MOUNT Panorama is a track which owns drivers – it is a lesson that Mark Winterbottom learned 16 years ago and one he has not since forgotten.
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It was as part of the Formula Ford series that Winterbottom cut his first racing laps around Mount Panorama. It was a bright start as he topped the practice session in his Spectrum 09 and went on to claim pole.
But the two races which followed resulted in DNFs.
“I can remember being flat across the top and how hairy the track was,” Winterbottom said of his debut.
“Formula Ford compared to Supercars is two different beasts, so although the track was the same, it felt completely different.
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“You never forget your first laps. They’d go out and you were 10 seconds off the pace and you remember going ‘How do I catch that?’. Lap two it becomes nine, it becomes eight, it becomes seven, you work your way through it.”
Since that first weekend at Bathurst plenty has changed for Winterbottom. He went on to win the Development Series in his rookie year and earn promotion to Supercars the following season.
But Mount Panorama has still been a mix of the cruel and the kind – he’s been crowned champion and the last two years had DNFs.
“Even now you go there for the first lap and it gets you. It’s gets your breathe, it gets your heart pumping, it owns the drivers,” he said.
“It always owns you and that’s the tough part about it.”
