Bathurst 6 Hour - wow what an event

The Bathurst 6 Hour is absolutely nuts. Over 220 competitors packed into Mount Panorama across the main event and support categories—it’s a circus of speed, chaos, and pure adrenaline.

There’s a saying in motorsport: races are won in the workshop. Never has that been more true. I had plans to debut a new Commodore for this race, but time wasn’t on my side. Instead, I flew over early to give the old faithful VE a birthday she wouldn’t forget—new gearbox, front brakes, coilovers, wiring loom, oil cooler, power steering, mounts, diff and gearbox coolers, new wheels—the works. She got everything short of a back massage.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a race weekend without drama. First start attempt since November and the fuel pump died. Not just any pump—the sealed bulkhead unit. Lucky, really, because if that failed at the track, we’d be cooked. Rear brakes? A saga. We had to meet the legal 324mm size for the VE SSV, but the wrong discs turned up. Thankfully, Dave Mawer came to the rescue and machined the old ones—and a spare set—for us. The new gearbox came with a different input shaft, which meant tracking down a new flywheel with the right offset and slave. Coilovers were destined for a VF, so front mounts had to be modified. And the oil cooler fittings? Classic metric vs imperial mess.

To top it all off, I got food poisoning from some hipster pub—full code brown scenario. Somehow, in between vomiting and parts runs, I spent two days haggling with Sydney’s finest to buy a VE ute as a parts/tow car. Never been called "bro" so many times in my life—and I’m a Kiwi. Eventually, we got it all sorted and made it to the track. That’s when the scrutineers decided to really lean in.

Rear windows had to be functional—ours were screwed shut for venting, so I whipped up some ‘FarmBros 2000’ wiring to get them working again. Brake lines? Wrong. I missed the bit in the rules about hard lines being unmodifiable—so we got spares and Motorsport Plumbing Australia stepped up big time. The radiator was apparently too angled, though weirdly less so than our VE ute. Then there was a complaint about our cam—which turned out to be nonsense. Ride height needed tweaking too. Practice one and two were solid. The car felt good, Anthony was fast, and the crew—most of whom were new to this level—held it together. I even sent Shane my now traditional "pre-race toilet stall" photo.

Qualifying Day: Damo got in the car and felt confident. Then Ants jumped in and showed pace—even through traffic and a bit of mid-field madness. Pit Espresso Martinis may have helped rum instead of vodka, pinch of salt. Works every time. We did a full service—fluids and brakes all around. Big shoutout to Chase Hoy and Bryson for sorting us out with brake fluid. Then it was straight to bed.

 Race Day: Toilet stall—violated. Nerves were real. The warm-up, the grid line-up… wow. Just wow. Then we were off—and it was six hours of intense, unrelenting pressure. Bubba Gump (our VE—named after the cray-boat noise she makes on startup) proved herself. Straight-line speed? Savage. Brakes? Strong. Stability for long stints? Excellent. Really it was the crew and crew chief that did all the hard work - we just steered it I overdid the camber, though, which killed our right-front tyres every two hours like clockwork. And yeah… I got us a drive-through for passing under yellow. That likely cost us third in class. My bad. But—we finished. We took an older VE, already battle-worn from a full season, and brought it home at one of the biggest races in the country.

90% LS engine. 10% skill.

We got it done. Aftermath: The afterparty was big. So big, I needed two Uber rides to travel 5km back to the Airbnb. Say no more. We’ll be back. We’ll podium. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make it in endurance racing.

This story doesn’t cover half the effort that went in—but massive thanks to the people and brands that made it possible: DC Autos, DSportz, Tune Corp, Culture 24/7, Penrite Oil, Motiv8, Turn 7 Media. And of course—to all the crew that came over i couldn't have done it witht out you and your family's support .