Supercars 17 - Bathurst R20

We start to sunset the series with one of the biggest races in motorsports at Bathurst.  While we didn't run the full 1000 like in real life, we did go longer than normal, starting early and ending late.  Some of us, not as late.

A strong qualy put the two Quest Nutrition cars on the front row with Tnadz and Mark Riggleman (shwa!?) burning rubber and making more smoke than California.

Things were a little dicey for Mark as he tried to pull his car back in line and lost some momentum to the advancing competition.  Although this was better than the mulligan.

Back in the very back (shwa?!) was Gurton Buster who had a dismal qualifying run and a horrific start, getting turned by Holdsworth.  Fortunately, he had 32 laps to make it up.  An easy enough challenge.

Coming up the hill, Riggleman was getting jostled but holding his own well for a track he only just downloaded a couple hours before.

But the AI were not kind on him or his tires as his run into the Chase was askew.

His burnt tires had a hard time tracking again and he continued to lose pace and position.

He wasn't alone as Sandy Smith was off at the final corner, no damage.

The next lap wasn't much better but tires were more preserved.

At least until a lap or two later when he was slammed by Russel Ingall.  Lucky for Mark, it was only more scorched rubber and not a major off with damage.  Still, without good tires on the long haul, he was struggling to maintain laptimes and his resources.

Despite the abuse, he wasn't the first out as Darrel Hamilton lost all brakes going into Hell Corner and doubled in on the wall.

 

His teammate, Smith, wasn't far behind as he had trouble seeing and keeping straight line up through Quarry Corner and Reid Park.

He lost it and was gathering things back up when WHAM!  James Moffat slammed him right back around.

He hit him so hard, Sandy started driving the other way back down the mountain.  And was subsequently black flagged.

He wasn't the only one getting run off road as Gurton Buster was starting to move his way up the order.  Poor Tim Slade would have a terrible time pulling out of those tires.

To his credit, Buster was much more civil going around Riggleman a few laps later.

Through the first dozen laps or so and the first run of stops, I was still holding the lead and passed Webster who was hanging in there despite the trepidation for endurance races at outrageous road courses.

I was starting to lose my composure/focus as I spent some time admiring the Skyline and missing the turn in.  There must of been some rocks kicked into the transmission because this was close to the time I lost 5th gear.

Buster was also losing his cool a bit but on much slower competition, taking out the other Prodrive racer, Mark Winterbottom.

More laps in and passing Todd Kelly who lost a vital engine component, I lost 2nd gear.  4 to go (gears, not laps).

Mark Riggleman was returning some favors from early in the race as he was working his way up the order, breaking into the top ten.

Gurton Buster was breaking Tim Slade again as he rolled into 2nd about 40 seconds behind.

But he would get some help as I struggled to find the right gears at critical points, eventually losing it coming down the hill.

Riggleman continued to serve up some vengeance as he sent Caruso packing.

Things were really starting to come apart at the pop rivets for my run as I blundered through some of the essess which were never a problem before, nearly ruining Zack Webster's race in the process.

By the time we hit our second and final pit stops, Gurton Buster was within 15-20 seconds.  I needed a miracle to hold off the charge.

Back on track, Zack was doing better than expected, keeping his head down and pulling consistent laps.

Until he lost it coming around turn two and clobbered the wall a touch.  The ride was a little less flash but he got it going and carried on.

There was a slightly tense moment as Mark moved by (now in 3rd and on track to hold that podium).  Things worked out though.

My miracle was starting to shape up as Buster caught traffic in some awkward places.

Webster suffered a loss in fuel pressure and had to get a tow back from Forrest's elbow.

With about five to go, Mark's radiator started blowing smoke.  He'd ride that thing until they called the army on him or it died.

Another tense moment came after I caught Zack again.  He'd already slugged the right side wall out of Griffin's Bend and I watched in growing horror as he slid it straight out through the cutting.  I was so mesmerized that I didn't even notice I was drifting towards his wreck and just missed him.

