Fri, 10th Oct, 2014 Bathurst V8s

Up at 5am as we started at 6am (4.9 degrees). More confident today and racegoers were waiting at the gates to come in at 7am. I went on the early entry lane so had a great time saying good morning to all the drivers, engineers, owners etc. When Mark Winterbottom came through he went to Steve and Steve said he couldn’t scan him so he would have come to me. I said it was because I wanted to wish him best of luck. He thanked me. We are both enjoying it though bit tired and sore back by the end of the day with all the other walking we do after our shift. Wish I had my camera as a group of guys came through dressed in safari suits, all Volvo – Garry Rogers supporters. Gary always does something different for Bathurst. When Scott McLaughlin, Volvo driver, came through we said “give it some Jandal” after he became famous for saying that at Sandown.

Put our salad in a wrap, changed clothes and went back to Merchandise alley to meet the boys to go on the bus up to the top of the mountain.

No police and sniffer dogs this year. People must be behaving better!! Watched the V8s practice then do qualifying. Amazing some of the contraptions people have so they can be at the track and watch it on TV too.

Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine and ready for qualifying.

The cars whiz by so close to the wall.

Great campsites up here. Some have been coming for years. At Smartys they had a whole pig on a spit.

I remember seeing this bus last time we were here.

More great esky inventions.

We sat for a while near Skyline.

A great way to watch the racing and relaxing too as your mates push you around.

Now that’s comfortable.

A few people dress to the extreme.

This was amazing – cold water recycled to keep drinks cold, BBQ, satellite TV etc.

 There were pictures on the side and the guy said they were all air brushed.

We then wandered down the side watching the cars drop through the Esses.

You can see where the cars scrape on the road which has been resurfaced this year.

They go so close to the wall.

Got to Forest Elbow and heard that David Reynolds had crashed at the spot we started at. Saw his car on the truck as it was taken back to the pits.

Climbed back up – amazing how steep this bit is and how close we are to the track here. Photos just don’t show the steepness though.

Back to McPhillamy Park to watch qualifying so we could see the times on the big screen.

Qualifying finished so we headed back to the buses to go back down the Mountain.

The Sky Lounge was flying high.

After the last race of the day we wandered out onto the road to go down to Pit Lane where Channel 7 was having “Friday Night Live”. The Navy had their helicopter here as well as well as the other helicopters taking people for joyrides.

More guys in dress up!!!

The mechanics were hard at it in the garages.

David Reynold’s car was a major rebuild.

Heaps of people there already so we found a spot on the pit wall to watch. The boys lifted me up on the wall to take photos and we had the big screen to watch. Luckily I had my earpiece radio so I could hear the commentary as it was filmed live. Things that had been prerecorded we could watch and hear on the big screen and speakers.

Neil Crompton with David Reynolds and Scott McLaughlin. (Met both drivers this morning)

People everywhere and people were still arriving.

James Courtney and Rick Kelly were also on the panel.

Poor David had to watch the video footage of his car crashing.

It’s great how you can wander around watching what all the crews are doing.

Further down the pit lane they had an esky go cart race with Mercedes, Nissan and Ford teams which we watched on the big screen.

Mark Skaife joined the panel. The audience has fun chatting with everyone when they are not recording.

Behind Dick Johnson’s garage they were having a BBQ so they interviewed Dick and I zoomed in on where they were in the back of their garage.

Craig Lowndes joined the panel then with Greg Murphy.

Then they had a tyre relay with a few teams and Jamie’s team won.

Garry Rogers arrived as Carmen – he always does something “out there”.

After it was over wandered back past the garages and watched them put a new door on Jamie’s car and resticker it. Jamie had a hit a wall and damaged the front and because he caused the red flag to come out and he hadn’t posted two laps he would start the race from the rear of the field.

Back to the van after a hot shower. Another big day gone.