Something beyond 1000k?

[Alan52]

Back to topic.The running time of this year's 1000 wasn't much different than the running time of the last couple of 500 mile races when they decided the running time was too short and they needed to lengthen the race.That being said I think the tradition now around the 1000K distance shouldn't be tampered with and the race would lose more than it would gain from any change.

[v8man]

Originally Posted by Alan52

Back to topic.The running time of this year's 1000 wasn't much different than the running time of the last couple of 500 mile races when they decided the running time was too short and they needed to lengthen the race.That being said I think the tradition now around the 1000K distance shouldn't be tampered with and the race would lose more than it would gain from any change.

The changing of the distance from 500 mikes to 1000 kilometers had nothing to do with the ARDC deciding that the running time was to short, it was the Aus Government of the time that decided to change from imperial to metric so instead of having a 625 kilometer race it was increased to 1000 kilometers

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by v8man

625 kilometer

804km, surely?

The thing which isn't being discussed is the astonishing reliability of modern racing cars. It is quite amazing the extent to which highly stressed machinery is able to run for so long with so little problem. As long as your driver doesn't bin it - and not too much of that happens now, either - you can consider yourself unlucky (or badly prepared) not to make it to the end.

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by v8man

The changing of the distance from 500 mikes to 1000 kilometers had nothing to do with the ARDC deciding that the running time was to short, it was the Aus Government of the time that decided to change from imperial to metric so instead of having a 625 kilometer race it was increased to 1000 kilometers

Wrong.I was involved at the time .The race had a 9am start time that was seemingly set in stone.Channel 7 were complaining that what had been an all day telecast (with the exception of the 1 hour TV lunch break) was effectively over by just after 3pm.Hinxman,Stibbard and the other high ups at the ARDC were also concerned the race was beginning to lose some of its endurance aspect.When they changed the distance they also put the start time back to 9.30 mainly in the interests of television.These were the 2 factors that drove the decision it had nothing to do with the metric conversion.