Gurton also caught Webster shortly after and managed to slip by with a little less fanfare.  But it did hold him up for a few precious seconds.

While I was finding it useful to get a good draft on the straights with my missing gears, not seeing was a danger that made it a risk.  At least we got to enjoy running side by side again.

When Buster caught the smoking Quest car, his pass was a much bigger adventure.  Unsure of where cars would be positioned through the downhill essess, he shot the gap and barely made it past Mark and van Gisbergen.

Holdsworth would find another human to munch on late in the race, this time the Line-X car.

Webster was off but not out and would pull it back together for a 23rd.  Almost got a top twenty.

With one to go, Gurton Buster ran his fastest lap of the race, a 2:04 even (though he could have been faster).  There were no more distractions and no more obstacles between his car and mine.  It would be a classic shootout to the end.

I kept things steady through the hilly bits but that Adelaide machine was coming on strong.

It didn't help that I had Rick Kelly blocking my descent the whole way.  However, he did help on Conrod Straight with some draft.

So I thanked him kindly for that.

After all was said and done, there wasn't but 1.6 seconds between us on the final lap.  It's impressive how many times we've had this kind of ending, down to the wire.

Double points this race and the next two rounds at Surfer's Paradise.  We'll head there next week to finish out the final three venues of the season.

Results

Track: Mt. Panorama v2.0

Session: Practice

P	#	DRIVER	TIME
1	013	T Nadz	2:04.838
2	008	J Zolecki	2:05.423
3	029	M Riggleman Jr	2:06.333
4	061	D Hamilton	2:07.956
5	1	J Whincup	2:08.429
6	8	J Bright	2:08.732
7	5	M Winterbottom	2:08.761
8	9	W Davison	2:09.009
9	888	C Lowndes	2:09.013
10	97	S Van Gisbergen	2:09.427
11	14	F Coulthard	2:09.430
12	023	Z Webster	2:09.511
13	6	C Mostert	2:09.528
14	21	D Wood	2:09.612
15	2	G Tander	2:09.623
16	15	R Kelly	2:10.024
17	55	D Reynolds	2:10.200
18	021	T Bear	2:10.510
19	16	S Pye	2:10.566
20	18	J Perkins	2:10.672
21	33	S McLaughlin	2:10.755
22	360	J Moffat	2:11.340
23	4	L Holdsworth	2:11.664
24	222	N Percat	2:11.712
25	17	D Wall	2:11.732
26	47	T Slade	2:11.830
27	7	T Kelly	2:12.162
28	23	R Ingall	2:12.225
29	22	J Courtney	2:12.280
30	34	R Dahlgren	2:13.205
31	36	M Caruso	2:13.999

Weather: Cloudy, 73 °F, North 5 mph

Session: Qualifying

P	#	DRIVER	TIME
1	013	T Nadz	2:04.745
2	029	M Riggleman Jr	2:05.894
3	14	F Coulthard	2:06.808
4	5	M Winterbottom	2:06.948
5	6	C Mostert	2:07.194
6	97	S Van Gisbergen	2:07.271
7	9	W Davison	2:07.366
8	1	J Whincup	2:07.390
9	888	C Lowndes	2:07.553
10	8	J Bright	2:07.823
11	2	G Tander	2:07.846
12	15	R Kelly	2:07.891
13	55	D Reynolds	2:08.322
14	21	D Wood	2:08.482
15	18	J Perkins	2:08.881
16	16	S Pye	2:09.177
17	47	T Slade	2:09.204
18	33	S McLaughlin	2:09.294
19	222	N Percat	2:09.485
20	360	J Moffat	2:09.893
21	22	J Courtney	2:10.353
22	23	R Ingall	2:10.455
23	061	D Hamilton	2:10.553
24	7	T Kelly	2:10.934
25	4	L Holdsworth	2:10.951
26	36	M Caruso	2:12.516
27	34	R Dahlgren	2:12.769
28	17	D Wall	2:12.919
29	008	J Zolecki	2:18.005
30	021	T Bear	--
31	023	Z Webster	--

