Reliving the Bathurst 24 Hour
When editor Craill went to the Le Mans 24 Hour and filed this story, I found it only fair to dip into the archives for this gallery, depicting our very own twice-around-the-clock epic.
A full two decades on from the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour, it still stands as the very best race meeting I have attended.
Want proof?
Check out this diary of an insomniac, or this full gallery of Peter Brock at the event.
Enjoy this walk down memory lane…
The Build Up
From the wooden boat Morgan, to that bloody green Cirtek Porsche that defended all and sundry, to the hot boy band of 2003, the build-up to the big race was a tasty entree for what followed on Saturday afternoon, even if some battled through the preliminary races…
The Grid
The colour, the famous faces, the mechanical failures at hour zero…
The Start
The bright sunshine of the opening exchanges quickly gave way to a helluva downpour, as depicted in the bottom image of this set, with the run-off from the top of The Mountain gushing its way down to Murray’s Corner…
Overnight
Pure magic, even if the spectator banks were bare, with the race going head to head with the Rugby World Cup final. Conveniently, at 3am at Forrest Elbow, Klaus Engelhorn backed the BE Racing Ferrari 360 into the fence. There weren’t many other photographers up and about at that hour…
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Finish
It’s hard to say if these images properly paint a portrait of the true stress that was going down in the closing stages of the race…
Mark Walker (administrator)
A vastly experienced Motorsport Public Relations operator, journalist, commentator and photographer, Mark brings his unique angle to The Race Torque in both words and imagery. As well as serving as our key photographer on the ground at major events around Australia (and overseas), Walker will often chime in with his unique and pin-point sharp viewpoint of the racing world via the keyboard too.
