I grew up in Australia, and Mount Panorama was a legendary part of my gearhead youth. I still think it’s one of the greatest tracks in the world. The Bathurst 1000 was compulsory viewing every year when I was a kid, and Aussie supercar racing is some of the most exciting motorsports action around.
The Bathurst 12 Hour isn’t supercars; it’s a GT3/GT4/Invitation sportscar race. This year, unlike previous years, those of us in North America can stream it free and legal. I’m at home alone today doing some work, and I’ve got the race streaming on my second monitor. I just thought that other folks might be interested. The race started at 1.45 pm Eastern/10.45am Pacific in the US. i’ll leave you to guess, from the name, how long it runs.
There are a couple of streams available. There’s the official race website:
But I had some problems with the streaming on that site, and I couldn’t get the video to show in fullscreen mode, so I’m using Motorsport TV from the UK:
As far as I can tell, the video and commentary are identical on the two sites.
There’s 11 minutes to go, and there’s a dogfight between an Aston Martin Vantage and a Porsche 911 GT3. The Aston’s in the lead, but the Porsche has newer tires. It’s exciting stuff.
Edit: Right as I typed that, Matt Campbell in the Porsche made a lovely passing maneuver as they came out of the turns before Conrod Straight. Campbell’s an Aussie, so plenty of locals will be cheering for him.
The Porsche also has the possibility of a penalty. There’s an incident to be reviewed at the end of the race.
I missed it live, but it’s on Youtube so I’ll watch it there. Mount Panorama is a great circuit. I follow V8 Supercars and never miss a Bathurst 1000. Looks like there are a bunch of Supercars drivers there, and I see Triple Eight Racing has a car with Van Gisbergen, Lowndes, and Whincup.
I’ll try not to look up any results until after I watch the race.
SBS are screening Slow TV over the summer including a repeat of The Ghan.
A broadcast of similar length except the vehicles are travelling at blinding speeds.
This sort of stuff has been around for a while in other countries too. My first experience of “slow TV” was the Bergensbanen train journey from Norway, which is a seven-hour trip from the coast to Oslo. I remember, when I downloaded it about ten years ago, that it was the biggest file I had ever downloaded to my computer - about 22GB.
There’s something soothing about watching out the front window of a train as it snakes through the countryside. Not quite as exciting, though, as watching out the windscreen of a GT3 Porsche at it screams across Skyline or down through the Dipper.
Bathhurst is a great event. I still hold hope that I’ll be able to travel there and “work” at the mountain. My hobby is marshalling roadracing. I do have a couple of connections with Aussie marshals so maybe someday…
Mhendo, you should check out Radio Le Mans website. They announce for events and stream it over the internet. A lot of us will watch races, while listening to RLM. John Hindhaugh is the best.
