"Bathurst rates up there with the best events in the world. I can tell you one thing - a good lap here feels fantastic and is very rewarding. There are so many variables on each lap with traffic, tyres and luck all playing a part. It is a very long lap and if you get any part of it wrong it is very hard to make up for lost time. Then there is a short run down to VIP Petfood corner, where again the car drifts to the outside and across the start-finish line for another run down Bob Jane T-Mart Pit Straight. It is third gear for the right-hand exit, which can be very slippery on older tyres. If you lock the brakes here you will spear off through the corner and usually into the sand trap. You creep off the brakes and hopefully the car is straight for the left hander. Once you are into the Chase you are virtually pushing the brake pedal through the floor. This is the fastest part of any race track in the country and can be a bit scary. You hit top gear and about 300km just as you start to drift the car to the left of the track for the shute into Caltex Chase. It is important to be slow into Forrest Elbow and fast out so you can get on the power as quickly as possible down Conrod Straight. There is a concrete wall there now, but you still get a little tingle when you think about Dick's crash there in the old Green Falcon. I am very cautious on the exit because I have seen the video footage of Dick Johnson's crash through the trees here too many times. This corner can suck you in and so many guys carry too much speed into here and get caught out. You are basically going as hard as you can from the Dipper through to Forrest Elbow. It is not as dramatic as it looks on TV with a couple of wheels off the ground, it is actually a pretty smooth part of the track. You then get to the VB Dipper which is a good bit of fun. If you go in too hot you could crash two or three corners later because you just can't keep up with the car. This is as much about staying off the brake as it is about staying on the accelerator. You really have to commit here and your car has to be right, if you are thinking too much here then you are going to be in all sorts of trouble - it needs to come naturally.Ī nice exit will get you across Skyline cleanly and into what I call the "downhill" section of the track. There is plenty of room on the outside if you go in too hot, but it can get quite exciting if you miss the entry to Skyline. You then get to McPhillamy which is a great corner with a big crest on it. The exit of the Cutting is the start of a section of track which I really class as one single stretch of lefts and rights where you need to use all the track if you can. This is a section of the track you really need to creep up on over the weekend.
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