Top 10 things to do on "Bathurst" weekend

If you're married to a motorsports enthusiast (like I am), you'll know what I'm talking about. For those that don't know, Bathurst is a small country town in New South Wales, Australia (population approx 34,000). Once a year, "it comes alive" with a car race. It's Australia's version of of the Daytona 500.

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Not just any car race. A race between Holden and Ford (that is General Motors and Ford), the two most popular automobile brands in Australia.

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People (or should I say a lot of men and a few women and kids), camp out for a week or find suitable accommodation in town and watch these cars drive around and around Mount Panorama for 161 laps (1000 kilmetres or 620 miles) or they watch it live on TV. This means forget about getting anything more than a "WHOOOOOAAAAAA" or a "ugg" or a "grunt" out of your man for the day.

If you're looking for something to do other than putting up with that, check out these ideas.

1. Go shopping
2. Go to the movies
3. Visit friends or relatives
4. Go the the beach
5. Take the kids to the park (or the dogs or yourself)
6. Work in the garden (or that might be too close to hear the cheering and yelling)
7. Drive to the country
8. Grab a good book or magazine and go to the coffee shop (without kids of course)
9. Take the laptop to McDonalds and let the kids go wild on the playground equipment
10. Visit another country.

There was a time when I would be up first thing on the Sunday morning, race day, preparing copious amounts of party and barbecue food, making sure drinks were cold and partying hard like the rest of them. These days it's just another day but not for my husband. It's the one day of the year where "history is made", "records are broken", "heroes are made" and any other cliche you can think of.

Check out the V8 Supercars for coverage options, just so you know when to plan your escape.

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Go Craig Lowndes and Team Vodafone (Holden). (Oops, did I say that?)