Mount Panorama Circuit

The Mount Panorama Circuit (aka Bathurst) is legendary in the Southern Hemisphere. It is located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, and is the site for the Bathurst 1000. Australian V8 Supercars take to the 4 mile long track which is technically a street circuit.

The very first race held here was the 1938 Australian GP, and it played it's host on three other occasions. The endurance race Bathurst 1000 has been run here since 1973. The track is unusual by modern standards and has a 174 meter (this is three times our Juliana bridge) vertical difference between its highest and lowest points, and grades as steep as 1:6. I guess the fact that it is nestled on top of a mountain helps.

Generally, the track can be viewed in three sections: the short pit straight followed by a tight left turn into the long, steep Mountain straight; the tight, narrow section across the top of the mountain itself; and then the long, downhill section of Conrod Straight, with the very fast Chase and the turn back onto pit straight.

Below you can watch a lap on Mount Panorama onboard a Lotus Elise. This is no ordinary lap! I think the Stig is behind the wheel!



What sets this track apart, is that it's one of the oldest racetracks around that is still in active use. However, the factors that make the track so unusual, along with tighter safety standards, make it unlikely that major races (such as F1, MotoGP) will ever be held here again, and as such, it has become near-exclusive to closed-bodied racing cars, such as the V8 Supercars.

I you are thinking of ever visiting Mount Panorama and doing a hot lap in a rental, forget about it. Even though it is a public road with cars driving in both directions around the track, there is a strict speed limit of 60km/h enforced by the police.

For a detailed layout of the track, visit: http://bathurst.v8supercars.com.au/Portals/v8/RadEditor/Documents/Bathurst/Track%20Maps/V8SC_11_Bath_MAP.pdf or http://www.hopkin.com.au/T/racetrack2.jpg

Source: V8 Supercars.com.au, wikipedia