Baz Attrill marks his 50th Bathurst 1000 visit at Smarty's Circus

Baz Attrill, 78, is marking his 50th visit to the Bathurst 1000. A Sydney Morning Herald report describes his family's Smarty's Circus camp at Mount Panorama, which he first established in 1976.

The camp is hosting 42 adults and five children for this race weekend. As cars circulate on the track, Baz, his son Warren Attrill and Damien Teal prepare a pig on a spit, an eight-hour cooking process.

An old windscreen-wiper mechanism from a Holden Commodore VP turns the spit. Baz bought it at the local tip while travelling from Warrnambool. Warren says the device has been used for the camp's pork roast for eight years and previously served a neighbouring camp too.

Smarty's Circus takes its name from a blue-and-white striped circus tent. Some furnishings are more than half a century old, but the gathering has changed as regular visitors' children and grandchildren have joined them.

For Baz, the trip is an annual holiday in which company and cooking matter at least as much as the race. The camp also remembers friends who have died. Visitors unfold an empty chair for a man known as Eagle, who died three years ago after attending only one fewer race than Baz.

The official Supercars schedule confirms that the Bathurst 1000 weekend runs at Mount Panorama from October 8 to 11. This report focuses on spectators' traditions rather than the race's final result.