Mount Panorama is the toughest track in Australia, but even it couldn’t withstand the intensity of this year’s Bathurst 1000.The recently repaved race surface broke up at the second corner during the early stages of the race, forcing officials to stop the race on lap 61 for more than an hour and make emergency repairs.
Scott McLaughlin’s Bathurst 1000 hopes have come to an end. The young Kiwi driver has clipped the wall on the way up Mount Panorama while contending for the lead and he’s been forced to put his car in the garage for repairs. Fellow New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen is leading the race ahead of five-time winner Craig Lowndes and another Kiwi Fabian Coulthard. There’s still a quarter of the race remaining, with eight safety car periods and a one hour suspension delaying the event.
As we approach the final stage of the Bathurst 1000, most of the co-drivers have completed their required laps and have effectively handed the keys over to the primary drivers for the remainder of the race. The current top-five is Craig Lowndes, Fabian Coulthard, Chaz Mostert, Shane van Gisbergen and Nick Percat as of Lap 120. The defending Bathurst champion, Mark Winterbottom, currently sits in seventh.
