IN a disappointing statistic which has gone under the radar, John Bowe hasn't been able to race at a Mount Panorama event for the first time in 35 years.
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But he still gets a little bit of valuable time on his favourite six kilometres of tarmac at this week's Challenge Bathurst.
The two-time Bathurst 1000 champion has been enjoying laps in Tony Virag's Walkinshaw Commodore which the pair will be driving at next year's Bathurst 6 Hour.
On top of that Bowe will be doing mentoring over the weekend and then doing ride experiences over Monday and Tuesday.
And that sort of busy Bathurst schedule is something which never overburdens Bowe - it's something he can't get enough of.
"It's the first time in 35 years I haven't raced here and I love the place. It's an amazing track, and that's why so many people turn up for an event like this," he said.
"The chance to drive on one of the world's best racetracks is something that's hard to turn down. I'm really happy to be here.
"I live in Melbourne and we've basically been confined to home for the last six months. My biggest adventures have been going to the supermarket less than five kilometres away."
And now Bowe is covering more than that distance in just a single lap of Mount Panorama.
It's a great way for the accomplished veteran to see out a tough 2020.
He's been thrilled by the support drivers have shown Challenge Bathurst, across both the supersprint and regularity events.
- READ MORE: Vince Muriti and David Wall top two Supersprint GT Group sessions at Challenge Bathurst's opening day
- READ ALSO: Challenge Bathurst entries to total 360 across four days of Mount Panorama racing this week
- READ ALSO: Bathurst 1000: Scott McLaughlin wants to race car #17 in next year's Great Race
"I'm sure the numbers would have been better if Victoria came out of lockdown a little earlier but there's still a lot of cars here and a lot of interesting cars. There's so much variety," he said.
"This event has proven to be fantastic over the last few years and it exposes Mount Panorama to a lot of people who normally wouldn't have been able to drive on it, so well done to [event director] James O'Brien for putting it all together.
"There has been a few too many red flags which means people are overstepping the mark a bit. I've been asked many times for advice about this circuit and what I say every time is don't rush at it. Let the circuit come to you."
Friday continued the supersprint action, which included the GT category completing their third and fourth runs of the event.
The opening session saw a familiar name featured at the top of the timesheets as Vince Muriti once again finished first in his Mercedes Benz AMG GT3 with a time of two minutes and 4.3880 seconds - stepping up the pace from Thursday.
Yasser Shahin (2:05.0280) was second in his Porsche 911 and Nick Kelly (2:05.9880) took his Radical SR8 into third.
Muriti was a touch slower during the second session with a time of 2:05.6660 but was still on top of the standings.
A different Radical SR8 drove into second place under the control of Neale Muston (2:06.4690) with Shahin finishing third.