The History of the Bathurst 12 Hour

3 2019 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Contents LIQUI-MOLY BATHURST 12 HOUR JAN 31 - FEB 3, 2019 EDITORS: Daniel Herrero Contents Mat Coch 04 Meet the 2019 contenders 11 The history of the Bathurst 12 Hour CONTRIBUTORS: 15 Tale of 2018 Tom Howard 16 Results from Bathurst 12 Hour 2018 MEET THE CONTENDERS Brett Murray The key players of this year’s race 19 Previous Bathurst 12 Hour winners 04 Slade Perrins 20 A lap of Mount Panorama 23 By the numbers DESIGN: Justin Murray 24 Bathurst dream team to take on GT elite Rachel Cherry 27 Balance of Performance explained 29 In-car warning system TALE OF 2018 Audi claims third victory in red-flagged race SALES/MARKETING: 30 Changing of the guard 15 Justin Murray 32 Walkenhorst’s redemption 35 TV times PARTNERS: 36 Habul returns to the scene of his ARMOR ALL boyhood dream realised Castrol EDGE 38 2019 entry list Mercedes-Benz 40 Team profiles Michelin 49 Support line-up PIRTEK 50 Introducing the AMG GT4 DREAM TEAM! Preston Hire 52 Track schedule Supercheap Auto TRIPLE EIGHT TRIO JOIN TyrePlus 23 FORCES TO TAKE ON THE MOUNTAIN Superstars ready to climb the mountain again his year’s Bathurst 12 Hour is, on paper, the most At Porsche, Matt Campbell has a chance to show his talent in a enthralling in its almost decade-long GT3 era. factory entry, having impressed so much in a privately-entered 911 in the last two years, while the Ferrari 488, Nissan GT-R T While the entry list is skinnier than in past years, and Aston Martin Vantage make their returns to Bathurst. the number of Pro class entries is up slightly on 2018, and the rollcall of teams and drivers screams ‘quality’. Even the Pro-Am ranks, which bring the number of distinct GT3 models in the race to a neat 10, boast a former Bathurst 12 The megastar combination, at least in the eyes of the local Hour winner. crowd, is that of Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen, and Jamie Whincup, in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by Supercars Ironically, the wealth of talent that has assembled in 2019 powerhouse Triple Eight Race Engineering in partnership with numbers only six past winners in Australia’s international well-credentialled Australian GT outfit Scott Taylor Motorsport. enduro, meaning that we could well see new faces writing their names into Mount Panorama’s rich, 80-year history. Audi is also stacked with talent across its pair of factory representatives, including last year’s provisional pole-sitter Make no mistake, this is a race that has already developed a Kelvin van der Linde and three-time Supercheap Auto Bathurst proud history all of its own. The men and women that take it 1000 winner Garth Tander. on know what the prize is, and how much it means to all those who seek it. BMW fired several shots last year but ultimately came up short, and we eagerly anticipate what impact Walkenhorst and To win the Bathurst 12 Hour means beating some of the very Schnitzer will have in 2019. best sportscar teams in the world, at one of the very best race tracks in the world. Bentley ventures Down Under with its new Continentals for the first time, and the big British cars are surely due better fortune Who will it be this year? We’re about to find out. Daniel Herrero than last time around. Speedcafe.com Journalist mercedes-benz.com.au 4 MEET THE 2019 CONTENDERS Mercedes-AMG Car: Mercedes-AMG GT3 Teams: Team Vodafone/Triple Eight, The Bend Motorsport Park/Erebus Motorsport, SunEnergy1 Racing/Scott Taylor Motorsport, Craft-Bamboo Racing/Black Falcon, Nineteen Corp Black Falcon, GruppeM Racing A Mercedes-AMG GT3 has never won the Bathurst 12 Hour, Pro-Am class (with Whincup at the wheel). but with six entries to its name spread across Pro and Pro- Am classes in 2019 it stands a very real chance of changing Craft Bamboo/Black Falcon has a fearsome all-Pro entry with that fact. Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and DTM champ Gary Paffett while GruppeM Racing are similarly strong with Maxi Buhk, Maxi Goetz, Among these are local favourites Craig Lowndes, Jamie and Raffaele Marciello. Whincup, and Shane van Gisbergen, the Triple Eight Supercars drivers united for the first time in a single entry – The final entry is for local racer Mark Griffith, who has highly all three have won the race on at least one occasion before. credentialed racers Yelmer Buurman and Christina Nielsen alongside him in another Pro-Am entry. They’ll be run out of the Scott Taylor Motorsport garage, as will the Erebus entry of David Reynolds, Luke Youlden, and The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a strong all round car, and has won Yasser Shahin. The third car in that shed is the SunEnergy1 a number of the world’s biggest races and championships, entry of Kenny Habul, Tristan Vautier, and Thomas Jaeger, including the Australian Endurance Championship for the last two which last year finished on the outright podium and won the years. 