2014 Bathurst 12 Hour - Best Moments!

Illustration of the start of Bathurst 12 Hour

This is yet another Endurance event I live streamed. Even though I missed almost 45% of the race length, knowing that the race started at 2am my time (GMT +7), I still get the fact that I followed the race from the fifth / sixth hour approximate to the end. I have to say that Bathurst 12 Hour have fulfilled its promise of epic racing action at the renowned circuit Down Under Mount Panorama, notoriously known for its elevations and turns. GT3 cars, touring cars, and modified cars, even three Abarth 500s raced around the clock at this circuit while they tried to survive all the difficulties, whether if it's from the track, from the rivals, or from their own teams.

This year is memorable due to one of the facts that Nissan returned to the round-the-clock Bathurst racing for a long time thanks to its Nismo Global Athlete program, pitting their GT-R to the track. However, the real immortalization of this season is the fact that Maranello Motorsport's Ferrari 458 Italia with Il Bello Rosso sponsorship on it won by a small margin against HTP Mercedes Benz SLS AMG. Thanks to Craig Lowndes's driving skills, they have secured their first ever win in this endurance race not only for themselves and their own team, but also for the late Allan Simonsen, who drove for this very team before he past away at Le Mans.

However, while you're seeing this post, you might be wonder what I will do in this post... Some of you might say "Oh, he's gonna recap everything bla bla bla", or even "Ah, he's going to teach us new things unique to this event...". Wrong and wrong, as you know that this post about this year's Bathurst 12 Hour isn't about the recap of things or even a thing unique to this race as this is just an ordinary event. Except... Yup! It's not an ordinary event because not only is this race being held at a special place close to every Australian (and world) petrolhead's heart, but also have this year's running of Bathurst 12 Hour a series of great moments that, well, you will cringe when you find out you're missing everything out!

Here are my top moments of this year's Bathurst 12 Hour. So, what's in store then? (in no chronological order)

A ROO THAT ATTACKED A BUFFALO

Image courtesy of Bathurst 12 Hour's Facebook Fanpage

Just within minutes of racing, a Lamborghini was attacked by a Kangaroo that it broke the car. The number 23 car competing in the A class (one of the GT3 classes) must painfully retire the race despite they only managed to run two laps... Sad that I couldn't see the roo that attacked the car though or it wasn't televised at all... I guess Ripper Roo may have done this... SCREW YOU RIPPER ROO!!111!!1111!

"TROLOLOLOLOLOL MY Roo fellows have crashed a Lamborghini BWAHAHAHAHA They were all screwed and you can see the driver's face HUEHUEHUEHUE They just ran two laps in the 12-hour event..." -Translation of the above laughter, kind of :v

NISSAN - A RETURNEE WITH A BAD LUCK

How to ruin Nissan's return in Bathurst 12 Hour, especially when they have Nismo Global Athlete in its pocket?

1) Crash Spin a McLaren Ferrari

2) Make other drivers go bananas (read: trying to avoid the crashed car)
3) Dust everything up so everyone can't see what's going on

4) ???
5) BOOM! PROFIT!

Image courtesy of Force GT

Note that no Tinkerbell is involved during the making of this dust... :v

MERC'S AERODYNAMIC GONE WRONG

This was how HTP's SLS AMG's "active aero" gone wrong. No, seriously, it tried to joke on the Mountain Straight and... it kinda succeed. Not bad :)

ROMANCE OF THREE MAKERS - MERCEDES. MCLAREN, and FERRARI

A three-way fight somewhere in the race's midpoint provided a great spectacle from fans. The fight for position in the A Class has never been this exciting, even in any of the Endurance events held elsewhere! At the race's early hours, V8 Supercars Australia superstar Shane Van Gisbergen headed up against DTM star Bernd Schneider and former F1 racer and now endurance racing extraordinaire Mika Salo. This three-way fight made up an exciting, close and tight, race no endurance racing event has matched, even lasted at the last hours albeit it's a different team's Merc.

BAD LUCK EREBUS

Sadly the event favorite #1 Erebus Motorsports's Mercedes must suffer a long reparation of their brakes, costing them the fight for the top place against McLaren and Ferrari which they should've done if only it didn't happen. Fortunately, HTP subbed in for Mercedes in the three-way romance, but that IS HTP not Erebus :v

However, they didn't lose the race empty-handed as they had Allan Simonsen trophy as their consolation prize for scoring a pole in the event's qualifying session. Better luck next time, though.

