Prior to European settlement, the mountain was sacred to the Wiradjuri people, who called it Wahluu — meaning "to watch over" — and used it as an initiation site for young men. Racing in the Bathurst district dates to the early 1900s using various public road circuits, including the 100.6 km Sunny Corner layout used from 1926 to 1930. Construction of the Mount Panorama circuit began in mid-1936. The inaugural event, a motorcycle meeting, was held on 16 April 1938; Les Sherrin won the first race, the Junior Tourist Trophy, aboard a Norton. The first car race, the 1938 Australian Grand Prix, was held two days later and won by Peter Whitehead in an ERA.
The track features a 174 m vertical difference between its highest and lowest points, with gradients as steep as 1-in-6. From the start-finish line on Pit Straight the lap is broadly divided into three sections: the climb from Hell Corner up Mountain Straight to Griffins Bend; the narrow, technical mountain plateau crossing through the Cutting, Quarry Corner, Reid Park, Sulman Park, and McPhillamy Park; and the descent from Brock's Skyline through the Esses, Forrest's Elbow, and the long Conrod Straight back to Murray's Corner.
Key corners each carry their own history. Hell Corner takes its name from a tree stump at the apex that was thought to doom any motorcycle rider who struck it. Brock's Skyline, originally simply called Skyline, was renamed in late 1997 to honour Peter Brock, the nine-time Bathurst 1000 winner whose statue stands near the National Motor Racing Museum. The Dipper — the third of the Esses — was named for a surface dip and steep drop that once sent cars airborne, often compared to the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca. Conrod Straight, formerly Main Straight, takes its name from a con-rod failure that ended Frank Kleinig's 1939 Easter race; at 1.916 km it is the fastest section, where Supercars have approached 300 km/h.
The Chase chicane was added to Conrod Straight in 1987 to comply with FIA requirements ahead of that year's World Touring Car Championship round, which specified that no straight could exceed 1,200 m. Murray's Corner, the final turn before the pit straight, was renamed from Pit Corner after Bill Murray crashed his Hudson there in 1946.
The Bathurst 1000 has been held at Mount Panorama since 1963, continuing an event that began in 1960 at Phillip Island. It ran as a 500-mile race until 1972, adopting the 1000 km format from 1973. The race embodies the Ford versus Holden rivalry that dominated Australian motorsport for decades, with drivers such as Allan Moffat, Peter Brock, Dick Johnson, and Craig Lowndes becoming synonymous with the circuit.
The Australian Grand Prix was held at the circuit four times — in 1938, 1947, 1952, and 1958. The track also hosted a round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship and has held Australian Touring Car Championship sprint rounds on several occasions, including a 1972 round considered among the greatest in championship history for the battle between Ian Geoghegan's Ford Falcon and Allan Moffat's Ford Mustang.
The Bathurst 12 Hour has been a fixture since returning in 2007 and became part of the inaugural Intercontinental GT Challenge in 2016, bringing GT3 machinery from global manufacturers to the mountain.
As of April 2026, the official lap record is 1:59.2910, set by Christopher Mies at the 2018 Challenge Bathurst event in an unrestricted Audi R8 LMS. The fastest race lap is a 1:59.8375 set by James Golding during the 2021 Bathurst 1000. Jenson Button unofficially lapped in 1:48.88 in a McLaren MP4-23 Formula One car during a demonstration for the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.
Shane van Gisbergen reached 300.5 km/h on Conrod Straight during a pre-race session for the 2023 Bathurst 1000. Kevin Bartlett set the first 100 mph lap at the Easter meeting in 1967, receiving 25 bottles of champagne for the achievement.
The circuit's public-road nature and extreme gradient have contributed to a number of fatal accidents over its history. Six of the seven car racing deaths on the circuit occurred on Conrod Straight. Notable incidents include Dick Johnson's retirement in 1980 after hitting a rock pushed onto the track from the spectator area at Quarry Corner — a crash that prompted a public appeal which helped revive his career — and the 1994 death of Don Watson at the Chase during qualifying after a brake disc failure left him without brakes. The 1981 James Hardie 1000 was stopped on lap 120 after a crash at McPhillamy Park blocked the track, handing victory to Dick Johnson and John French.
Chaz Mostert suffered severe leg and wrist injuries during qualifying for the 2015 Bathurst 1000 in an accident through the lower Esses. Denny Hulme, the 1967 Formula One World Champion, died of a heart attack at the wheel of his BMW M3 during the 1992 Tooheys 1000.
Mount Panorama is registered as an FIA Grade 3 circuit and stands as one of the most celebrated venues in world motorsport. Its combination of extreme topography, public-road character, and decades of legendary competition have established it as Australia's most iconic racing circuit and one of the sport's great pilgrimage sites.