A tour of Mount Panorama's shanty towns
Bees, beers, and gears
As I type this newsletter I’m in a car heading back to Sydney from the Bathurst 1000.
You may recall I went to Mount Panorama a little trepidatiously. The last time I saw a Supercar race I had been a teenager. The loutish behaviour of fans in the early 2000s put me off the sport for almost two decades.
Have things improved since then? Surprisingly, yes. A lot.
The race I watched today was like having scones with the queen when compared to Bathursts of yore. However, this is not to say that things were exactly civilised.
The top of the mountain was still a shanty town, true to my memory. Bet there did seem to be more booze shrines than I recalled.
“Surely not literal shrines…?” you say.
Well, I don’t know what else to call this:
The enormous beer can sculpture tastefully celebrated 60 years of binge drinking at Bathurst while being in the vicinity of racing cars.
What I liked the most about this structure was that the knee-deep pile of unwashed cans had attracted a reasonably-sized swarm of bees. The men stood nearby, gently swatting the insects away, pretending the uncomfortable situation was not of their own making.
Bee swarm aside, not all sites had this level of polish.
These gentlemen just set up a series of handwritten signs along their taped-off area.
“Rehab is for quitters”, “do not feed the drunks”, and “ladies, if your boyfriend can’t drive a manual you have a girlfriend” they read.
What was most puzzling about this setup was that it had no view of the track, nor any way to watch the race. A strategic misstep which seemed not to bother these gentlemen.
“Thanks for stopping by,” one of them said cheerfully after I took some photos. I was suddenly disoriented. Where was I? Such friendly good manners! Had I been transported to the Australia Club? A hatted restaurant? I managed to muster a friendly wave in return.
In exciting non-Bathurst news for the Car Pit, we finally have a review vehicle this week. Keep an eye on the Instagram to see what it is.
Just don’t expect any journalistic impartiality. After a couple of months with nothing to review, if they have me a car with three wheels and flames coming out of the engine, I’d probably call it an agile vehicle for winter drivers.
As for what’s on the rest of the Car Pit? There’s a story about an electric car which overrode its driver and went on an unstoppable jaunt around Glasgow before being rammed by cops. Or, if I was reviewing it, a car with gumption decided to get its owner home quickly before introducing him to new friends.
And if you’re already missing Bathurst - me too. Keep the sadness at bay with this gallery of retro 1984 Bathurst pictures dusted off from the Car Pit’s archive.
Have a lovely week, and see you next Monday nice and early.
Steph