Anton de Pasquale

He stayed out there.

And of course this year was, you know, Anton De Pasquale.

Larco, the commentator, knew 15 laps before he was gonna run out of fuel, and yet Burgess, the team bloke-

Yep

... sorry.

If you didn't know, uh, Anton De Pasquale was leading the last lap, uh, last, uh, few laps of the Bathurst 1000 after 150-odd laps.

I think the safety car came out with five laps to go.

Chaz Mostert put his car into the wall up the top of the mountain.

If, if, if you didn- sorry.

If you didn't know, uh, Anton de Pasquale was leading the last lap, uh, last, uh, few laps of the Bathurst 1000 after 150 odd laps.

I think the safety car came out with five laps to go.

Chaz Mostert put his car into the wall up the top of the mountain.

Green running until only moments ago when we got a safety car.

Anton De Pasquale is-

That's not Skaife, by the way

... lead-

Um, you know, we could...

You know, scanning the radio, I was listening to what team 18 was saying to Anton and what Anton was saying back, and you can certainly hear there was desperation in the voice before the safety car.

So we sort of thought, "Well, with the safety car, that might have saved them." We, you know, to be honest, as we started the last lap of the race, I, a little part of me died inside going, "Damn, we're gonna, we're gonna lose this race," you know? We've, we've come so close, but we're gonna be P2.

And, um, that was my thoughts as we went into turn one, um, to start that last lap and sort of the last little back shot of the car of Anton going up the hill, up, up Mount Straight, you could sort...

I sort of thought to myself, "Is that car slowing or not?" I couldn't really tell.

Mm.

[upbeat music] Wow, what a win there for Todd Hazelwood as well as Brodie Kostecki, this year's winners of the Bathurst 1000.

I don't think a Hollywood scriptwriter could've scripted something as dramatic as what we saw in the final few laps of this year's great race.

Here.

Uh, with a few laps to go, Anton De Pasquale was leading the Great Race, and they spoke to his team in the garage.

Very happy with those fuel numbers?

Oh, the fuel's not a problem.

Brodie Kostecki goes through to the race lead on the final lap-

Oh

... and Anton De Pasquale has run out of fuel.

Oh.

And it just proved the adage that it ain't over till it's over.

But if there were any keen political observers among the two hundred odd thousand spectators, I reckon in those final dramatic moments, as Anton De Pasquale's car literally ran out of gas, they would have seen not just a cruel final twist in a grueling hundred and sixty-one lap race, but perhaps a metaphor of Australia's national story as we slowly also slide back into the pack and watch the innovative and the brave roar past and toward the checkered flag.

You see, in the global race for economic and industrial supremacy We, that is the Australian people, might well be driving that car as hard as ever before.

But we're being let down by a political pit crew who've run out of ideas to boost the productivity of the engine, let alone the overall performance of the entire vehicle.

And it just proved the adage that it ain't over till it's over.

But if there were any keen political observers among the two hundred odd thousand spectators, I reckon in those final dramatic moments, as Anton De Pasquale's car literally ran out of gas, they would have seen not just a cruel final twist in a grueling hundred and sixty-one lap race, but perhaps a metaphor of Australia's national story as we slowly also slide back into the pack and watch the innovative and the brave roar past and toward the checkered flag.

You see, in the global race for economic and industrial supremacy, we, that is the Australian people, might well be driving that car as hard as ever before.

But we're being let down by a political pit crew who've run out of ideas to boost the productivity of the engine, let alone the overall performance of the entire vehicle.