The Big Gun Racing Team of Peter Burnitt, Brad Patton, Ryal Harris and Greg Willis are pumped and ready for their assault on the most famous motor racing circuit in the southern hemisphere this weekend.

The four pristine V8 Utes are locked and loaded and the team flies into Sydney early Wednesday morning in readiness for another epic assault on ‘the Mountain’.

“You can’t really even say the word Bathurst without getting goose-bumps,” says VIP Petfoods XR8 pilot Brad Patton, “it’s just a place that demands respect and demands 100% of your attention. It’s hard not to love the place.”

Patton’s Big Gun Principal partner and father in-law (and driver of the CNW Electrical XR8 Falcon) Peter Burnitt agrees.

“It’s a special place, there’s no doubt. We all have memories of watching the 1000 on television and it commands your full attention even in that capacity, but when you drive through the tunnel and up into the pit compound when you’re there as a racer, that’s something else entirely. It’s one of the obvious racing highlights each year for me in the V8 Ute Series.”

Only Juice XR8 Falcon driver Greg “Freddy” Willis makes another return to Mount Panorama in his stunning black and orange Ford and the former remote control yacht racing world champion admits there’s nothing quite like ‘sailing’ down Conrod Straight at 300kph.

The fourth and youngest member of the Big Gun line-up is explosive Queenslander Ryal Harris – the driver of the #58 VIP Petfoods XR8 Falcon.

Harris was on fire at the last round of the 2011 V8 Ute Series held at Townsville and he’s looking to carry that hot form into the assault on Bathurst.
“It’s a pretty surreal feeling when you drive into the town of Bathurst and you look up and see those big white letters “Mount Panorama”. You can’t help but be affected in some way when you realise it’s time. I can’t begin to describe that feeling.”

It’s been a typically busy build up to this event for the Big Gun boys, with an exhaustive drive-rides day for their corporate sponsors at Queensland Raceway only weeks ago.

“We put over 200 of our sponsors, customers and friends through a huge day of rides at QR,” explains Big Gun Team Manager Joe De Vries, “I don’t know that it’s the best way to prepare for Bathurst mechanically but it does allow us to iron any bugs out over a big day of constant track time. I’m hoping it works for us not against us. We can certainly say that our drivers are tuned in can’t we!”