MEANWHILE IN ANOTHER DIMENSION...

McLaren and Ferrari... Where we saw this fight before? It sounded familiar...

BEHOLD! IT'S THE MARANELLOWNMOWER!

How you turn a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 into a lawnmower in seconds? Lowndes knows how. And you know that it's epic when you realize Lowndes and Maranello has "OWNING" in their names. ;)

Order this lawnmower now and you will also get all the perks this car has, and also its drivers who will come right to your door! Call 1-800-123456789 NOW! :v

LEAVINGTHEBOARDINPITSITIS SYNDROME

Apparently Maranello's victory wasn't that clean; a mistake involving a pitboard costed them a drive through, even though it didn't affect their position. However, this infected one of the Audi entries too. Pro tip: Don't put a pit board on the driver's left side when pitting, especially if someone's gaining behind...

DAYTONA COUPE THAT HAD ITS BATHURST MOMENTS

Daytona Coupe wasn't an exemption from the round-the-clock race event. It's quite a car and was competitive in its class. One moment had it crashed in the qualifying session, but granted the mechanics spent hours for getting the car to its competitive shape once more. Kudos to the car that I knew from Gran Turismo 2 with different livery!

LOWNDES BEING MASSAGED

Well...

THE CLOSE RACE TO THE FINISH!

If Lowndes weren't that great, then HTP could easily take Maranello's victory. The run was an All-out one from the moment the green flag waved after the race was under safety car minutes before the race ends. It was definitely an all-out game, but Maranello could maintain their first place and finish the race without a scratch! Congrats Maranello! :D

HELL YEAH MARANELLO!

And those are the underlined moments that made up this year's Bathurst 12 Hour! It was an endurance event packed with endless fights that lasted long, on-track and pit lane dramas, as well as a variety of cars from GT3 to Daytona Sports Coupe and small-but-powerful Abarths. What a way to waste your 2 GB's worth of your internet quota in 12 hours, from the dawn to the afternoon! This event is definitely to die for, either you'd like to see it in person or live stream it in your home! The Live Streams were flawless by the way...

Special thanks to all organizers of Bathurst 12 Hour and its competitors for making it a moment not to be missed by every racing fan all over the world, including me! Will definitely return next year as a live streamer, but if my economy allows me I would definitely like to attend the event in person!

~[R]

EDIT: The mkalty.org picture has its anti-hotlink nag screen activated so I have to replace with another one. :v

INSIDE THE MALL: Puri Indah Mall - The First Mall to Have Maximum Tune 4!

It's time for the third edition of the INSIDE THE MALL Series! Previously I've visited Mal Parung and Cilandak Town Square, and now it's time to write another location with an interesting story! And as the title said, it's time to gear yourself up for Puri Indah Mall! I know I should've posted this a long time ago since my first visit there but nevertheless, it's better to be late than not at all.

Outskirts of Puri Indah Mall (Image courtesy of www.direktorijakarta.com)

This is the farthest mall I've ever been, due to the fact that it is located in West Jakarta. Hell, even going there takes approximately 40 minutes from my college (which is UIN Syarif Hidayatullah State University), that is if you're not stuck in the traffic as you make your way there... And apparently, taking the Bintaro route would be the fastest route you could take, whether if you're living in the Ciputat area or not.

Located in Puri Agung Street, Puri Indah, Kembangan, it was initially a mall with a modern "Puri" concept, but such concept nowadays no longer reflects the current state of the mall. Its construction and opening years are still a mystery to be solved, but Puri is quite a hangout place. You can find myriads of fashion stores and eateries, and there's a cool Big Ben clock on the mall's roof...

Feel like British? No worries, the sky doesn't lie; Puri Indah Mall's Big Ben clock visible from the ground floor.

With the presence of a certain arcade game being a drive to visit the mall, I decided to check the condition of the game albeit it was yet activated. On my way there, I had to tackle so many turns, ride along the narrow roads, pass through the sleeping policemen, and endure it for almost an hour. In the end, as I saw the shape of Puri Indah, my mind went boggle and couldn't wait to reach the parking lot for motorcycles. If you make your trip to this mall using a car, you might face no problems as you could just take the toll roads, with motorcycles however... well.

WHAT'S IN STORE?

