Bathurst Comes to Project Motor Racing

October 08, 2025

Mount Panorama: It’s Time For Your Initiation

Carved into the slopes above Bathurst, New South Wales, Mount Panorama is 6.213 km of contradictions: a public road that becomes one of the world’s greatest circuits, with 23 corners, a 174 m vertical swing, and gradients as steep as 1:6.13.

When they’re not racing here, this is a two way country road where traffic has a speed limit of 60 km/h—police patrols and all—yet come race week, the same ribbon sees 300 km/h sprints.

The layout is pure old school: a blast up Mountain Straight, a knife edge traverse “across the skyline”, and then a plunge to the empty depths of Conrod Straight where you’ll be able to take a deep breath and consider what you just survived.

Even Bathurst’s safety fix has become iconic: The Chase chicane, inserted in 1987 to satisfy an FIA/WTCC rule capping straight length, turns a once flat out missile run into a high speed right left right thrill ride. Conrod now measures 1.916 km. Mountain Straight is 1.111 km. And the circuit’s high point sits at 862 m above sea level.

A lap starts on Pit Straight, then Hell Corner, a tight left that slingshots you up Mountain Straight toward Griffins Bend, then the uphill pinch at The Cutting, and the start of the rollercoaster. The car never truly settles over Reid Park, Sulman Park and McPhillamy—a blind turn in that rewards total commitment and will end your day in a split second if you miss that apex—before you tip over Brock’s Skyline into the downhill, off camber death-defying slalom of The Esses and The Dipper.

Survive Forrest’s Elbow, and you’re onto Conrod for the draft into The Chase and the braking duel at Murray’s Corner.

Bathurst’s character is inseparable from its environment. The place is literally a quiet neighbourhood for most of the year with driveways and letterboxes lining sections of the lap, so the surface always needs consideration. It also means the mountain brings its own guests: local wildlife, including kangaroos, have been known to wander trackside, adding a layer of unpredictability you don’t get at fenced in “Tilkedromes”.

The calendar offers only five races per year, and the crown jewel events are the Bathurst 1000 each October (known as Australia’s Great Race), a touring car epic where heroes are minted and a year’s worth of debates are settled in one afternoon, and, in February, the GT3s light up the dawn in the Bathurst 12 Hour, a race that always favours the wily smart teams over the fast ones.

So how do you win here? Build a car that breathes with the bumps and kerbs across the top yet slices air down Conrod; in other words, low drag without losing front end bite. Because those two straights are long. Very, very long.

Prioritise brake stability for The Chase, traction off Hell Corner and Forrest’s Elbow, and work on finding the confidence to turn blind at McPhillamy without any lift.

Strategy wise, track position is crucial here because an incident on the top usually collects a lot of innocent bystanders.

Mount Panorama comes to Project Motor Racing Nov 25, 2025.

Fun Facts!

• 1. It’s a street … with a racetrack’s reputation.

Racing here is legally capped at five full circuit events per year under legislation.

• 2. Conrod Straight is named after a literal engine part that exploded.

The longest straight wasn’t always “Conrod”. In 1939, Frank Kleinig’s Hudson spectacularly threw a connecting rod during the Easter races. The formerly named “Main Straight” was rechristened soon after.

• 3. Forrest’s Elbow comes from an elbow—ground down in a crash.

Motorcyclist Jack Forrest fell at the corner in 1947, “smashing” the end of his elbow. Fellow racer Harry Hinton dubbed it Forrest’s Elbow. And yes, Forrest raced the next day.

• 4. Kangaroos are recurring ‘competitors’.

Bathurst has a long file of ’roo run ins: the 2013 Bathurst 1000 saw the #7 Nissan retire after a strike; the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour BMW M3 hit a kangaroo; and there’ve been multiple other race shaping encounters. Welcome to Australia’s most unpredictable marshals.

• 5. There’s a working winery on the Mountain.

Mount Panorama Wines operates inside the circuit, and you can taste local Shiraz where GT3s and Supercars thunder by on race weekends. A very Bathurst blend of (apologies) terroir and torque.

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