Matt Campbell, Ayhancan Guven, and Laurens Vanthoor have won the 2024 edition of the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour with a dominant performance in tricky conditions aboard the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R 992.
The car was unstoppable in the wet conditions during the middle part of the race, with Campbell and Guven overcoming a drive-through penalty through outright pace in the wet.
“That feels awesome!” said Campbell after the race. “Hats off to everyone at Manthey EMA Racing. We were always running up the front.
“To Larry and Ayhancan, they did a fantastic job… The second win [for Campbell and Porsche], it’s unreal.”
Campbell had a comfortable 13-second gap coming out of the final pit stops as the track finally dried out enough for slicks. But a late safety car to recover the #701 Vortex 1.0 at Griffin’s Bend bunched the top eight back together.
From the restart though, Campbell pulled away, gapping Jules Gounon in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes by two seconds at the end of the first lap. Gounon held the gap and started making inroads, before getting baulked by traffic heading down the mountain with just over a quarter of an hour left.
Disaster for Gounon’s charge to Campbell, but now the field from 2-6 is bunched! Who will push for a podium finish???
Tune in on Foxtel, Kayo and Seven. International fans can tune in to our live stream here: https://t.co/lwiycgXOJn#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/2U5XHncXcx
— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 18, 2024
Christopher Haase steered the #22 Wash-It Audi onto the podium, pouncing on a failed move by Jaxon Evans in the #13 Phantom Team75 Bernhard Porsche, to muscle past the Porsche on the main straight.
Just when you thought things were all done and dusted.
The Mountain always delivers…
Tune in on Foxtel, Kayo and Seven. International fans can tune in to our live stream here: https://t.co/lwiycgXOJn#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/lqW2EKBTPl
— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 18, 2024
Just off the podium was Evans, followed by Maxime Martin in the #46 WRT BMW, who were all in the mix for a top-three finish at the end of the race.
Pro-Am went down to the final stanza as well, with Alessio Picariello passing a wounded Jamie Whincup in the final stint to put the #911 Shell V-Power/The Bend Porsche, with co-drivers Yasser Shahin and Harry King.
Ross Gunn in the #27 Heart Of Racing Mercedes also managed to pass Whincup’s #88 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes, but it was a story of what could have been for the Heart Of Racing Team. A penalty at the final Safety Car Restart destroyed what could have been a victory.
Silver Cup went the way of the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini of Adrian Deitz, David Wall, Grant Denyer and Tony D’Alberto, who kept their noses clean on a difficult day, winning the class by three laps.
GT4 went to the #19 Nineteen Corp Mercedes of Mark Griffith, Daniel Bilski, and Adam Christodoulou, while the Invitational class was a story of who was delayed the least, going to the #20 Localsearch T2 MARC IRC GT team of Adam Hargraves, Daniel Jilesen, and Cedric Sbirazzouli.
It has been an incredible start of the year for Porsche, backing up their overall win at the Daytona 24 Hour with another endurance classic at Bathurst.
More to follow…
