The 2015 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hours mark another set of steps forward for this very young race to join the list of global endurance racing ‘classics’.
It has several royal cards in its hand of course:
The place, Mount Panorama is, hands down, one of the most iconic, extraordinarily unique, and challenging racing circuits in the world.
The adoption of GT3 rules for the principal classes untapped a now vast global market of teams, drivers and cars ready, and increasingly willing, to make the trip.
An increasingly healthy national GT scene gives the grid a strong backbone.
Timing that gives the race a great possibility of good weather but doesn’t clash with the US, Asian or European seasons.
A media deal that sees the entire 12 hour race on Aussie terrestrial TV, plus live streaming, and live internet radio too (with the RLM crew of course), and an event organising team that simply ‘gets it’.
With all of that said the event would underwhelm if, to crowbar a phrase in, they build it, and nobody comes’.
Happily 53 teams have!
And more than half are listed in the premier Class A for GT3 machinery, 29 cars, spread across Pro-AM (11) and AM (18) subclasses. Add into the mix 11 Porsche Cup cars, a trio of GT4s and a pair of Invitation classes for an interesting mix of Touring and Endurance tin tops and there’s the required mix of separate races and the additional challenge and spectacle of traffic.
Amongst the drivers there is huge depth provided by the massed ranks of the Aussie GT family plus a galaxy of visiting stars including factory men from Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Nissan and Porsche.
There are race and Championship winners aplenty too including a current GT WEC World Champion (Toni Vilander), a trio of overall Le Mans 24 Hours winners (Messrs Brabham, Ortelli & Smith) and no fewer than five men with F1 experience on their cvs.
Oh and there are no fewer than seven previous winning drivers here, two double winners (Messrs O’Young and Mies) and one three time winner (John Bowe).
Class A
It’s tempting to preview these two sub-classes together, they use the same blend of GT3 machinery, and both classes have some very recognisable names aboard. In Pro-am the driver squad must include at least one Silver ranked driver, in AM at least two.
The 29 GT3 cars cover nine different marques, a great mix, with a significant new player joining the fray for the first time:
Aston Martin
There are a trio of the sonorous and pretty Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3s entered by two different teams.
Craft Bamboo Racing have a pair of cars on parade, one each in either sub-class.
The #97 Pro-Am car lists three men who featured in the AMR FIA WEC attack in 2014, Stefan Mucke a firm part of the long-term Aston Martin attack alongside a pair of men who featured in the Craft Bamboo AMR #99 GTE Pro car last year. Darryl O’Young and Alex MacDowall made great progress through the season. Will we see evidence of that progress here this weekend?
The team’s Am class entered #99 car features team regular Frank Yu, regular gentleman sportscar race Jean-Marc Merlin and Jonathan Venter, the 18 year old ex Aussie Formula Ford racer back at Bathurst after action in Aussie GTs, GT Asia and Asian Le Mans series last season.
The third Aston Martin is a second Am class entry, the #52 car entered under the compareinsurance.au banner by UK based Motionsport.
The Simon Phillips owned team are regulars here but have stepped up to Class A with an ex MP Motorsport Aston Martin (also bound for the ELMS) for team regulars Pete Storey and Ben Gower, the pair joined by BTCC star Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden who will no doubt be looking forward to adding to his not yet substantial GT racing cv.
Audi
Audi and Ferrari tie on seven cars each as the most numerically dominant marques in Class A.
Audi will be looking to wrest back the title from the Prancing Horse after last year and the four rings field a pair of Pro-Am R8 LMS Ultras and a further five in the Am class.
The crack Phoenix racing team mount the Pro-Am attack with a pair of R8s in special ‘Aussie’ liveries.
The #16 ‘Crocodile’ car fields Marco Mapelli, Laurens Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock after a late change forced by Rene Rast’s graduation to the Audi LMP1 programme. The crew certainly has prospects of being one of THE front-runners, pace in depth in a fast and reliable package from a team with winning form here.
The sister #15 ‘Kangaroo’ car is similarly strongly crewed: ‘Jump from Space’ record setter (but no longer world record holder’ Felix Baumgartner is the Silver ranked man alongside Christopher Haase and the evergreen Stephane Ortelli.
