There were remarkable scenes at Mount Panorama last Thursday as the Supercars field patiently waited to take part in its second practice session.
Initially there was delay due to a huge oil spill from a Mazda RX-7 that expired during the Heritage Touring Cars session.
And then, right as track action was set to resume, the session was delayed again… thanks to a “wildlife issue”.
As TV cameras quickly revealed, the wildlife issue was a sizeable Eastern Brown Snake that had been woken from its slumber and made its way onto the race track.
Wanting to guarantee the safety of both the snake itself and anybody trackside, race control delayed the session – and called on its very own snake charmer, Greg Saunders.
He is the man that was seen on TVs around the world bravely scooping the snake into a bag before jumping the wall and allowing track action to continue.
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Saunders is the little-known wildlife handler that, effectively by chance, is on hand at most major events at Mount Panorama.
He professionally trained when it comes to handling animals and just happens to also be an eight-year fire marshal volunteer.
“Obviously there’s been a few issues with animals at Bathurst over the years with snakes and echidnas,” he told Speedcafe.
“I’ve been part of the fire marshal team for years and at some point I told Motorsport Australia what my background is, and asked if I should start bringing my gear with me.”
This may not be the first time Saunders has sprung into action with his handling gear, but it is by far the most prominent.
So how did it all play out?
“I was in race control and there was a message on the radio that there was a snake on the track,” he explained.
“When it came up on the TV I thought, yep that’s a big brown snake – and an angry one at that. The clerk of course told me to get moving so we flew down the stairs, across the top of the pit building, jumped in the course car and off we went.”
According to Saunders it was a mostly straightforward retrieval, given the snake was clearly distressed and wanted the safety of the bag he was carrying.
“The snake was out in the open and would have been quite scared and looking for a dark, safe place to go. And the bag looked dark and safe,” he said.
“We don’t know where he had come from, but it’s likely that the vibrations from the cars going past would have woken him up, wherever he was, and he would have realised he wasn’t safe and wanted to find somewhere to go.
“Once I was there I gave him that option.”
When asked if he was scared, Saunders said: “It becomes second nature, but you’ve got to be wary as well. Particularly when they get nervous and start jumping around, because they really just want to get away from people.
“So you’ve got that to contend with, and all of the other environmental aspects as well.”
And by environmental factors, he means the crowd that was cheering him on.
“I wasn’t feeling any pressure from the TV cameras, but I certainly was from the 400-odd people that were watching and cheering me on from the hill,” he said.
“They’d had one or 15 adult beverages by that time, so it was quite entertaining. But it was a big snake, I reckon it was four-and-a-half feet long.”
As per wildlife rules the snake was released within 20 kilometres of where it was found, in an area with significant amounts of shelter, water and food.
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