MARK Webber may not have had any desire to be on the Bathurst 12 Hour grid himself, but he most certainly respects the annual Mount Panorama enduro and those who drive in it.
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The ex-Formula 1 ace was at Mount Panorama on the weekend to do demonstration laps in the brand-new Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport as part of the Bathurst 12 Hour event.
He enjoyed the atmosphere and remembering the time when he raced a Formula Ford at the Mount, but there were no regrets about not having a Bathurst 12 Hour start on his impressive resume.
“I raced here in ’95, so it brings a lot of memories back coming here. It’s great, we are overlooking campsites, we are overlooking beautiful rolling hills here, all the lovely Aussie trees that I don’t get at tracks in Europe, so that gives it a nice feel,” he said.
“It’s really nice to be back and even just to see the town, I love how well the town is looked after.
“[But] This time of year for me, I was always back in Europe. Between 2000 and 2013 I was always in Europe, Australia did not exist in February. It did in March when I came down here for a week for the Grand Prix, but then I went back again.
“I did Formula 1. At the end of my career when I was struggling for motivation – and that was with something that was my dream to drive – if I couldn't get motivated for that, I was never going to get motivated to do anything else.
“It’s like flying a military jet then having to fly for QANTAS.”
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While Webber, who is now a Porsche ambassador, had no yearning for a 12 Hour seat, he still enjoyed watching the world’s best GT drivers tackle the 6.213 kilometre circuit.
This was the second consecutive year he had been at the Mount to witness it unfold at what he labels a “world class” track.
“I know a lot of the drivers up and an down Pit Lane and the manufacturers, I raced against some of them a thousand years ago. They are absolutely world-class drivers, they know exactly what they are doing in this category,” he said.
“There’s no drivers that can handle this track any better in these cars than these guys. It’s great to watch them.”
As for the race itself, which doubles as a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Webber feels it holds special significance for Bathurst.
“This race is very important, it’s important to have international events,” he said.
“The Bathurst 1000 is international clearly, but in terms of participation this is a very, very big event for Bathurst in terms of people coming here.
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“It is very, very important for the local area and New South Wales from a tourism perspective. They are having a few nights in Sydney beforehand and afterwards, they are having three or four nights in Bathurst, so that’s good to have a lot of people from different countries doing that.
“The 1000 you don’t get that.
“They all want to be here, you’ve got three or four people in each car, so there is no shortage of drivers here.
“People are watching this from Europe where it’s minus 10, minus 15 degrees, they are seeing the sun out while they’re racing down here – it’s nice medicine for them to watch this.”