Drenching doesn’t deter Bathurst 1000 crowds

Heavy rain and flash floods won’t stop an estimated 200,000 fans braving the wet for the historic Bathurst 1000 race this weekend, but will leave most of Australia’s east coast drenched.

Crowds gather in Bathurst to welcome supercar drivers. Picture: Mark Horsburgh

Heavy rain and flash floods won’t stop an estimated 200,000 fans braving the wet for the historic Bathurst 1000 race this weekend, but will leave most of Australia’s east coast drenched.

By the end of this week, Sydney is set to break the record for the wettest year in history, as a weather system brings widespread rain and storms to eastern and southern parts of the country.

Heavy daily rainfall of 15-30mm across southern Queensland and NSW this week might slow down the supercars at Mt Panorama but didn’t stop thousands of fans welcoming drivers to Bathurst and hunting for autographs at the annual parade.

This year the “Great Race” returns to its traditional October date, but marks the end of the greatest rivalry in Australian motorsport – the Holden v Ford Bathurst battle, with Holden Commodore to be replaced by the GM Camaro on the grid next year when a new era of racing begins.

The cars could reach a top speed of 300km/h – weather permitting – over the 1000km distance, stopping only to change tyres and brakes and to refuel.

Last year’s winners, Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander, are favourites again this year following excellent results recently.

State Emergency Service spokesman David Rankine told The Australian that while there was no concern for the race itself or campers in the official campgrounds, attendees still needed to be cautious and plan their trip.

“Our concern ultimately is a lot of people come to Bathurst having not made accommodation bookings, and hope to free camp in the parks and around town,” Mr Rankine said.

“We‘re just asking people to be very careful about where they choose to camp, mostly because they won’t know the flood risk in that particular area,” he said.

“We don‘t want people waking up with water through the tent and waking up to flooding where they’ve free camped around the community.”

Supercars chief executive Shane Howard also urged racegoers to plan accordingly.

“Sessions will begin for all categories on track on Thursday and run through until Sunday’s great race,” Mr Howard said.

“Off-track entertainment at the top and bottom of the mountain will also proceed as planned.”