After topping Practice 6 and then Qualifying, Cameron Waters put together a commanding display in the Pirelli Pole Battle ahead of tomorrow’s Bathurst 12 Hour.
Waters set a 2:01.0790, the second fastest qualifying lap ever at Mount Panorama, to take pole position, and the Allan Simonsen Pole Award for the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG team.
“It’s unbelievable to get pole here and to win the Allan Simonsen Trophy,” Waters said post-session. “Allan was an amazing bloke, I met him a few times, so to do that was super special.
“I can’t thank the team enough, they’ve done an amazing job. Really, through practice, they tuned it up. Having Baz [Barry Ryan, Engineer], and Chaz [Mostert] and putting all our supercar experience together has really tuned the car up, and it’s been a dream to drive.”
The pole position marks Mercedes-AMG’s sixth Pole Position at The Bathurst 12 Hour, and now the two fastest laps, with Waters’ lap second only to Engel’s 2023 Pole time on the Bathurst 12 Hour lap records.
It was a Mercedes-AMG 1-2-3 as well; Waters led the #77 Craft Bamboo Mercedes of Lucas Auer, who once again only set the two fast laps, finishing with a 2:01.256 to be only 0.17 of a second behind. Third was the 75 Express AMG GT3 EVO of Luca Stolz, who was the first to set a proper fast lap, finishing with a 2:01.29.
Third, and first of the non-Mercedes cars, was the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche of Matt Campbell, with a 2:01.3, then Haase put the #55 Jamec Racing Audi into fifth.
Marco Mapelli put the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini into sixth, as the leading Pro-Am car on the grid, setting Lamborghini’s fastest ever lap around ‘The Mountain’ in the process – a 2:01.74. He was followed by Raffaele Marciello’s #46 WRT BMW, then the leading Pro-Am car: the #44 Geyer Valmont Mercedes, driven by Scott Andrews.
Broc Feeney put the #64 Team HRT Ford Mustang into ninth, while the top 10 was rounded out by the #6 Tigani Motorsport AMG.
Cameron Waters’ pole position is the first for an Australian driver since Mostert’s 2022 effort, and puts Mercedes-AMG well in front in the all-time Pole Position records, now with six.
It’s also the first time a brand has gone back-to-back with pole positions since Mercedes in 2013/14, where Lee Holdsworth and Maro Engel respectively took pole positions for the silver arrows.
Race start for the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge opener is 5:45 am local time (AEDT, UTC +11) tomorrow.
Images courtesy of Andrew Hall
