A FORMULA ONE car at Mount Panorama? They said it would never happen.. and yet, on one incredible day in early 2011, it did as Jenson Button and Craig Lowndes had the ride-swap of a lifetime. TRT was there.

WORDS & IMAGES: Richard Craill

AS WE drove up through the Blue Mountains and rain smashed the windscreen of the car, suddenly flying to Sydney and driving three hours to see perhaps 20 laps of a car going around a track on it’s own seemed somewhat.. silly.

Rumors that a major sponsor of the sport would be attempting a publicity stunt the likes of which had never been seen before – driving a Formula One car at Mount Panorama, Bathurst – had begun circling during the 2010 Bathurst 1000 weekend.

Most people scoffed at the chat, suggesting it would never happen.

When it was announced for March 2011, just before the Australian Grand Prix, it was a no-brainer to make sure we were there.

Fortunately, as we passed through Lithgow and into the Central West the rain began to clear and the sun shone. Depression created by the weather broke through to optimism that we’d see something pretty remarkable happen.

Which is exactly what we got.

Button and Lowndes drove their own cars first; CL shaking down his Triple Eight Commodore (and casually doing a low 2m08 in his five-lap dash) before Jenson Button took to Mount Panorama in the McLaren.

Even though the track was greasy, and despite the fact the car hit the rev limiter well before the first hump on Conrod, it was breathtaking to see that kind of car and hear that kind of noise on that particular bit of road.

Capturing enough photos was something of a challenge.

Early on we’d decided that the top of the Mountain was the place to be, so after poking around the paddock early on, we jumped in the car and abandoned it at Sulman Park – our first sight of a Formula One car on the Mountain would be the car bursting up and over the hill, Bathurst (and Cricket icon Mark Taylor) in the background.

After the car had blazed past, finger firmly on the shutter button the whole time, we’d run (okay, walk very briskly) as far around the lap as we could before it came around again in less than two minutes.

By the time CL was aboard the McLaren we were a few kilometers further down the hill from where we started, at the Esses standing beneath that famous tree that juts out over the circuit just prior to the dipper.

Lowndesy was magnificent, hitting every apex and looking for all the world like the Formula One driver he could have been.

Button spent most of the day grinning like a lunatic, reveling in finally driving at a place he’d watched on TV as a kid.

With a bank of ‘safe’ imagery recorded, I chucked caution to the wind with Lowndes’ final few laps and dropped the shutter speed and got as low to the concrete fence as I could.

The result was the two personal favourite photos I’ve ever taken of a racing car: one of Craig, helmet nice and sharp but car slightly blurry at speed, looking directly at me as he turned in to the right-hander just prior to the dipper.

The other, the wider shot of the car at speed, inside front almost cocked in the air and ‘THE ESSES’ in the background to give no doubt of where we were.

When CL passed me, hanging out over the fence, the exhaust of the McLaren was less than a metre from my ear. It hurt, but it was worth it.

This was a special day. Certainly, it’s the furthest I’ve ever gone for what turned out to be 20 laps, but it was more than worth it.

Formula One at Bathurst? Been there.

Done that.

Got the photos.

(Click each image for a larger version)