Racing to third position

The two men took their Hyundai Getz to Bathurst a fortnight ago to compete in the Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hours at the famous Mt Panorama race-track.

Goldsbrough and Driscoll drove the Getz to third place in the compact class, an achievement born of several months of hard work.

“We started building the car in 2016 with a view of entering the Bathurst Six Hours this year,” Goldsbrough said. “There’s a lot of work that goes in.

“To start with two guys with basic racing licenses, you have to go through three sets of upgrades to get to a level where Bathurst will allow you to compete.

“You’ve got to build the cars to their regulations, then you need someone to come and inspect the car.

“It takes time; you can’t sort of think ‘I’ll enter that race next week’, you’ve got to have all your ducks in a row.”

Driscoll said the pairing had traveled last year to compete in other minor races around the country.

“We competed in two rounds of a national production car series last year, which is what the six-hours is based on,” he said. “We needed to to upgrade our licenses.”

Endurance racing is different to standard lap racing. 

“Everybody is on track at once; from the top cars at two minutes and 20 second lap times, to us at three minutes and two,” Goldsbrough said.

“You’re separated by 40 seconds of lap time, but you’re all on there at once.”

“The race runs for six hours, but the leader is the leader, and the car at the back is the car at the back,” Driscoll said.

“Whoever does the most laps, and is ahead of the field, wins.

“It’s just stretched out. Instead of everyone being on the same lap, they’re laps apart. You can have 10 to 20 laps between cars.”

Goldsbrough and Driscoll lived out the Aussie dream of racing around the famous Mt Panorama circuit, but said the speed isn’t the most noticeable thing.

“The biggest thing about Bathurst that you notice is on TV it looks flat,” Goldsbrough said. 

“It’s steep, at one point it’s a one in six gradient.

“The speed doesn’t seem as fast, especially when you drive race cars a bit. You’re doing 100 and you think you’re going slow.

“The track is really wide and nice, but the biggest thing is the steepness. You can’t fathom it until you drive on it, and you think ‘how am I going to get up this hill’?”

With their success at the Bathurst race, the two men are keen to continue in the sport of endurance racing.

“It’s a disease with no cure,” Goldsbrough said.

“As much as you think no, you find yourself planning for it.

“Basically, we’re planning for it already, as to what car we use, because the regulations will be different, we need to start now.”

Driscoll said the experience from their time at Bathurst will help in the future.

“We’ve learnt a lot from this,” he said.

“From the road car to the race car, we sort of went the long way around in some areas.

“Now we know what to do, because you can apply the formula to any car to get it up to the required specs. Now we know what to buy, and what brands are good.”

Goldsbrough said their achievements wouldn’t be possible without local help.

“Free Spirit Tattoo pays for our team attire, banners and merchandise,” he said.