Tree on track at Bathurst 12 Hour

Monday, 15 February 2010 13:05

Australia’s longest motor race, the 2010 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour, was held at Mount Panorama on Sunday.

After 202 laps and 1,254kms Paul Morris took the chequered flag at 6:30pm in the Eastern Creek International Karting BMW 335i, which he shared with car owner Gary Holt and John Bowe. David Wall finished second in the Easts Holiday Parks Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 which he had co-driven with Des Wall and Trevor Symonds and Glenn Seton crossed the line third in the Pro-Duct Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 co-driven by Neil Crompton and Mark King. However in a race that was rain affected from the start it was a gum tree that garnered the most media attention.

This tree fell onto the track at the top of Conrod straight in the seventh hour of the race completely blocking the track. The field had been running behind the safety car for more than an hour at the time as wet and foggy conditions made racing difficult. None of the cars were hit and the field was stopped behind the safety car on the top of the mountain while the state emergency services cut up the tree with chainsaws and removed it from the track. The race resumed just under an hour after the incident occurred.

The safety car was again forced to stop the field when the Subaru Impreza of rally champion Dean Herridge hit the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 of Peter Hill, Tim Leahey and Eric Bana, which had been running in fifth until contact with the wall saw it stop on track. Thankfully the two drivers were ok but race organisers had to again stop the cars on track given the location of the incident in a tight part of the circuit.

The yellow Lamborghini Gallardo safety car made its final appearance just 11 minutes from the finish while the stopped Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 of Rod Wilson was moved to safety. This denied competitors a proper race to the finish with the safety car peeling off only as the cars approached the final corner on the last lap.

Among those who successfully conquered Mount Panorama were two fast females, Leanne Tander and Lauren Gray. Leanne, who was driving a Honda Integra Type S with Terry Conroy and Gerry Burgess, finished 14th outright and 2nd for the class. Lauren, who was competing in the same class in a Toyota Corolla Sportivo with Michael Gray and Tony Head finished 20th outright and fourth for the class. She and her father Michael also made history as the first father and daughter pairing to complete an endurance race at Mount Panorama.

The event marked another weird and wonderful chapter in the history of ‘The Mountain’ which has seen kangaroos, a dog, a horse and now a tree on track!

It was not the only rain affected event of the weekend with the ANDRA Pro Series Summernationals, to be held at Sydney Dragway, cancelled due to the rain. www.girlracer.co.uk

Comments (2)

|2010-02-15 22:14:34 wilfred

Given the race is time based? The 1 hour they were cutting down the tree does that count on for the 12 hours?
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|2010-02-15 22:33:42 Gaz

good point
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|2010-02-15 23:08:13 Chelsea - 12 hours on track

Good question Wilfred. In answer to it that time did count. The race started at 6:30am and finished an 6:30pm.
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|2010-02-16 13:33:31 jock

...though it didn't count as driver time, that is, they are only allowed to spend a certain amount of time at the wheel, and the time stopped was subtracted from that.
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