Ford vs Holden. Soft vs Standard tyre. 1 stop vs 2 stop strategy. A race of so many opposites, yet as the race unfolded Graydon and Thaeler would battle hard (and close) on track at the beginning AND end of the race, as their strategies panned out.
Opening lap of the Bathurst 1,000km. Lead cars, led by Pole sitter Boyd Bryson, descend from Skyline into The Esses. Ahead lies 161 laps (c. 6 hours) for whoever the winning solo/team drivers will be!
Lap 70, around 2.5 hours into the race. Exiting Forrest's Elbow and heading for Conrod Straight, battle for P2 between Graydon and Bryson. I had yet to make my third pitstop, hence my position on road, but I wasn't letting him by!
Plenty of concrete walls at Bathurst. Here, it's "Millimetre perfect"! Pushing hard to open a gap to Bryce Aston behind. Sulman Park, on the run up to Skyline. 110 mph, P3, lap 2.
During the 6 hours around Bathurst, the sun changed position from its 10.30am start to a 4.30pm conclusion. Here the low sun casts the cars shadow against the concrete wall at The Cutting
Enjoying a slight speed advantage down the pit straight, under braking Andy Graydon manages to get inside David Carney into the T1 kink. Some great racing up to this point with David:)
Early race battle between Marc Farre (ahead) and Andy Graydon, exiting the last turn onto the pit straight. Yes, look everyone, you can drive close and not hit other drivers!!:)
Race end. Slightly under 3 hours completed, and it's time to celebrate a P16 finish. "Donut Dancing" with Nick Parrett!! Having tried very hard NOT to spin the tyres up all race, it was nice to be able to do so with no consequences - LOL!
Lap 71, going through the Esses coming down off the top of Mount Panorama. Nearly 3 hours into the race, the sun casts deep shadows and the tarmac shines in the warm Australian sunlight....
Lap 71 again, exiting Skyline and heading for the Esses. Tyre walls, concrete walls - making a mistake around here has dire consequences! And for 3 hours this race is one hell of a challenge!
6 of 6. Lap 10 - into T3, Kevin Ransom is just under a car length ahead. I brake slightly earlier, conceding the position back, flames belching from our exhausts as we both change down simultaneously. Great stuff. All over P20!!!
5 of 6. Kevin Ransom and I are now level exiting Griffin's Bend. He's now been on the power earlier and has better straightline speed as we head for T3 (The Cutting). Can I keep the inside line and stop the re-pass?...
4 of 6. I take T2 Griffin's Bend every so slightly too quickly, but manage to leave only a car's width from the apex. And Kevin Ransom wants that cars width for himself!....
