Reasoning for the shootout change
The format for the traditional one-lap-dash for the top 10 was significantly revised, being changed to two 15 minute sessions featuring 5 cars in each; the bottom half of the top 10 (from 6th to 10th) first, then the top half of the top 10 in the second session.
The change came as a result of concerns about tyre temperature due to cool ambient and track conditions as well as not permitting tyre warmers for this weekend. In qualifying today, it took 2-3 laps before the tyres were in the desired operating window, and with a few red flag interruptions, meant that some cars didn’t set a representative lap.
In a media release, event organisers detailed that 15 minutes should allow drivers to bring the tyre into the desired temperature range, and achieve at least one flying lap.
And history will show that the revised shootout was just as exciting!
Records fall in the Shootout
The Shootout sessions saw a few interesting records broken and set, under the setting sun on Saturday.
Chaz Mostert becomes the first driver to win the Allan Simonsen Pole Award twice, and the first to win Pole at Bathurst with two different marques; he won pole for BMW M-Power in 2018.
His pole for Audi moves the Four Rings into the outright lead of pole positions at the 12 Hour with 4. Previous pole positions for Audi were Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff, and Mark Eddy in 2011 and Christopher Mies, Darryl O’Young, and Christer Jöns 2012, using a combined three-driver aggregate, and Laurens Vanthoor in 2015 in a standard 20 minute session.
The gap between Mostert and Kelvin van der Linde was only 0.0858s at the line, making it the second smallest gap for pole in the event’s history. The smallest gap, between Maro Engel’s Erebus Motorsport Mercedes and Mika Salo’s Marranello Motorsport Ferrari in 2014, was only 0.0835s.
The fate of the #47 Audi
After yesterday’s shunt for Theo Koundouris at the top of the mountain, the #47 Supabarn Audi team were forced to source a replacement chassis. Theo hit the wall on the exit of Reid Park during FP3, after a moment of oversteer pitched the car hard into the concrete.
After FP4, it was confirmed that the team would need a replacement chassis, with Melbourne Performance Centre freighting a car from Melbourne overnight. When DSC dropped into the #47 Supabarn pits this morning, the garage was a hive of activity. The car had arrived at approximately 6am, and with an on-site conversion from Evo I to Evo II spec required, the crew were already hard at work.
Checking in with the team before qually saw the car warming up and getting ready for the session. James Koundouris mentioning that while the car wasn’t 100% ready, it was good enough to send out to do some laps, with qualifying being treated as a ‘shakedown’ for the team. An incredible effort from the team to get that car out on track!
More Mercedes Trouble
The Craft Bamboo Mercedes AMG was a notable absence from the paddock on Saturday morning, with reports filtering through that the car was in down at a local workshop, undergoing an engine change. The car missed practice 5 and practice 6 while off site, with team manager Darryl O’Young shedding some light on the situation.
“We just detected some irregularities in the data. It’s kind of 50/50, we opted to make the change.
“We’re in a local town shop because we needed a hoist. It’s much more efficient for us to get a hoist, we drop the engine and gearbox together.”
The spare engine was an AMG engine that was already on site, however the magnitude of the task meant the car missed qualifying and will start at the back of the field.
Rumours around the paddock was that the car had a run in with the local wildlife in Friday’s night practice as well.
“It happened, coming through Forrest Elbow. We’re very lucky, it came out of nowhere, it jumped, just at the tie that Maro came, skimmed the bonnet and then hit the roof and the front bar. If we hit the Kangaroo on the corner, we would have been in the wall.”
The team seemed in good spirits despite the setbacks!
A rebuild for the #17 BRM Racing Audi
Mark Rossler collected the wall during the FP5 session this morning in the dipper, parking the car on the way down the esses. What was initially reported as ‘light contact’ later was clarified to ‘tried to climb the wall’, with the car undergoing significant surgery throughout the day.
Ultimately a chassis change wasn’t required, but the team just missed getting the car out for qualifying. The Audi was fired up on the pit lane during Q2, but failed to pull away, a clutch drama bringing the car back into the garage, and then the red flag bringing the session to a premature close.
While the team has missed significant running, they should be ready for the race tomorrow!
A part delivered by helicopter!
After Stephen Grove’s lose at Metal Grate in FP6, the #4 Grove Motorsport Porsche diagnosed damage to the rear of the car that required parts not on-hand at the circuit.
With mostly minor cosmetic damage, a bend in one of the Rear Wing staves required a replacement. The team located a spare stave in Wollongong, approximately 3 hours by car from Bathurst, and retrieved the stave via a helicopter trip!
The part was delivered via helicopter, but not in time for the start of Qualifying; Stephen Grove and Ben Barker ‘surviving’ the pair of qualifying sessions with the damaged wing stave and progressing through to the shootout.
The part has been installed and is ready to go for the shootoout.
A Quality Field
Despite the smaller entry count and lack of international teams, the field for the Bathurst 12 Hour still has significant quality within.
There are three overall winners racing this weekend – reigning champion Jules Gounon (2020), Shane Van Gisbergen (2016), and Craig Lowndes (2014, 2017) – as well as 20 class winners, in the Bathurst 12 Hour in both the production and GT3 eras. The 23 class-winning drivers are spread across 14 entries, with the #9 Hallmarc Audi, #11 Our Kloud-UpTo11 Motorsport Porsche, #24 C-Tech Laser Audi, #74 Audisport Team Valvoline Audi, the #91 Craft Bamboo Mercedes, and the #95 MARC Cars Australia cars not being driven by someone who has taken class honours.