In the Am class there are several crews to watch amongst the five Audis entered.
The #2 Fitzgerald Racing car is an all Australian crew of Peter Fitzgerald, who shared a Toyota Supra to the win at the first running of this race in 1991, Aussie Carrera Cup racer Michael Almond and ex A1GP, Indy Lights and Porsche Supercup star Matt Halliday.
The #5 Skwirk backed car fields car owner, 2014 Aussie GT class Champ and 2 time winner here (in 2008 and 2009) Rod Salmon alongside ex A1GP team member and regular Aussie Gt racer Nathan Antunes and British GT racing superstar Oliver Gavin, Ollie G looking to deliver more gains the form he showed last season in a Rotek Racing effort (in this same 2010 built car – now updated to 2014 spec !) that showed well before mechanical trouble intervened.
Two time Bathurst 12 hours winner Christopher Mies joins the #9 Halmarc/ Network Clothing car alongside Mark Cini, the man with the most starts ever in Porsche Carrera Cup Australia and 2011 Australian GT Champ Mark Eddy.
The pair of Melbourne based Jamec Pem backed Audis both feature familiar names too:
Young Brit Alessandro Latif joins the #74 car alongside 2012 Bathurst 1000kms podium sitter and pro stunt driver Warren Luff and Greg Crick 3rd place finisher here last year in a car which all but killed hm through carbon monoxide poisoning and heat exhaustion whilst James Winslow races alongside the owner of the two cars Steve McLaughlin and Dean Koutsoumidis (who drove with Winslow in the Aussie GT Championship last year) in the team’s #75 R8 LMS ultra.
Bentley
Bentley are the new boys in 2015 and there are three of the big banger Continental GT3s on the grid.
The factory backed Bentley Team M-Sport field a pair of cars in Pro-Am with plenty of talent aboard, the #10 car features 2003 Le Mans winner (for Bentley of curse) Guy Smith, who is joined by fellow returning Bentley Boy Steven Kane and the no doubt utterly delighted addition of Silver ranked Matt Bell.
The #11 car meanwhile features some new additions to the Bentley family, Andy Soucek and Maximilian Buhk joined by Silver machine Harold Primat.
Both crews are very capable of producing speed and consistency. If the Bentley proves to be well suited to the Mount Panorama circuit then these two cars could well be a threat.
There’s an Am class car too, the #8 Continental GT3 entered under the Flying B Motorsport banner, the car prepped and handled by Mark Coffey’s highly effective (and successful) Melbourne based Maranello Motorsport outfit.
Car owner Peter Edwards understandably races his new baby and he’s joined by a pair of true Aussie racing icons, 23 time Bathurst 1000 starter (and twice winner in that race and this race) John Bowe and F1, sportscar and general superstar David Brabham. This is a feel good effort and it deserves success, but it’s early days for the team with the car in racing trim. A fast and reliable run though could see the car feature at least in class contention.
Ferrari
Seven Ferraris too, and again there’s a mix of Pro-Am and Am runners.
There’s a pair of Pro-Am cars:
GT Asia front runners Clearwater Racing bring their eye catching #33 458 Italia to the Mountain for car owner Mok Weng Sun and a pair of very fast Pro’s Matt Griffin and 2014 FIA WEC GT Drivers Champion Toni Vilander. This is a car that needs to be taken VERY seriously.
So too does the other Pro-Am car, this the #88 car of defending race winners Maranello Motorsport, this another squad affected by the effective ban from V8 Supercars on allowing their drivers to take part.
Mark Coffey though has brought together an intriguing squad for his 2015 campaign, ex Ferrari F1 pilot Mika Salo headlines, joined aboard the 458 by ex Stig, 007 stand in, Ascari, RML, Ram Racing and Krohn Racing man (amongst others) Ben Collins. Tony D’Alberto completes the line-up and again this might be a car to watch.
Sadly on arrival at Bathurst we heard that the #3 AF Corse car is a withdrawal after money man Pier Guiseppe Perazzini was called in for surgery for a slipped disc, ironically Pierguiseppe is an orthopaedic surgeon.
