Bathurst's Nicholas Cox is the Number 2 mechanic for Tickford Racing

Thankfully, due to the length of the Great Race, the born and bred Bathurst boy, who now works as the Number 2 mechanic for Tickford, has a bit more time up his sleeve.

After attending Denison College - Bathurst High Campus, Mr Cox went on to study motorsport.

This decision would end up changing his life forever.

"I went to Bathurst TAFE, doing the Motorsport course, then I did team placement with Tickford ... and then I must have done something right and they kept asking for me back," Mr Cox said.

Now, at 21 years old, he has the opportunity to travel Australia and other parts of the world, alongside the racing team, and driver Declan Fraser.

And for the Bathurst 1000, the team will also be joined Tyler Everingham.

Though he works behind the scenes, Mr Cox is vital to the success of the Tickford Supercar.

"I service the car for all the rounds and I do all the pit stops up at the track, and all the patch work and setting up the garages and loading the truck, pretty much everything," he said.

And with being responsible for so many facets of the racing circuit, comes a very fast-paced working environment.

"I think I lose about five kilos every race weekend," Mr Cox said.

"It's very high pressure, especially when you're in pit lane and you're waiting for the car to come in to do a pit stop in like three seconds."

For longer races, such as the Bathurst 1000, these stops can take up to one minute, because refuelling is performed at the same time.

But within this one minute, Mr Cox is also responsible for performing brake changes.

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"This race we actually have to change brakes and calipers, which will be like 600 degrees celcius, and you just have to rip them off and put them on the ground and fit the new one," Mr Cox said.

"So we have three layers of gloves on, but even then you only get about two seconds before getting burnt."

The average race day at Mount Panorama for Mr Cox begins at approximately 6.00am, to ensure everything is running smoothly.

The car is warmed up, and quickly tested before any race events.

"Then we have some last minute set-up changes, like a spring change, or a caster change," Mr Cox

"After the set-up change, we have the warm up, and if everything goes to plan, it's good, and you can relax a bit before the race.

"But last year we actually had a crash during the warm-up, so we had to fix that and we only just made it out with ten minutes to go."

Mr Cox is now based in Melbourne, and plans to keep working in the industry for a while yet.

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