Battle above Bathurst 1000 race: Helicopter traffic ‘more action than the race’

Talk about traffic choppers! A social media page dedicated to helicopter flight paths has shown how busy the sky was during last weekend’s Bathurst 1000 race.

As a Chevrolet Camaro cruised to an emphatic Bathurst 1000 victory – by the biggest winning margin in years ahead of a fleet of Ford Mustangs nobbled after performance parity upgrades were disallowed – there was a bigger battle above the Mount Panorama circuit.

A social media page dedicated to helicopter traffic has overlayed the fight for air space as a range of helicopters helped cover the event.

It is unclear how long it took to create the trace map – published on the HeliOps page on Facebook – but it was met with mixed responses.

While some Facebook followers were dismissive of the squiggly lines that resembled a kid’s drawing – with comments such as “Good job I’m still separating out my plastic from my tomato tins,” and “Knitting anyone?” – most respondents appreciated the effort.

“That’s art! This needs to be printed and sold,” wrote one fan. Another added “You guys worked hard this weekend. Good job.”

One punter couldn’t resist a dig at yesterday’s processional race, which saw a Chevrolet Camaro cruise to victory even though it was dealing with mechanical gremlins, such was its dominance over Ford Mustang rivals.

“More action than the race,” wrote one commenter.

The 2023 Bathurst 1000 win by driver Shane Van Gisbergen (his second in a row and third in four years) and co-driver Richie Stanaway (his first victory at the event), means the Chevrolet Camaro has now won 22 out of 24 races so far this season.

Ford Motorsport has been lobbying all year for upgrades to level the playing field but their calls have for now fallen on deaf ears.

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