Mount Panorama doesn’t scare leading Ford driver Mark Winterbottom.
But he may be in the minority after the dust settled on practice for the Bathurst 1000 on Thursday.
Three red flags went up in the incident-packed third and final session alone, invovling a total of four cars – with two possibly out of action for Friday and beyond.
The jury was out on whether the Mercedes driven by Tim Slade and Andrew Thompson would reappear after it crashed in each of the last two practice sessions.
And Alex Davison’s Ford team will be racing the clock to have their Falcon ready for Friday afternoon qualifying.
Still Winterbottom reckons he is not afraid of the legendary street circuit – well, not much.
“The first day you get to see the track is by far the best day of the year,” he told reporters.
“It’s a place that doesn’t scare you but you do fear it a little bit.
“It’s definitely the most nerve-wracking day of the year on a race track.”
Then again he would be forgiven for feeling bullet proof.
Winterbottom was the most consistent performer in practice, clocking the second fastest times in both sessions he contested.
“It is not everything but usually when you start well you end well here,” beamed Winterbottom who is yet to register a Bathurst win in his nine-year fulltime V8 career.
“There are a lot of people worse off than us so it isn’t a bad start to the weekend.”
But the man to beat will be defending champion, four-time Bathurst winner and series leader Jamie Whincup.
As if the Mount Panorama circuit wasn’t scary enough, Whincup gave rivals a fright after defying hot and blustery conditions to top the final practice timesheets with two minutes, 8.32 seconds in his Holden – almost a second faster than Winterbottom.
“Although times don’t mean anything on Thursday we are encouraged by the speed of the car – we have plenty of improvements to make but so far so good,” Whincup said.
The same could not be said for Mercedes.
They released a statement late on Thursday night saying they would make a decision on Friday whether Slade’s Mercedes could be repaired after hitting the wall and suffering severe damage in final practice.
