Sun, 12th Oct, 2014 Bathurst V8s

Up at 4am as it is 5am start today as the gates get opened earlier at 6am. Lots of people were lined up waiting for us. We were supposed to get out scanners at 5.30 so just had to say hi and look at the cards as the crews etc came through. When Scott McLaughlin came through we all called out “give it some thong today”. Gave a lot of the drivers a pat on the back for good luck. They were all up beat and chatty. Members could come in early too so we just chatted as they came through. Got our scanners at 5.45 and opened the gates at 5.50 and as we had all the gates open and we were all getting faster at scanning we had all the first mob through by 6.10 – probably a few thousand. It was fast and furious but great. Will put in for this job again. The day progressed with bus loads arriving and around 10.15 we closed a couple of gates and our supervisor “supervised” our break – we all dashed off to watch the start beside the start line – looking at the big screen over the pits. Awesome to be near the rumble of the cars. Watched the first 5 laps then back to the gates. We had a few volunteers who just stayed there all day – young lads who weren’t that interested in the racing!!!

We finished at 12 so rushed back to the van, changed and made a wrap and went to join the boys. 

What a race – so many accidents and changing strategies.  There were a heap of helicopters in the air – 4 seemed to fly in formation above us. 

They had to red flag the race so they could fix the track in Turn 2 then it was back on again after an hour. Poor Scott Pye was finally doing well and after a few scrapes ended up crashing in front of us.

Tracy Pink and I texted a few times during the race trying to predict the winner. Jon texted to find out who was winning as he was out fishing with Tash’s dad, Pete. Rang Dan as he was at home watching the race too.

Then Scott McLaughlin who had done an amazing job for Volvo’s first year made a mistake and crashed. Shane Van Gisbergen then took over and flew. It was going to be a sprint race with some drivers very low on fuel. Shane stalled in pit lane and the starter motor jammed so he was out. Then Jamie Whincup took the lead but did he have enough fuel was the worry. Craig Lowndes had to do a drive through penalty as he turned Mark Winterbottom around which was said as Mark was defending his title and was getting close. That left the other Ford car of Chaz Mostert to chase Jamie followed by James Moffat in a Nissan and Will Davision in Erebus Mercedes. Very exciting. Came down to the last straight and Jamie ran out of fuel so Chaz Mostert, in his second year in the main game, won with old timer Paul Morris as his co-driver. Boy were they excited and that meant Ford had backed up their win from last year. A message to Ford to keep going in the sport as they announced the other day they were pulling out of it. Moffat got 2^nd but Davison was passed by Nick Percat for Holden just at the end.

The kids had fun entertaining themselves sliding down the hill behind us on cardboard.

It was more than 7 hours because of the red flag time so everyone started the dash to pack up and get going. We helped the boys pack up and said our goodbyes. We have decided we will be back next year as Marcus Ambrose is returning from Nascar with his team as they have bought a share in Dick Johnson Racing. We first came here to watch Marcus race with Stone Brothers Racing in 2003 so it will be great to see if he still has it with these new generation cars.

Watched everyone leave as we joined the other volunteers for BBQ dinner. Back to van for an early night.