Really? How grouse would that be??

It's one of things high on my "To Do" list - some hot laps at Mount Panorama in a V8 Supercar. Did it at Eastern Creek but that place ain't no Bathurst.

Is Mt Panorama still a public road when they are not racing?. I once did a 'hot lap' round the circuit back in the seventies. Unfortunately, i was driving a Volvo wagon. Needless to say, the lap record remained safe.

Yup, sure is. Woody and I went out there on a work skive about 20 years ago in a 1.5 L Nissan Pulsar and ran the gauntlet of the local cops. But a crappy auto buzzbox doesn't really give you the same rush that a 6 L gruntmobile would.

Big Dog wrote:I heard that some 16 y.o. kid on his L plates had won some TV reality show contest & got a start in this years race. HTFdoes that work?

blame Grant Denyer

He looks like a 16 year old learner driver.

hope he survives the thing

Shirley he just won a drive around.

not the way I heard it

Big Dog wrote:I heard that some 16 y.o. kid on his L plates had won some TV reality show contest & got a start in this years race. HTFdoes that work?

Apparently the TV Reality Show (Australia's Got Talent) winner was 14 year old Jack Vidgen. Grant Denyer's co-driver in the Shannon Mars Racing entry is Cameron Waters, who is 17 and will become the youngest driver to ever compete in the Great Race.

So he's a P plater, driving at 300 kmh?

Cameron Waters indeed won a TV Reality Show.

"He's the L-plate teenager poised to make his V8 Supercar debut in Sunday's Bathurst 1000 courtesy of a reality TV show but Cameron Waters isn't feeling the pressure.

Waters won his spot in the line-up for this weekend's endurance race after emerging from an 11-week reality TV show.

He will become the youngest ever driver at Bathurst when he takes over from co-driver Grant Denyer at Mount Panorama."

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Apologies. The confusion arose in the fact that apparently Grant Denyer hosted Aus Got Talent and a young tacker (Vidgen) won that.

However, the kid Waters is no novice, with a string of achievements in the classes that lead up to the big boys toys. Including:

Victorian Rookie Driver of the year 2006 & 2007
1st Victorian Closed Karting Championship 2005
1st Victorian Closed Karting Championship 2006
1st South Australian Open Karting Championship 2006
1st Tasmanian Open Karting Championship 2007
1st South Australian Open Karting Championship 2007
2nd New South Wales Open Karting Championship 2007
3rd Queensland Open Karting Championship 2007
1st Victorian Open Karting Championship 2008

He is currently competing successfully in the Formula Vee series.

So he's going from a Volkswagon to a 6L V8......the owners of the car must be crapping themselves.

Big Dog wrote:Is Mt Panorama still a public road when they are not racing?. I once did a 'hot lap' round the circuit back in the seventies. Unfortunately, i was driving a Volvo wagon. Needless to say, the lap record remained safe.

Still a public road, but the Bathurst cops have a vehicle on duty there at least 12 hours a day. A mate of mine took a Holden Calibra for a 'test drive' before buying it. Clocked at 227 down Conrod (nominally 60kmh at that stage, now a 50 zone) lost his license for a substantial amount of time, copped a hefty fine, but still bought the car.

I was a passeger in Jim Richards' car on a junket day in the mid 90s. Ironically it was a Volvo. It was still f*cking fast. And through the dipper there is a point where your arsehole is actually above your own head. I highly recommend the experience if you get the chance.