If you could see through the belting rain and low cloud you might have noticed BIG4 was at Bathurst last week, and knee-deep in title contention late into the Great Race on Sunday afternoon.
Although the BIG4 supercar entry driven by Nissan’s Michael Caruso finished sixth, it could have been so much more. For the first six hours the drivers – including Caruso - stayed conservative, waiting for accidents that didn’t happen, and for engine and car failures that never eventuated.
The only consistency throughout the day was the rain falling on Bathurst – the first drops the city had seen in months, but the most ill-timed rainfall of the year with 2.5 million people watching the race from home.
Into the last hour however, things changed. With the race now on the line, drivers took more risks, resulting in more crashes and more laps under the watch of the safety car. Caruso had fought from 19th and almost 45 seconds behind the race leader to finish in sixth place – a monumental drive in the most trying of conditions.
“I’m feeling really emotional,” said Caruso’s wife Dani, after the race. “I’m so proud of him.”
Caruso and Fiore’s lion-hearted drive mirrored their efforts earlier in the week, when they commandeered a Nissan Pathfinder and Jayco JPod to visit BIG4 parks on their way to Bathurst – reviving an annual event started by brothers Todd and Rick Kelly.
BIG4 was invited along to watch the Great Race, and our keen observer brought home these fun facts about the race, through the eyes of a first-time visitor to Mt Panorama:
BIG4 was a guest of Nissan Motorsport for Bathurst 2017.