GOING from pole position at Mount Panorama then claiming the chequered flag - it was a a race Bathurst driver Brad Schumacher described as both special and mental and a race which also made a liar of him.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
On Saturday morning Schumacher went from position one on the grid in the opening race of the Aussie Tin Tops series which acted as a support category for the Bathurst 1000.
He started well in his Audi R8 LMS to hold off Duvashen Padayachee into Hell Corner and from there was never headed.
Schumacher peeled off the fastest lap of the race on his sixth circuit of the Mount - a 2:09.5353 - and went on to win by 4.8 seconds over Padayachee.
"I told my wife many years ago that when I eventually get a race win at Bathurst I'd retire from racing, but fortunately I lied, I'm not retiring," Schumacher laughed.
"It's my first pole and my first race win at Bathurst, which is pretty special for me.
"You know it's not my first pole or my first race win, I've done that on other circuits, but it was great to be in that position here in Bathurst in front of our home crowd and on TV.
I told my wife many years ago that when I eventually get a race win at Bathurst I'd retire from racing, but fortunately I lied, I'm not retiring.
- Brad Schumacher
"It's another bucket list thing for me and just again builds a little bit of confidence for me. To put the car that far ahead of a guy like Padayachee is mental considering he's a pro driver in the Carrera Cup.
"There were other guys there like Scott Taylor and Andrew MacPherson, very accomplished racers and a lot of experience, and for us, I'm quite new to the Audi, it was it's first race meeting."
Winning that race saw Schumacher once again get the thrill of starting on pole at Mount Panorama for the second race later on Saturday afternoon.
But Padayachee passed him on the run up Mount Straight and Schumacher then began to lose time to his rival's Porsche 911. After lap three he limped back to the pits as his Audi suffered from a gear box compressor fault.
"It came up with a fault on the screen and I was stuck in fourth gear. We rolled around the track, we were trying to fix it, we did an ECU reset, but we couldn't get it sorted," Schumacher said.
"It's very difficult to drive around Bathurst when you've only got one gear and more or less it would be a little dangerous.
"So brought it into the pits and it was a very simple fix, got it sorted. We took it out for a quick lap at the end of the session there to make sure it was all working and it was.
"We ran it through the gears a good dozen times on the stands in the pit garage, but the fact it was a DNF for the second race meant I'd be starting from the rear of the third race."
Instead of starting that final race from 29th on the grid, Schumacher decided not to risk things and instead parked the Audi, reflected on his special moment and took in the action of the Bathurst 1000 race day.
"It's an exhibition race, it wasn't a sheep stations kind of thing, so we just decided we'd park it up for the weekend," he said.
"If it was a championship race and accumulating points we definitely would have went back out, but we'd had a good weekend.
"It was a fantastic weekend really ... the car was great, handling-wise and everything it was all fantastic."