Stephen Grove currently holds the most class victories of the current field with 5, a record for class wins he shares with Mark Brame, who won Production Class A each year from 1991 to 1995, driving a Suzuki Swift. Stephen Grove has shared two of those class wins with son Brenton, and co-driver Ben Barker, who are once again combining for this weekend’s race. They are the only combination where all drivers in the team have a class victory.
An interesting anomaly is a win in Class A Pro-Am for Markus Winkelhock in 2015. The APA class was the top class of the 2015 race, but a series of late safety cars saw the leading #15 Phoenix Racing Audi, that had lead much of the race, back to the field. A frantic last 10 minutes saw Kasumasa Chiyo in the #35 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 overhaul the Audi and win the race, taking an overall victory in a car running in the Am category. Second place is Winkelhock’s best overall finish in the 12 Hour thus far, with this edition being his 8th attempt.
Thanks to David Greenhaugh for his contribution to this story.
Some Shootout Records under threat
In the GT3 era, two manufacturers have been tied for the number of Pole Positions, with both Audi (2011, 2012, 2015) and Mercedes (2013, 2014, 2019) tied with three pole positions each coming in to this weekend.
With Audi and Mercedes dominating the entry list this weekend, it is almost certain that either marque will earn Pole position, and stand alone with the most poles at The Mountain.
Ricardo Feller and Broc Feeney has a chance to break a Bathurst 12 Hour Shootout record, to become the youngest Pole sitter in the event’s history, should either qualify on pole today. The record is currently held by Christopher Mies, who, in 2012, won pole aged 22 years, 277 days. Feller is aged 21 years and 347 days, while Feeney is aged 19 years and 139 days.
Thanks again to David Greenhaugh!
There’s local, and then there’s local
With a larger focus on the Australian motorsport community on this year’s entry list, there has been a discussion on how the ‘local’ talent will make up the event.
But while, in an international sense, ‘local’ has referred to Australian based drivers, for two of the drivers on the grid, ‘local’ is about as close as you can get!
Brad Schumacher, at the seat of the #74 Audisport Team Valvoline R8, resides just off the race track at Hell Corner, while Grant Denyer, in the #6 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan, lives on the other side of Conrod Straight.
Schumacher topped Practice 2 on Friday, for Am drivers only, and his car topped the day with Kelvin van der Linde setting the first 2:03 of the weekend.
“I think it’s anybody’s dream experience, to get the call up into a factory team, and for me Audi is the team I’d like to do it with.” Schumacher commented after Day 1. “I’m soaking it all in and taking this experience on board, and looking to grow myself as a driver working with Audi and all of the amazing people in the team and all of the amazing drivers that I’m standing alongside.
“There’s definitely a bucketload of experience between these two cars and the timesheets today show exactly that. We’ve been at the top of each session regardless of who’s in the car, and these guys that Audi have sent over, they’re in these cars day in and day out – it’s second nature for them.
“I went fastest this morning in Practice for the Am class… it builds the team with confidence to see the Am driver settling quite comfortably and going quite fast.
“We’re leaving the day on a high.”
Denyer is sharing Am duties in the #6 with Adrian Deitz, and is competing in his third12 Hour in GT3 machinery, and his 9th participation overall.
“Any day you get to turn the steering wheel around Mount Panorama is the greatest day of your life!” Denyer said. “I’ve been passionate about this event ever since I was a kid – to drive it is unreal.
“For me, it was the first racing event I ever went to. I was a little kid, I got to see my heroes… it really lit the fire in my belly.
“It’s such a delicious piece of tar and to do 12 hours around it is a real privilege. The fact that some of the best manufacturers of the best cars and the best drivers in the world all amalgamate to come into the one race is, it’s heaven! It’s nirvana, it’s the pinnacle.”
Denyer has experience in the 12 hour in production car machinery, taking an overall podium behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer in 2008, as well as the MARC cars where he took a class win in 2014. Last month he took a class victory in the Bathurst 6 Hour, driving a Mustang Mach 1.
“The Lancer was really good fun! You had to nurse the car a little bit more. These GT3’s, no matter how hard you punish them, they’ll take it.
“Probably driving a Production car [in the 6 hour] didn’t help to be honest, because it teaches a whole heap of bad habits you have to untrain for a GT3. The speed difference is so massive.
“I’m coming with a bit of confidence after a good result but these things are off the chain crazy fast!”
Invitational class under the radar
The Invitational class this weekend is looking like a fascinating undercard to the overall event, with the competition between the two MARC II V8’s and the M-Motorsport KTM X-Bow GT2 looking to be a close event.
The invitational class runs to a 2:06.000 index time, with penalties for lapping underneath that lap time. Ahead of the race, all three cars have lapped in the 2:06’s. The #50 KTM at the hands of Dale and Glenn Wood, the #52 MARC V8 in the hands of Zane Morse, and the #95 MARC V8 with Declan Fraser behind the wheel.
Clearly, the cars are capable of some serious pace, but it appears the Am drivers in each cars are also well matched.
DSC caught up with a beaming David Crampton, driver of the #50 M-Motorsport KTM X-Bow, after FP6.
“The car has been fantastic – it hasn’t missed a beat since we got here. It’s performing outstanding.”
M-Motorsport formerly ran a KTM X-Bow GT4 in the 12 Hour. The GT2 has been a big increase in performance.
“It’s a totally different car. The first practice session we were doing 281 down [Conrod] Straight. In the GT4 we were 250 at maximum. It’s a lot more.
“I haven’t been focussing on the competition, we’ve just been focussing on what we’re doing, same as the rest of the guys. We’ll wait and see what happens in the race.
“Today I felt the most comfortable, and I was having fun, going quicker, so I’m happy!”
