We saw history being made

Sunday saw almost eight hours of the most exhilarating, unpredictable, intense, grueling racing we have ever seen at Mount Panorama.

We made history - longest ever race, red flagged to fix a broken track, 10 safety car periods, fastest laps.

It was a day we will remember for many years to come and ask, where were you during the 2014 Great Race?

As we approached eight hours of combat it came down to two competitors. I had spoken to both of them on the grid at the start of the day and we were standing on positions 23 and 25. Seriously - who would have thought?

Sunday morning is a 4am wake up - but it's Bathurst, so that's ok.

After three days of build up - practice, records smashed in qualifying, fun on Friday Night Live, ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout - and finally we get there.

It was probably one of the most emotionally charged days I have ever experienced in pit lane.

It just seemed like every single team was hit by something - bad luck, broken cars, broken hearts, broken men. It was the most powerful rollercoaster ride of emotions and exhausting for everybody involved.

There is nothing quite like standing on the grid at the start of the 1000. 195,000fans around the Mountain, millions watching on television, the drivers about to strap themselves in for battle. I am in a fortunate position where I can stand next to them, share a laugh, a quiet moment, and feel the atmosphere of something truly special about to happen.

Bathurst is a place where, when it bites you, it chews you up and spits you out in a million pieces. Over the four days, session after session, fan favourites left scars along concrete walls.

These million dollar machines returned back to pit lane on the back of trucks, mangled, torn apart by the mountain, delivered to the shattered faces of the team that knew that sleep was gone, dinner would be off or much worse their Bathurst journey was over before they even saw the green light. It's these trying times that teamwork shines through in pit lane.

Drivers are the faces of our sport, they are the heroes. Fans line up for hours to get a photo or an autograph - but when things turn pear shaped it's the guys and girls behind the scenes that pull it together. Their passion for the sport is just as great, their desire to win just as innate, the pressure to perform their role just as important.

They are the nuts and bolts of the team, the ones who put it together when it has literally fallen apart. They will lose sleep - they probably wont be able to spend this weekend, between races, at home with friends and family.

But they will arrive next week at the Gold Coast 600 hungry, determined, ready for battle and deliver a car to their driver as if it were fresh off the shelf. It's this teamwork that I see in pit lane that is so inspiring, that these guys and girls dedicate their lives to this sport in a way that's hard to put into words.

I walked out of the gates of the Mount Panorama circuit at 10.10pm on Sunday night. Garages were still being dismantled, cars getting lifted into transporters, teams gathering in huddles debriefing the day, commiserating, celebrating, just staring at wrecked cars, contemplating what could have been. Bathurst over for another year.

As I was walking through the dark, cold paddock waving goodbye, congratulating or apologising I thought to myself, thank goodness, everyone is safe.

We were treated to four days and almost eight hours of epic racing this week. Some argue one of the best Bathurst 1000 races we have seen.

I was walking by so many wounded cars, yet everyone is safe and we will roll on to the next one.

What a day - V8 Supercars and Bathurst at its very best.

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