Weather: Cloudy, 73 °F, Southeast 5 mph

Session: Happy Hour

P	#	DRIVER	TIME
1	013	T Nadz	2:06.651
2	061	D Hamilton	2:07.965
3	97	S Van Gisbergen	2:08.229
4	5	M Winterbottom	2:08.702
5	8	J Bright	2:08.796
6	6	C Mostert	2:09.015
7	9	W Davison	2:09.324
8	14	F Coulthard	2:09.400
9	1	J Whincup	2:09.488
10	2	G Tander	2:09.833
11	15	R Kelly	2:10.341
12	18	J Perkins	2:10.677
13	16	S Pye	2:10.704
14	888	C Lowndes	2:10.806
15	33	S McLaughlin	2:10.879
16	21	D Wood	2:10.932
17	222	N Percat	2:11.100
18	55	D Reynolds	2:11.223
19	47	T Slade	2:11.797
20	17	D Wall	2:12.008
21	360	J Moffat	2:12.034
22	22	J Courtney	2:12.223
23	23	R Ingall	2:12.362
24	7	T Kelly	2:12.720
25	4	L Holdsworth	2:12.832
26	34	R Dahlgren	2:13.514
27	36	M Caruso	2:14.076
28	008	J Zolecki	2:14.522
29	021	T Bear	2:19.220

Weather: Cloudy, 59 °F, Northeast 10 mph

Session: Race

F	S	#	DRIVER	INTERVAL	LAPS	LED	POINTS	STATUS
1	1	013	T Nadz	108.201	32	32*	185	Running
2	29	008	J Zolecki	-1.70	32	0	170	Running
3	7	9	W Davison	-1:07.31	32	0	165	Running
4	8	1	J Whincup	-1:14.58	32	0	160	Running
5	3	14	F Coulthard	-1:16.53	32	0	155	Running
6	5	6	C Mostert	-1:16.79	32	0	150	Running
7	14	21	D Wood	-2:01.39	32	0	146	Running
8	9	888	C Lowndes	-2:04.65	32	0	142	Running
9	11	2	G Tander	-2:06.00	32	0	138	Running
10	18	33	S McLaughlin	-1L	31	0	134	Running
11	16	16	S Pye	-1L	31	0	130	Running
12	15	18	J Perkins	-1L	31	0	127	Running
13	25	4	L Holdsworth	-1L	31	0	124	Running
14	13	55	D Reynolds	-1L	31	0	121	Running
15	28	17	D Wall	-1L	31	0	118	Running
16	22	23	R Ingall	-1L	31	0	115	Running
17	12	15	R Kelly	-1L	31	0	112	Running
18	21	22	J Courtney	-1L	31	0	109	Running
19	27	34	R Dahlgren	-1L	31	0	106	Running
20	17	47	T Slade	-1L	31	0	103	Running
21	6	97	S Van Gisbergen	-2L	30	0	100	Running
22	2	029	M Riggleman Jr	-2L	30	0	97	Radiator
23	31	023	Z Webster	-3L	29	0	94	Running
24	4	5	M Winterbottom	-4L	28	0	91	Clutch
25	10	8	J Bright	-6L	26	0	88	Accident
26	20	360	J Moffat	-8L	24	0	85	Retired
27	24	7	T Kelly	-16L	16	0	82	Header
28	26	36	M Caruso	-16L	16	0	79	Valve
29	19	222	N Percat	-25L	7	0	76	Camshaft
30	30	021	T Bear	-26L	6	0	73	Retired
31	23	061	D Hamilton	-29L	3	0	70	Accident

Caution Flags: 0 (0 laps)

Lead Changes: 0 (1 driver)

Weather: Cloudy, 58 °F, East 12 mph

Pitstop Frequency: 2x

AI Strength: 90%