Bathurst 1000 Commentary

Time is ticking.......

So after a hugely disappointing display by the England 'Football' Team, I'm sat here drinking Stella Artois waiting for 10pm and the start of the Bathurst 1000 coverage on MotorsTV - I may be very tired tomorrow!

posted by Leo @ 8:59 PM

2006 Bathurst 1000 is Go!!

After only the first couple of corners we're under caution! Mark Skaife into the wall after being hit from behind whilst cruising back to the pits withan apparent clutch problem. The car that hit him - driven by Jack Perkins - is driving back to the pits with a huge flame coming from the dragging front left wheel!

Only 159 laps and about six more hours to go!

posted by Leo @ 1:12 AM

Quarter Race Distance

Roughly, we're on lap 40 of 161, and have already had three safety car periods. Not as exciting as last year's race so far, but still enjoyable!

If I continue with the plan to watch the entire race live, I'll miss the Japanese GP and I'm not sure I want to do that! I suppose that this is one of the great races of the year and I should follow it to it's conclusion, afterall I'll be watching the DVD of the full ITV live coverage - recorded by me for my own personal use from Sky Digital - from about midday with my Dad anyway, so as long as I can keep from hearing the result, it should be ok!

posted by Leo @ 2:47 AM

Three Hours Gone

We are under the sixth safety car period, as former BTCC Racer Paul Radisich has run out of road and piled head on at speed into a tyre wall, the car went pretty much through the tryes and rode up the armco finishing up on it's side. They are not showing us any more pics of the New Zealander's car, but the reports say that he is talking to the marshalls, but he is stuck in the car. we could be behind the safety car for a while , until Radisich is safely out of his Ford Falcon.

We have yet to reach half distance!

posted by Leo @ 4:14 AM

He's Out!

Paul Radisich has just been removed from his car and is being taken away by ambulance, over twenty minutes since he hit the wall, they had to cut the roof off of his race car - which they are now removing from the side of the track before we go back to green flag conditions.

We've just reached half distance - hopefully it won't take as long to do the last 80 laps as it took us to get to lap 80!

posted by Leo @ 4:37 AM

Back Behind The Safety Car!

Yep, we had nearly ten laps of green flag racing, but then we had a spinner in turn 4 - who said a naughty word live on TV!

We've had so many yellow flag laps that the Race Director is apparently concerned about the amount of fuel left in the Chrsler 300C Safety Car!

There's about 60 laps, or three hours, left to run - whichever comes first!

posted by Leo @ 5:33 AM

Big Hit!

McConville has just destroyed the right hand side of his car to bring out the 8th Safety Car period of the race!!

The Australian Commentators keep mentioning the F1 race in Japan - I hope they don't spoil it for me once it gets underway!

We don't seem to be getting much racing today, it just seems to be a few racing laps, then a caution, a few racing laps, then a caution!

Still, it's different I suppose!

By the way, Paul Radisich - who had to be cut out of his car earlier - is in a serious but stable condition.

posted by Leo @ 5:51 AM

Stunned!

The number 7 car, driven by Dumbrell, was in the pits having an oil leak fixed when Mark Marshall spun out to bring the safety car out once again. The bit that stunned me was that they released Dumbrell and he was driving down the pitlane, when out of nowhere the Safety Car pulled out and almost rammed him in pitlane! As soon as they got out onto the cicuit, the Safety Car Driver waved him passed - why didn't the Safety Car just wait until Dumbrell had left the pitlane BEFORE trying to get out on the circuit?

So much for being a Saftey Car!

posted by Leo @ 6:20 AM

Tiredness Is Trying To Capture Me

We are a maximum of two hours away from the end of this race, and I'm needing to keep the laptop in my lap or I will fall asleep, it's almost happened a few times now.

The final round of pit stops has just started, and we still seem to be under green flag conditions - that must be over ten laps by now!!!

Still a battle between the 888 Ford, and the Kelly Brothers in a Holden, obviously I'm cheering for the Holden as my resentment of Ford permeates into motorsport, plus the Holden Commodore is reminiscent of the Vauxhall Omega and I loved my Omega - even if it did only have a 2.5 V6 as opposed to the Australian car's 5.0 V8!

posted by Leo @ 6:58 AM

14 LapsTo Go

And we're still under green! Lowndes in the 888 Ford has pulled out quite a lead, but he is being caught by Rick Kelly in the Holden - I don't think there's enough time now though.

posted by Leo @ 7:38 AM

SAFETY CAR!!!!

This is going to close up the field, and with only ten laps left it's set us up for a great finish! Kelly was six seconds behind Lowndes and now there's nothing. Of course, it means that everyone else gets back into it - and when you consider they were all at least 30 seconds back, it's gonna be so exciting!

Waiting for the Green Flag...............

posted by Leo @ 7:48 AM

Bathurst 1000 Conclusion

Jason Richards caused the Safety Car with ten laps to go with steering problems, his team sent him back out, and he went into the wall with only two laps to go - Race Control said race on with local yellows!!

But at the end, Rick Kelly just didn't have enough to take the win. Craig Lowndes takes the chequered flag after seven hours of racing!

See you next year, I'm off for a nap!

RIP Peter Brock

posted by Leo @ 8:03 AM

compiled from L33CPT.co.uk