The Bathurst Dirty Dozen

Smell that? Ethanol. And in only a matter of hours that black/green gold will be burning furiously to ignite Mt Panorama for the first time in 12 months.

Come 10.20am Thursday morning Bathurst will finally roar to life with practice one and to build the anticipation, we thought we’d let you guys and gals in on a few little fun facts about Red Bull Racing Australia and the Bathurst 1000.

Here’s the dirty dozen…

1. True or false? Pit crew use Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo as part of their race day ritual? Answer: True. How else did you think J-Dub kept that sweet and powerful mullet soft, flowing and free of split ends? In all seriousness though, pit crew actually coat the windscreens in baby shampoo. It prevents the windows from fogging up. No one has put their hand up to claim the idea amid fear questions could be raised as to what they were doing with baby shampoo in a garage in the first place… JJ insists it wasn’t him but that its much more effective than anti-fog products
2. Speaking of windscreens, the Red Bull Racing Australia cars will have six removable layers for Bathurst. Normally the cars have just three tear-away layers.
3. Teams will carry eight sets of tyres into the race and with seven compulsory stops, each stop will effectively feature a full tyre set change barring back-to-back safety cars.
4. Lowndesy and Mark Skaife set the current race record of 6h 12m 51.41s in 2010. And while many are predicting lap records to be broken this week, the seven compulsory pit-stops will add an extra 60 seconds to overall time – minimum – meaning the race record is unlikely to fall – unless there are very few safety cars.
5. All teams will be aiming for a maximum three driver-changes throughout the race. Barring any extraordinary circumstances, expect most co-drivers to start the race. This is done so they can get their minimum 54-laps out of the way as soon as possible. Most co-drivers will do a maximum of two stints, though could be required to do as many as 50-odd laps consecutively.
6. A full tank of fuel will last between 24 and 25 laps. Most cars use around 4.5 litres of fuel per lap.
7. A fuel stop for a full tank takes 28 seconds. Brake pads take 18 seconds. A driver change takes 15 seconds. Just to drive through pit-lane takes 32 seconds.
8. As many as three sets of brake pads will be used during the race by each car and a brake rotor change will be carried out if necessary.
9. In between stints, drivers will recover in ice-baths and showers and have even been known to get in a sneaky nana nap to re-energise themselves for their next effort.
10.  In 2010, it snowed across the top of the mountain this corresponding weekend. So bring some snow chains for the boys if history repeats. Though we’re looking at a scorcher this weekend by Bathurst standards, you never know what the mountain may bring.
11. Typically, a pit crew of 20 people travel to each race but for Bathurst that number is almost doubled.
12.  Fact: Craig’s engineer JJ set a new team record at Sandown that he’s hoping to beat at Bathurst – not making a “pit stop” of his own for the duration of the race. That’s not healthy, mate.

Got any more quirky questions you’d like asked? Hit us up on Facebook and we’ll see if we can’t get one of the crew to answer to it for you.