2019 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Meet the Contenders 5 MEET THE 2019 CONTENDERS Audi BMW Car: R8 LMS GT3 Car: M6 GT3 Teams: Audi Sport Team Valvoline, Hallmarc, Audi Sport Teams: Walkenhorst Motorsport, BMW Team Schnitzer Team MPC, Matt Stone Racing/Aussie Driver Search Supremely fast in the early stages of last year’s race, the There are fewer Audis on the grid this year than last, but the quality Bathurst 12 Hour ultimately ended in disappointment for the runs deep throughout. German marque 12 months ago. The two Audi Sport Team Valvoline entries boast incredible depth Chaz Mostert starred but was involved in a mid-race tangle that with Audi factory drivers Christopher Mies, Christopher Haase, and ultimately ended the day for his car. Mostert returns with BMW Markus Winkelhock among the favourites. Team Schnitzer – a powerhouse squad for the Bavarian brand. Augusto Farfus and Martin Tomczyk will join him in the team’s Mies set the outright Bathurst lap record late last year, though that single entry. was when the team took all the Balance of Performance measures off his car and let the German run rampant across the Mountain. Another BMW M6 GT3 will be steered by Christian Krognes, Its performance won’t be that strong in the race, but it’ll certainly Nick Catsburg, and Mikkel Jensen and while it doesn’t have the be front running. star power, the Walkenhorst Motorsport entry should still be a factor as the big Beemer tends to suit the Mount Panorama Garth Tander shares the sister car with Kelvin van der Linde, who is circuit. incredibly fast but also erratic, and Frederic Vervisch. Three Pro-Am entries see two BTCC champs pair up with Pete Storey; Matt Neal making his Bathurst return after nearly two decades and Gordon Shedden joining the fray. Ferrari Car: 488 GT3 Elsewhere, Supercars youngster Todd Hazelwood and Pirtek Teams: HubAuto Corsa, Spirit of Race/AF Corse Enduro Cup co-driver David Russell will share with Roger Lago, who has ditched the Lamborghini for an Audi R8 LMS GT3, while Marc Ferrari has claimed honours at Bathurst with its 488 when Cini will race with Lee Holdsworth and Dean Fiore as he did a year driven by Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, together with ago. Toni Vilander, in 2017. However that car, entered by Maranello Motorsport, is not racing this year and instead the Prancing Horse is relying on entries out of Asia to represent it. Of them, the HubAuto Corsa entry of Nick Foster, Tim Slade, and Nick Percat looks strongest. Both Foster and Slade campaigned for the team in the 2018 Blancpain GT Series Asia, while Nick Percat has had multiple GT3 outings, though never before in a Ferrari 488. The other entry, for Spirit of Race, will see ex-F1 racer Pedro Lamy with Mathias Lauda, son of Mercedes F1’s Niki Lauda, partner with Paul Dalla Lana, an accomplished gentleman driver. mercedes-benz.com.au 6 McLaren Porsche Car: 650S GT3 Team: Objective Racing Car: 911 GT3 R Teams: Porsche Motorsport/EBM, Black Swan Racing, It’s the swansong event for the McLaren 650S GT3 with just Competition Motorsports/McElrea Racing a sole example of the machine which three years ago claimed victory at the Mountain set to compete. Though not racing himself, Earl Bamber has sent two cars under his Earl Bamber Motorsport umbrella with a trio of accomplished The 650S GT3 will be replaced this year by the all-new 720S drivers in both. GT3, and as a result interest in running the older spec car has been comparatively weak. World Endurance Champion Romain Dumas heads the first car with Sven Müller and Mathieu Jaminet, while Dirk Werner, Dennis Olsen, and Australian Porsche superstar Matt Campbell are in the sister Tony Walls will be joined by Warren Luff once more, while GT car. Academy driver Andrew Watson steps into the car as the third driver – last year it had been Jaxon Evans though he’s since been McElrea Racing will sport a car for Competition Motorsports, with snapped up as a star of the future by Porsche. David Calvert-Jones, Kevin Estre and the latest Porsche junior Jaxon Evans filling its ranks in what will be a Pro-Am entry. The final Regarded as one of the fastest GT3 cars ever produced, the Porsche 911 GT3 R is the Pro-Am entry of Black Swan Racing with 650S GT3 was always somewhat of a beast – incredibly fast Tim Pappas, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Marc Lieb in a four-pronged but needed to be pushed to the very limit to extract that attack for Porsche that spans Pro and Pro-Am classes.

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