And so there are now four Am cars.
The #27 TFM Ferrari Motorsport NZ car for Kiwi third generation racer Jono Lester, John McIntyre and multiple karting champion Graeme Smyth.
The #29 Pirelli sponsored Trofeo Motorsport car is a stunner in matt black and yellow for team owner, Corvette importer and customiser Jim Manolios, saloon and GT racer Ryan Miller and ex F1 man Ivan Capelli.
The #49 Vicious Rumour Racing 458 also features ex F1 talent, Andrew Montermini joins the team together with Benny Simonsen, Making his debut at the track that his late brother loved so much, and Aussie GT race winner Renato Loberto.
Finally there’s the surviving AF Corse Ferrari, the #77 car currently listing 2014 full season Aussie Steve Wyatt and Michele Rugolo with a third driver still listed as a TBA this morning.
Lamborghini
A pair of Lamborghini Gallardos are listed, both in Pro-AM.
Roger Lago’s #32 LP600 car is listed this year under the JBS Australia banner and will be hoping for better luck this year after Peter Kox hit trouble (in the form of a VERY large kangaroo) early in the race last year. V8 Supercar racer David Russell and V8 Supercars racewinner and Bathurst podium sitter Steve Owen are listed alongside the car owner.
The #48 Gallardo LP560-4 of Interlloy/ M Motorsport has another all-Aussie line-up Silver rated Aussie GT racer Justin McMillan is joined by Steve Richards, son of legend Jim Richards and three times winner of the Bathurst 1000kms, the only man to win for both Holden and Ford and also winner, for Holden again, of the Bathurst 24 Hours in 2002 and Craig Baird winner here in 2007 and has 11 Porsche titles to his name across Australia and New Zealand, this is a car that COULD go very well indeed.
McLaren
There’s a return for McLaren again in 2015 after the heroics last year of Shane van Gisbergen on the Mountain, taking the fight to the race leaders.
There might be more of the same from the VIP Petfoods team as the #59 MP4/12C GT3, listed in the AM class, features not only Tony and Klark Quinn, but also the mercurial Kevin Estre – Expect this car to feature throughout the weekend!
Mercedes Benz
There’s a trio of Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 cars on the list.
Betty Klimenko’s Erebus Motorsport are another team entering cars in both subclasses, the tam have great success in this race and have been unimpressed by the V8 Supercars machinations preventing them form wielding some of their Supercars talent.
The team’s #36 Pro-Am entry though can still wield some local GT racing talent in depth with a convincing lie-up of Jack LeBrocq, Dean Canto and 2014 Aussie GT Champion Richard Muscat. This trio is likely to prove to be a challenger over the full race distance.
In the Am class the team’s #63 car has an intriguing line-up of young talent, Local talents Nathan Morcom and Simon Hodge both know what it takes to be fast around Mount Panorama, Hodge took Morcom’s outright lap record last year, both aboard F3 machinery.
Austin Cindric is younger still, the 16 year old son of Penske Racing boss Tim Cindric is a rising star. This trio may be classified as Am’s due to their limited experience, but if the team can reel in youthful exuberance there could be a real shock here.
Also in the Am class is the #7 VodkaO backed car run by Garth Walden Racing with an all Aussie crew of Dean Grant, Bathurst 24 Hours podium sitter in 2003 Ash Samadi and Max Twigg.
Nissan
There’s a single Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, a second car falling foul of the destructive fit of broadcasting pique that saw the V8 Supercars set up a directly conflicting Test weekend that required all V8 Supercar teams and drivers to attend. Nissan have made clear their irritation, but nevertheless field a car here in the AM class that ha definite prospects of success.
Alex Buncombe is a late withdrawal from the #35 car, his partner imminently expecting their first child, he’s replaced by rapid German GT Academy winner Florian Strauss, fresh from a very impressive performance at last month’s Dubai 24 Hours.
Wolfgang “Wolfie” Reip makes it a pair of GT Academy winners, the tall Belgian is likely to be quick too, another NISMO Athlete that is proving the process works in finding and developing real talent.
Katsumasa Chiyo is back after the disappointment of last year’s race which saw the high-flying GT-R eliminated after getting involved in someone else’s incident.
