{"id":345299,"date":"2023-11-10T03:00:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T04:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=345299"},"modified":"2023-11-10T08:02:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T08:02:11","slug":"worlds-best-in-awe-of-crazy-bathurst-circuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=345299","title":{"rendered":"World's best in awe of 'crazy' Bathurst circuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mount Panorama<\/a> continues to live up to its reputation as one of the toughest tracks on the planet, leaving some of the world's best racing drivers in awe.<\/p>\n

Eight of the 10 international drivers competing in the TCR World Tour<\/a> have never cut a lap of the famed Bathurst<\/a> circuit before this weekend.<\/p>\n

The Mountain is considered Australia's home of motorsport and likened to the 25km long Nurburgring in Germany for its elevation change and Guia Street Circuit in Macau for its tight and twisty nature.<\/p>\n

Stan Sport is the only place to watch every second of the 2023 SpeedSeries.<\/strong><\/em> All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Among the first-timers was Honda Civic Type R pilot Nestor Girolami of Argentina, who shared his first impressions of the circuit with Wide World of Sports after practice one.<\/p>\n

"I was really happy, really looking forward to driving here," said the Wall Racing driver.<\/p>\n

\"Nestor<\/p>\n

"This is one of the best tracks in the world and every driver in the world dreams to race here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"For me, this is a dream come true and I was really happy to enjoy practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I could make it smoothly going around trying to get confident because here it's all about confidence. At the end, we were quite happy."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> New Supercars calendar signals death of famed race<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Wildcard threatening to derail young gun's title run<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> What these racers have in common with Bathurst legends<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

Mount Panorama is split into three sectors. It begins with a hill climb up Mountain Straight before taking in The Cutting, aptly named for the cliff face it was literally cut into.<\/p>\n

The circuit rises before peaking at Reid Park. A high-speed descent follows, which includes a blind crest named Skyline as the circuit falls away.<\/p>\n

The Dipper, Esses, and Forrest's Elbow follow to complete the second sector before beginning sector three with the throttle wide-open down Conrod Straight.<\/p>\n

The Chase is the fastest part of the circuit, with some cars reaching upwards of 300 km\/h before a 90-degree left-hander to finish the 6.2km lap.<\/p>\n

\"Norbert<\/p>\n

From top to bottom, the circuit takes in 174 metres of elevation change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cyan Racing driver Ma Qing Hua began racing all over the world when he was 15 years old, eventually becoming a Formula 1 test driver with Caterham.<\/p>\n

In all of his years of racing, he's never experienced a circuit quite like Mount Panorama.<\/p>\n

"Before I came, I put this circuit on my wish list of the whole circuits around the world \u2013 and this is on the very top of the wish list," said the Lynk & Co driver.<\/p>\n

\"Ma<\/p>\n

"I drove the simulator before I came here. The difference is you don't feel the elevation change in the simulator.<\/p>\n

"Here, when the corner comes very fast with the elevation change, it's like 'Wow!' It feels great.<\/p>\n

"There's some grip level that slightly changes from sectors one, two, and three.<\/p>\n

"With our tyres, it's a bit different mould than in the sim, so we need to also think about the time mould and the tyre grip level and the line taking.<\/p>\n

"I think in this track, it's slightly different because it depends on the banking of the corner."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1722053915611468005<\/a><\/p>\n

Hungary's Norbert Michelisz, who won the 2019 World Touring Car Cup and currently leads the TCR World Tour in his Hyundai i30 N sedan, hailed the sheer commitment needed to make fast lap times.<\/p>\n

"Very nice, very exciting, to be honest \u2013 especially the upper part with these very fast double lefts," Michelisz explained.<\/p>\n

"You have to be really committed there and the walls are getting close very quickly. Very challenging circuit. You need time to get confidence and it was a very nice experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"The biggest difference compared to on-board (video) is to experience the elevation changes. You don't really get a sense from watching a video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Deluge<\/p>\n

"Then when sitting in the car, suddenly the road just dips ahead," he added.<\/p>\n

"You don't really see where you are going, so you just have to be fully confident with knowing the track and knowing the lines, even running blind."<\/p>\n

The combined TCR Australia Series and TCR World Tour grid will take in three races at Mount Panorama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each race will last 30 minutes of 11 laps \u2013 whichever comes first.<\/p>\n

"I think it would be really crazy and we need to be prepared to survive the first lap because it's gonna be a really tough competition," said Girolami.<\/p>\n

"We know each other here, we are really into it, and if you don't overtake at the start then it's really difficult. So all to play in the first lap."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportAU\/status\/1722758500181299612<\/a><\/p>\n

TCR qualifying gets underway on Saturday at 12.35pm AEDT before race one at 4.15pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coverage on Stan Sport begins at 11.30am AEDT before 9Gem and 9Go coverage from 2pm.<\/p>\n

Sunday sees TCR race two start at 12.50pm AEDT before race three at 4.10pm AEDT, all exclusively on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mount Panorama continues to live up to its reputation as one of the toughest tracks on the planet, leaving some of the world's best racing […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":345302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345310,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345299\/revisions\/345310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}