How to race at Bathurst

Mount Panorama is one of the world’s great circuits. Here’s how you can take to the track to experience it for yourself.

There’s nothing like the Bathurst 1000. If you’re inspired to go beyond video games such as Forza Motorsport and try out the track for real, here are a few ways to tackle the mountain:

Mount Panorama Punish

Did you know you can race around Mount Panorama, with no speed limit, for less than $50?

It’s true. The catch is that you need to park your ride in the carpark, lace up a pair of sneakers and hoof it around the mountain with a few hundred runners.

David McCowen at the Mount Panorama Punish.

The Mount Panorama Punish is a fun run that takes place on the morning of Sunday October 27. The track is closed to traffic, so you don’t need to worry about cars or other vehicles on the circuit … except for a van that “sweeps” slow runners off the course. The 6.2 kilometre mountain track is only closed for a limited time – you need to be at the halfway point inside 30 minutes, and across the finish line inside an hour.

It’s not an impossible task – as a rule of thumb, folks who can run 5 kilometres in less than 40 minutes should be up to it. The Punish is a great way to have a closer look at Australia’s greatest track, and you even get a medal for completing the challenge.

More info:Mount Panorama Punish

The Bathurst Light Car Club regularly hosts events at the track.

Bathurst Light Car Club Hillclimbs

The Bathurst Light Car Club might be the best kept secret in Australian motorsport.

Located on the exit of Forrest’s Elbow at the top of Conrod Straight, the club hosts several events each year that allow grassroots racers a chance to drive parts of the circuit at pace.

The best event is the “Speed Weekend”, which sees drivers take on the lower half of the circuit in a “supersprint” on Saturday November 30, before tackling most of the upper part of the track in the Mountain Straight Hillclimb on Sunday December 1.

It’s a fun way to get a taste of the track in your own car for about a minute at a time – which is good, as most road cars aren’t up to repeated laps of the track.

The event costs about $500 – which includes about $300 in entry fees, plus annual club membership and an entry-level Motorsport Australia licence.

More info:Bathurst Light Car Club

Drive someone else’s car

For folks who can’t take their own car on track, Fastrack Experiences will hold an event on November 26 that allows people to borrow a race car for the day.

Customers strap into the driver’s seat of a race-prepared V8 alongside a professional driving coach for an opportunity to drive at more than 200km/h on Mount Panorama.

The “King of the Mountain Drive” costs $1200 for four laps – about 10 minutes of driving time. That might sound expensive, but it’s cheap compared to running your own car …

More info: Fastrack experiences

Challenge Bathurst is a briliant driving experience.

Drive your own car

This is the dream – driving your own performance car at speed around Mount Panorama.

I’ve spent a lot of my own money doing this, and can attest that it is absolutely one of the best things you can do in a car.

There are two events this year that allow people to run their own car on track. One is Challenge Bathurst, which is a competitive event that lets you choose whether to run in time attack or regularity formats – think of the first one as a series of qualifying sessions with no race, and the second is a contest that rewards consistency while driving (very) quickly.

Two hours of track time split over two days on November 23 and 24 will set you back $1950, but you need to bring a fireproof race suit, race boots, gloves and balaclava, along with a racing licence, car club membership and fire extinguisher. And you’ll want to invest in a comprehensive service with fresh fluids and racing brake pads at a minimum, though realistically you should also budget for a set of tyres and new brake discs.

Driving Solutions hosts track days at Bathurst.

Realistically, that’s a $5000 weekend including fuel, food and accommodation if everything goes to plan. Mechanical trouble or a crash won’t be covered by your warranty or insurance, so it pays to be careful.

The Driving Solutions track day is more expensive to enter at $2750 for a similar amount of track time (five 20 minute sessions, plus familiarisation laps) in one jam-packed day.

But you only need to bring a helmet – there’s no need to book accommodation, or own $2000 worth of racing apparel.

The Driving Solutions event is a non-competitive track day, which means there are no trophies to be won – and people are less likely to push so hard that they crash.

Better still, you can have a professional coach ride shotgun to teach you how to tame the mountain.

Spaces are available for Wednesday, November 27 and Thursday, November 28.

More info:Driving Solutions, Challenge Bathurst

Racing at the Bathurst 12 Hour is an expensive exercise.

Go racing for real

If you aren’t put off by a $5000 weekend playing with cars, then proper racing might be your speed. It’s harder to guesstimate costs for this sort of stuff – the sky is the limit.

If you have heaps of cash (like $10,000+ per weekend) there are teams who will let you pay to drive their race cars in amateur motorsport.

You can spend much, much more than that. Think $50,000 per weekend for stuff like Super2 or Carrera Cup, and about $100,000 for a go in a GT3 car at the Bathurst 12 Hour.

The Bathurst 1000 is hard to do – you have to have a high-grade licence and plenty of races under your belt in lesser events before trying for a co-driver seat or wildcard entry.

We’re talking years of expensive racing, test days, mechanical upkeep and crash damage. It might not be $1 million, but it might not be far off.

Suddenly that Mount Panorama Punish foot race looks pretty good, right?

Originally published as How to race at Bathurst