This years Bathurst 1000 was certainly one to remember.
Firstly, the whole event was dedicated to racing driver Peter Brock who died on September 08 2006 (News report of his crash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drSYGCHEGgg) after crashing into a tree during a road rally.
Secondly, there was the big crash between Mark Porter in his Holden and David Clark in his Ford during the final laps of the V8 development series at Bathurst on the Friday. Both drivers were rushed to hospital.
Thirdly, many big names in the main event on Sunday were knocked out/didn't finish. Mark Skaife, the pole sitter, didn't even make it to turn three on the first lap because he was hit from behind which destroyed his car. He'd had severe clutch slip ever since the green light went on and even in fifth gear the clutch was still playing up. After going up a rise and then down again he was hit from behind from another driver who came over the (blind) rise and came apon the slow-moving Holden at such a pace that there was not enough time to react and thus rammed into the back right corner of Marks car which pushed him into the wall and then it bounced across to the other side of the track with race ending damage.
The second quickest car, Ford's Jason Bright also didn't finish as engine troubles put an end to their day early on. Other drivers who didn't finish were Greg Murphy (second driver Cameron McConville slid sideways into a tire wall at speed and damaged the whole right side of the car), Paul Radisich (head on into a tyre wall at about 150 km/h or more which flipped the car on its side. The Rat was cut out of the car from the roof and taken to hospital for scans.), Jim Richards (slid into wall), Jason Richards (went off the track at about 300 km/h, through the sand trap, jumped well over a whole section of track, landed and then into another sand trap where he finally stopped - they checked the car over in the pits and let him out again only for him to smash into a wall that same lap about three laps from the end of the race) and far too many more to mention. I think out of the 31 cars in the race only 16 or so finished. :o
There were about nine or ten safety cars also, some just a couple of laps after it had just gone back into the pits!
Craig Lowndes in the Ford Falcon GT eventually won the race half a second ahead of second place man Todd Kelly in his Holden Commodore. They had an intense battle over the last 15 laps or so of the race and it was getting so crazy that i nearly changed channels because i was holding my breath for so long (well, not really ;)).
He most definitely deserved the win over anyone else though, last year it looked like he was going to take it out until a couple of unfortunate incidents (hit a wall, and then later had a whole wheel smash into his windscreen which resulted in huge damage and both front and rear windows being taken out so he could resume racing) put an end to hopes of winning. This year i believe he was doing the race moreso for the late Peter Brock who he was great friends, and former teammates with.
The win was also the first time Ford had won on the mountain since 1998 - the reaction of some Holden fans around the internet though has been slightly predictable, immature and generally it just seems as though they are a bit too much behind the red teams. This quote below from a forum member at the GTPlanet.net forums sums it up quite nicely; "When Holden wins, Ford fans just keep going about their business and let Holden celebrate. When Ford wins, Holden fans have tantrums and whinge and moan for weeks to come."
Sadly, about two hours after the race had been completed the announcement came that New Zealand driver Mark Porter, involved in the huge crash on Friday, had died which is (yet) another great loss to the motorsport community. :( He had great potential and was likely going to end up racing in the V8 Supercars in the next year or so. In my opinion his death has overshadowed Craigs Bathurst win.
I really hope we don't lose any more people in this way anytime soon. The same weekend someone in Australia was kiled a a karting event and somewhere else in the country a Japanese racing driver was killed at a drag strip when his car hit a railing at about 300 km/h or so. Just goes to show that motorsport is a very dangerous sport, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be taking place at all. Despite all the deaths of Kiwi race drivers (Denny Hulme - heart attack while racing at Bathurst in the 80's, Ashley Stitchbury, Possum Borne etc) and other drivers around the world i am still determined to get myself a track car one day and race around in motorsport events in it. Be it circuit racing, drag racing, tarmac rallying (Targa), sealed hillclimbs or other such things. You just have to accept that what you are doing is dangerous, even with all the safety precautions in the world.
R.I.P. Mark, you will be missed. :(
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