Bathurst 1000 2017: 27 things you need to know about The Great Race

Jamie Whincup’s V8 SuperCar travels so fast it could actually take off it if had wings. Here are 26 other facts about The Great Race you didn’t know.

3 min read

October 5, 2017 - 9:11AM

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THE Bathurst 1000 is THE date on the calendar for V8 Supercars drivers and fans alike.

Here are 27 things you might not know about Bathurst and high-speed chase for glory they call The Great Race this weekend.

► ► Watch Bathurst 1000 on Foxtel Now this weekend.

Take off speed: A Boeing 747 reaches speeds of 290km/h to get off the ground ... At the bottom of Conrod Straight Jamie Whincup, in his Red Bull Racing Australia Holden, is travelling in excess of 300km/h. It’s lucky his V8 SuperCar doesn’t have wings. He’d land somewhere out the back of Bourke. This picture has been digitally altered.

► 1 — If Jamie Whincup’s Red Bull V8 SuperCar truly did have wings it would take off down Conrod Straight. A Boeing 757 is travelling about 270km/h when it takes off, an Airbus A320 at 275km/h and a Boeing 747 at 290km/h. Bear in mind, the 747 weighs more than 320,000kgs. Jamie is travelling close to 300km/h on the famous back straight at Mount Panorama and needs every bit of downforce — and road — to keep his four wheels on the ground.

► 2 — The Bathurst 1000 is a 1000km race … the distance from Sydney to Brisbane

► 3 — The race is driven over about 6.5 hours

► 4 — There are 161 laps of a 6.123km circuit

Mount Panorama is the home of the Bathurst 1000

► 5 — The average speed is 161.5km/h and top speed of about 300km/h

► 6 — A driver’s average heart rate is 170 beats per minute

► 7 — The cabin temperature in a V8 SuperCar can rise to 60 degrees Celsius

► 8 — A driver’s core body temp can rise to 39 degrees Celsius — fever level

► 9 — The average reaction time of a driver is 0.15 seconds — as fast as an elite sprinter

► 10 — A driver does the equivalent of 1200 x 120kg single leg presses to exert the required brake pedal pressure

Shane van Gisbergen does leg presses in preparation for the Bathurst 1000

► 11 — Originally constructed in 1938 as a scenic tourist drive. The circuit is public road on non-race weekends and remains one of the all-time favourite circuits of Supercar drivers. It is ranked among the great racetracks of the world.

► 12 — The township of Bathurst was established in 1814.

► 13 — Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in Australia.

► 14 — The first road to cross the Blue Mountains was 3.7m wide and 163.3km long, built between July 1814 and January 1815 by five freemen, 30 convict labourers and eight soldiers as guards. (Roads out that way have definitely changed nowadays)

► 15 — Bathurst now has a population of almost 37,000.

► 16 — Holden and Ford have dominated the Bathurst 1000 endurance classic, winning 49 of the 55 races between them. Just six wins have been claimed by other manufacturers.

► 17 — Holden has won 31 times

► 18 — Holden legend Peter Brock is the undisputed King of the Mountain, winning the race a record nine times.

Peter Brock in his Holden Torana, winning the 1979 Bathurst 1000

Peter Brock in the 1993 Bathurst 1000

► 19 — In 2009, Holden Commodore VEs filled nine of the top 10 positions. The only Ford in the top 10 was the Lowndes/Whincup Falcon, which finished fifth.

► 20 — King of the Mountain Peter Brock won the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 twice in the same year — 1978 and 1980. Only one other driver has done it: Craig Lowndes in 1996.

► 21 — The fastest race lap record first recorded was Ian Geoghegan and Leo Geoghegan in 1964. They speared their Ford Cortina GT around Mount Panorama in 3 minutes 21.3 seconds

► 22 — David Reynolds is the fastest man around Bathurst under race conditions in his Holden Commodore VF II, completing the circuit in 2 minutes, 6.27 seconds in 2016. He is the only driver to go sub seven seconds.