Conrod straight / Caltex Chase

Now that cars are safer and the track is safer, do you think the time has come to get rid of Caltex Chase and bring back the proper conrod straight, even if it means a flattened out second hump. This would bring back more of the challenge to bathurst and we could have the great braking duels into murrays again. Caltex Chase i think spoiled the track, like the two chicanes on the mulsanne straight spoiled a great piece of road.

Whilst the FIA and CAMS control motorsport and the word SAFETY is in the dictionary, will never happen.

it was put in there to slow cars down before the end of the straight - look at the number of rollovers and 'excursions' that used to happen at the bottom of Conrod because that one little item on the car - brakes - failed at that spot <g>

<witches hat firmly on> I predict, the before this decade is out, we will put a man....no no no - sorry wrong one....I predict that within 10 years they will be looking at doing more modifications to Conrod (or whatever they call it this week) to slow them down even further.

I've been sorting though many driver profiles though the week, and it seems fairly outstanding, that the first right hand kink in Conrod goes down in many driver's books as their favourite in all of motorsport.

Remember it came in after Mike Burgmann's terrible crash in 1986....I wonder if the concrete walls were in place in those days that the accident might have been a simple wall banger?

Having a look at Murray's. That has the oddest escape road in all of motorsport- and whats better, once you've successfully navigated this turn at 135 degrees in the opposite direction to the corner, you've got to get your car bunkered in this utterly ****weak sand trap at the right hand end of the run off road. I doubt anyone ever has, or ever will get bogged in that one...

So basically you would need something the length of the Chase bunker at the end of Murray's....now that would probably go right to the back of Harris Park, and would be a big nono if plans to relocate pit lane to the outside of the track ever happen.

For the amount of money and effort to bring the Chase to what it is today, it would almost seem wastful to simply scrap it. You've also got to take into consideration the hospitality area, the spectator area, the bridge, and if it ever happens, the hotel.

IIRC, a big complaint about Conrod was the positioning of the bridge, and the way it affected airflow, and created an area of unstability. I'd hate to think what a bloomin hotel hanging over the track would do, especially on the much faster, and aerodynamically dependant cars of today.

Originally posted by Crash Test
I'd hate to think what a bloomin hotel hanging over the track would do, especially on the much faster, and aerodynamically dependant cars of today.
Especially if they used train style bathrooms - need more than a bucket to clean the windscreens :) (Sorry - late night!)

John Medley captions a photo of the Murray's Cnr/last hump area in his book with words that say 'within this frame virtually all the bad accidents ever at Mt Panorama took place...'

And it's true, save for Johnny Harvey's crash at Reid Park.

Burgmann went behind the fence, that ended abruptly too close to the bridge. It certainly shouldn't have happened, it should have been a glance off the wall... and very few crashed because brakes failed.

Bevan Gibson and Reg Smith died because of air getting under their cars, something similar for Tom Sulman. Tony Burke shouldn't have been in the car, he'd never driven it before (and was on his first lap) and so the spectators died, Trevor Meehan locked a brake... the list goes on.

The only problem with it now is that the right turn before the left has been made too tight... it should be absolutely flat out two cars abreast, so daunting the wimps and leading to those braking duels into the tighter left hander.

Reverting to the original straight, even with the hump levelled, would be courting disaster.

Race Time- Here I am thinking of rail tracks, sleeper carriages, steam powered locomotive, diesel? Ahhhh right... :) (It's been a very bloody long day in commentary :)).

:) Hope you enjoyed it there - at least QLD Raceway and Eastern Creek were able to post results today - more than could be said for Barbagallo - Internet Access problems they claim! (don't know why - we never had in the 6 years we posted to the web from the race track.!!!)

It was sensational...I was drinking coke like Mark Jones, in fact Jonsey joined us for a while, top stuff :) Can't wait for tomorrow, hopefully I'll be pit reporter for the day :)

the chase should defintely stay, one of my fav parts of the track (well they are all my favourite actually)

remember when ingall went off at the chase last year in the shootout after complaining about the ability of the lesser experienced drivers all weekend, then everybody in pit lane appauded him when he came back into the pits!!! classic!