The underground floor is comprised of 80% parking lot and 20% stores. In fact, these stores are all electronic / gadget stores where you can buy stuffs related to gadgets / computers, such as USB and wireless mice, keyboards, laptops, laptop fans, speakers, and much more. Going up, the ground floor comprises of mostly, if not all, fashion stores (we're talking clothes store here), a coffee lounge whose brand you should know if you've gone there once or more, and several eateries outside the mall, where the eateries on the ground floor, exactly outside the mall, are given a "cafe" feel thanks to the bushes across. The first floor is pretty much the same except there are less clothes stores but in return there are a good sum of accessories store, a bookstore, and such.

To your right is the entrance to the underground floor

Finally on the top (third) floor, you can find a food court with lots of brand-name eateries, local or international, to tickle your tastebuds, and the food court is adjacent with the mall's Fun World game center. It can be considered as one of the biggest Fun World centers due to its rollercoaster and fun fair-like playgrounds. But our focus isn't that; While its Fun World center is all glitz and glamour in terms of arcade centers, having a rollercoaster and all that fun fair element you can stumble onto, all its glitters aren't gold. Its XXI cinema, however, puts one thing that crazed Indonesian arcade enthusiasts...

THE FIRST PLACE WHERE MAXIMUM TUNE 4 CABS LANDED

ALL HAIL MAXIMUM TUNE 4 BITCHESSS!!! (Image courtesy of Matthew N)

If you have read one of my previous blog posts before, Puri Indah Mall's XXI is the first location to have a set of Maximum Tune 4 cabs complete with Wangan Terminal (wait, isn't it a standard that each set of 4 cabs comes with Wangan Terminal?) and have it activated the next couple of days. Lots of MaxTune enthusiasts who are able to reach this mall would die to play games for their progression to quench their MT thirsts.

Prior to this posting, there are now eight cabs in the Puri XXI, and this is to anticipate the long queue. As for 3DX+ cabs, there were 12 cabs in XXI and four in Fun World, but that isn't enough to beat Pondok Indah Mall's record of 18 cabs (4 in Fun World, 4 in Timezone, 6 in XXI PIM1, and 4 in XXI PIM2). Unsurprisingly, both Pondok Indah and Puri Indah have same initials, so we know which one should change its callname: PurIndah. Well, the first five letters sounded like a cat's name, but it's for the sake of unique names. As MT4 cabinet sets are added until there are three sets of them (meaning that they now have 12 cabs there), there's a good reason why PurIndah's XXI played an elimination game with some of its 3DX+ cabs and a less-played arcade game too to pave a way for these MT4 cabs.

(Image courtesy of Matthew N)

SOME RANDOM PICS

 

The Map of all the three floors

I thought there would be another fashion store opening here judging by the banner used. It turned out that the mall put one of Emma Watson's pictures as a banner just for fun. The second time when I went there, the Emma Watson banner was gone and replaced by a new one.

My first visit had the mall having Mini exhibition

A French brand-name supermarket can be found across the mall, unlike most malls. Though a local brand supermarket can still be found inside.

A small Starbucks outlet can be found there on the ground floor. If you want to take some sips of coffee, they welcome you.

More eateries...

TURNING IT INTO A RACE TRACK?

Usually when I posted an "Inside The Mall" article and it involves a mall potential enough to be it, I port it to a certain game called GeneRally to signify that I visited the mall and am willing to commemorate it in a form of a race track. Here, PurIndah's circuit form is characterized as a fast, semi-technical course with 45-degree and 90-degree corners around the ground floor, and two outside sections. If you split the course section from the coffee stall (don't split the S/F section though), you will notice that this part looks like Sentul International Circuit run counter-clockwise, only with a chicane. Three long straights inside the mall (with the last one being the true high speed section due to high speed corners) are perfect places to maximize your slipstreaming technique and / or even overtaking your rivals here.

This track's construction was started in a very long time, exactly after my first visit, but, screenshot-wise, ditched due to myriads of WIPs in my mind. At the moment, it looks anything but pretty, but when I have time, I would love to remake this course and refine its object placings, like where should the tall buildings be placed WITHOUT having them to block the cars. At the same time I also thought about making more configurations where the course would also have upper (where you drive straight and go right past the coffee stall instead of crossing the third long straight, which could cross as a counter-clockwise Sentul) and lower (still counter-clockwise, but this time the S / F placing would be different than the upper and GP configs), but having such thought, I realized that I should care about how narrow the course would look if those configurations are made, and how horrible the pitstop access would be (the pitstop access is already horrible and needs a proper makeover), so I might stick to the original configuration for that matter.

USEFUL LINKS
Puri Indah Mall's Wikipedia article (in Indonesian)
PurIn's Official Site

~[R]