1000 kilometers, 56 drivers, 29 cars, 1 mountain. Who will win it all? Follow "The Great Race" on our live blog below.
(Your three authors today are DannyCatSteve, Nobody and yours truly, Porsche9146. All times are in PDT, Daylight Saving's Time adjusted Pacific Standard Time. Posts by me will be marked with the letter "P", while posts by DannyCatSteve will be marked with "D" and posts by Nobody will be marked with "N". Be sure to click those Gyazo links, those are direct links to animated gifs too large to post directly to Kinja! Title picture via Ford Performance Racing)
4:55, P: The two lead Fords are charging now, joining Scott McLaughlin in a bit of a train behind fourth place Greg Murphy.
4:51, P: FPR team mates Davison and Winterbottom pass Warren Luff in the #888 Holden. Luff gives a bit of a tap to Winterbottom as he passes, but Frosty takes P5 nonetheless.
4:49, N: Here's a .gif of the side camera view going over Skyline and into the Esses.
4:48, D: Well, FPR is usually good at starting and terrible at finishing, so maybe things will reverse themselves this year?
4:44, P: Yep, that's a drive through penalty for the #17! Chaz Mostert is not pleased...
4:42, P: A penalty already!? The #17 of Dick Johnson Racing is under investigation for pitting without using a jack. Meanwhile, the 5, the 6 and the 888 are in quite the dogfight for positions just inside the top 10.
4:38, P: Dumbrell leads lap 1 over Bright and Shane Van Gisbergen. There's a decent mix of primary drivers and co-drivers alike in the cars at the start, with the leader surprisingly being a co-driver.
4:35, P: Winterbottom has a terrible start, falling from second to about eighth! Paul Dumbrell, driving the Triple Eight Racing #1, leads Jason Bright.
4:34, P: The grid is re-formed. Cars 17 and 47 starting from the pits. Lights on.... Lights out! The 51st Bathurst 1000 is green!
4:30, P: We're rolling on the warm-up lap... Grid re-forming.
4:28, P: The grid is clearing. Two minute warning.
4:24, P: The grid is formed and V8 SuperView, at V8Supercars.com.au, is now live with today's race broadcast. The Australian national anthem (Which, apparently, isn't just someone yelling "Aussie Aussie Aussie Oy Oy Oy!", but instead an actual song) is being sung as we speak. The start of the great race is just minutes away...
51st Bathurst 1000: The Live Blog