Porsche
There are a pair of Porsche 911 GT3-Rs on the entry, one in either sub-class.
The Pro-AM car is entered by Ice Break, their #12 car featuring an eye-catching livery and the talents of Porsche Factory man Patrick Long alongside Helicopter stunt pilot David Calvert-Jones, Long and DCJ finished on the Porsche Cup podium here last year and Kiwi Chris Pither who has class wins and podium in this ace on his cv.
The Am class car is the #51 Porsche of IMAK-KWIKMIT. Meat exporter Andrew McPherson is the car owner and is joined Bathurst boy Brad Shiels and ex single seater man Matthew Campbell who raced here last year in one of the little Fiat Abarths.
Class B, GT3 Cup
11 examples of varying vintage of Porsche’s ubiquitous 911 GT3 Cup line up in a class that will play a major part in this race, and might just see a car or two finish well up overall.
The health of the Aussie domestic racing scene is underlined by the fact that the whole class is composed of ‘locally’ based cars, ranging from a 2006 vintage car through to a 2012 spec car. There are also a pair of Cup S cars listed, this Porsche’s second stab at a GT3 spec car back in 2007/8. It shows doesn’t it how far GT3 has moved on!
Amongst the notable names that will be familiar to DSC readers are Brits Ben Barker (#4 Grove Group 997 GT3 Cup) and Devon Modell (#64 Motorsport Services 997 GT3 Cup).
The 2014 class winning Grove Group squad match Barker with 15 time Bathurst 1000 starter Luke Youlden and team owner Stephen Grove.
Below is the #14 Peter Conroy Motorsport Porsche, Conroy a multiple class winner here, Denyer the presenter of Dancing With The Stars Australia!
The pair of GT3 Endurance/ Mobil 1 One liveried Cup Porsches (#66 and #69) look neat and tidy.
Class C GT4
Just a trio of GT4s contest the race in 2015.
Tony Alford’s familiar Donut King Livery again appears, this time adorning A Lotus Exige. Alford won the 2007 Dubai 24 Hours and took class C here last year. Team-mate Peter Leehuis was a class winner at the Dubai 24 Hours this year.
The little Lotus is joined by both a Ginetta G50 and an Aston Martin Vantage GT4, the Vantage featuring ex AML Chief Test and Development man Chris Porritt, now with Tesla, in a welcome return to race action.
Invitational Class D, Production
The Bathurst 12 Hours started its journey to international awareness as a production car race and those invaluable roots are respected here with a eclectic sextet.
Almost inevitably when the words ‘endurance’ and ‘production’ appear together the initials BMW crop up. Four of the six cars in the class have that rule apply, a pair of One Series based cars (135i and M Coupe) matched by a pair of 3 Series entries, (a 335i and E46 M3).
Next up there’s a solo Audi TTRS and one of THE fan favourites of this race the unique Daytona Coupe, an Aussie built tribute to the legendary Daytona Cobra.
The car is a regular performer in the race, is unlikely to have a troubled run, but IS likely to fight to the very end to bring it home.
Invitational Class I, Non Production
This class is an interesting mix of five cars, a pair of ex-Grand Am tube-framed Mazda RX8s now resident in Australia and entered here by Bruce Henley under the Stawell Cartace banner. The Mazdas have great for in the USA, fast and reliable, but they are now ineligible in TUSCC, it’s great then to see them get a second life down under. Their relative pace in this field will be an interesting aspect here.
The cars arrived this morning in all over white.
By this evening though the cars’ weekend livery was emerging.
MARC Cars Australia enter a trio of cars, two their now familiar Focus V8s and the #91 car confirmed this week as being rebodied as a Mazda 3. All three feature meaty Ford Racing ‘crate’ V8s in bespoke tubeframed bodies, they look set to become as much a part of the global endurance racing scene as the Porsche Cup car.
The ‘I’ class boys, together with their production car mounted brethren epitomise the spirit of endurance racing, pitting themselves and their machinery agains this astounding circuit, and the clock. They are much, much more than backmarkers, their race, and the challenge they provide to the faster boys , make this much more of an event.
