Bathurst 12 Hour Form Guide by Speedcafe

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Contents

Editors: Dan Herrero Mat Coch Tom Howard Contributors: Tom Howard Brett Murray Design: Justin Murray Rachel Cherry Sales/Marketing: Justin Murray

Contents 04 Meet the 2018 contenders 09 The history of the Bathurst 12 Hour 13 Tale of 2017 - Whincup vs van Gisbergen as tempers fray 14 Results from Bathurst 12 Hour 2017 17 Previous Bathurst 12 Hour winners 18 Bathurst circuit guide 20 A lap of Mount Panorama 23 By the numbers 24 GT racing, on a budget 27 Balance of Performance explained 28 Habul: full of energy 30 Strakka attack 33 TV times 34 Bathurst 12 Hour 2018 entry list 47 Support categories lineuop 48 Schedule of events

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LIQUI-MOLY BATHURST 12 HOUR FEBRUARY 2 - 4, 2018

MEET THE CONTENDERS The key players of this year’s race

TALE OF 2017

Whincup vs van Gisbergen as tempers fray

STRAKKA ATTACK!

LE MANS WINNERS PRIMED FOR MAIDEN BATHURST VOYAGE

Another chapter to be written at Mount Panorama

The Bathurst 12 Hour continues to grow from strength to strength and 2018 is set to be no exception when one of the best-credentialed fields ever takes on Mount Panorama.

Entering its eighth year as a GT3 race, the 12 Hour is already developing a rich history to place alongside its more established cousin, the Bathurst 1000. Just last year, Craig Lowndes was taken out under Safety Car but survived, Toni Vilander drove that stint, and Shane van Gisbergen laid it all on the line.

Dan Herrero

Speedcafe.com Journalist

That brings us to 2018. Van Gisbergen is back in a McLaren, just as he was two years ago when he broke lap records on his way to victory By his side, his legendary Supercars team-mate Craig Lowndes, and a handy Frenchman by the name of Come Ledogar, backed by the highly professional McElrea Racing operation. A prime opportunity for redemption.

In fact, ‘The Giz’ was central to plenty of big moments in 2017, including a high-risk battle with a man who is usually in his camp, Jamie Whincup.

Another 2016 winner, Alvaro Parente, has jumped ship with Strakka to campaign a Mercedes-AMG GT3. His co-drivers, Maxi Buhk and Maxi Gotz, may have never won at Bathurst but they have won the 24 Hours of Spa. Watch out for them. Team WRT and Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia will represent Audi, each of which bring some extremely talented driver line-ups.

Then things really exploded, first on the track – twice – and then in the pits. Maro Engel’s pain at his co-driver crashing out of the race was plain for all to see. That’s what the 12 Hour means.

Famous BMW squad Team Schnitzer has made the trip, while Manthey-Racing and Craft Bamboo spearhead the Porsche challenge.

It was also the year that Matt Campbell gave the world its first glimpse of what he was capable of. Could he help Competition Motorsports go one better this time around and pull off a big upset?

Outside the Pro ranks, are Lamborghinis, Ginettas, KTMs, Dodges, and MARC Cars.

Why not? This is Bathurst.

There’s so much to like about the 12 Hour, but the best part is that we’re just about to do it all over again…

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MEET THE 2018

Mercedes-AMG Car: Teams:

GT3 Strakka Racing, SunEnergy1 Racing, Scott Taylor Motorsport and Nineteen Corp

The Mercedes-AMG GT3 has carried on where its predecessor left off, with one notable exception; it is yet to win the Bathurst 12 Hour. Released in 2016 and scoring its first race win at Albert Park, five of the eight-cylinder beasts will tackle this year’s 12 Hour across two classes. Sporting the same thumping V8 as the SLS, the MercedesAMG GT3 has maintained the famous, grumbling engine note. Strong under brakes, balanced through the corners and no slouch down the straights, it’s one of the best allround cars on the grid. Strakka Racing has made the long journey from the UK for its first appearance at the Mountain. Having switched to the German marque since the end of last season, the team is finding its feet with the new machines, but boasts former race winner Alvaro Parente among its driving talent.

Parente will share with the two Maxs, Buhk and Gotz, in the all-Pro entry while Strakkas second car will see team boss Nick Leventis joined by Lewis Williamson, David Fumanelli and Sandown 500 race winner Cam Waters. Regarded by Mercedes as the leading team in the region, Scott Taylor Motorsport will run two cars, though its name appears on only that of Max Twigg, Craig Baird and Tony D’Alberto in the Pro-Am Class. The second car is the SunEnergy1 Racing entry, which has recruited part of last year’s race winning team in Jamie Whincup, alongside Kenny Habul, Tristan Vautier and Mercedes factory ace Raffaele Marciello. The final Mercedes is that of Mark Griffith, who has linked up with fellow Australian GT drivers John Martin and Liam Talbot, and welcomed back David Reynolds for his second appearance with the team.

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Meet the Contenders

CONTENDERS BMW

Car: M6 GT3 Teams: BMW Team SRM, BMW Team Schnitzer A brace of teams from BMW pose a threat at the top end of the Pro class, with entries from Australia and Germany on the grid.

Audi

Car: R8 LMS GT3 Teams: Jamec Pem Racing, Audi Sport WRT, International Motorsport and Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia Twice victorious at the iconic Mount Panorama, Audi claimed the honours in both 2011 and 2012 and is tied with Ferrari for the winningest marque since the event’s switch to GT3 regulations in 2011. A member of both winning Audi teams, Christopher Mies returns this year with Jamec Pem Racing, where he’ll be joined by fellow factory drivers Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock. The second Jamec Pem Audi sees former Supercars champ Garth Tander alongside Australian GT winner Kelvin van der Linde and Belgian Frederic Vervisch. Only Tander has prior experience at Bathurst, though van der Linde has won the Nurburgring 24 Hours. The only other all-Pro Audi belongs to Team WRT, which has made the voyage from Europe for the event. Their lead car will be piloted by former F1 tester Robin Frijns, Dries Vanthoor and Stuart Leonard.

A force in Europe, the M6 GT3 is yet to show its full potential on Australian soil, though we got an idea when all three cars entered last year appeared in the Top 10 Shootout. Representing Australia is Richards’ BMW Team SRM outfit, making its second appearance at the 12 Hour this year. Having banked a year with the car racing in the Australian GT Championship in 2016, Richards recruited his 2013 Bathurst 1000 winning co-driver in Mark Winterbottom to join the team, with factory driver Marco Wittmann rounding out the trio which finished 14th. This year Timo Glock joins Richards, having last year partnered Russell Ingall, Mark Skaife and Tony Longhurst in the second BMW Team SRM entry, with Philipp Eng completing the driving roster. Meanwhile Wittman has joined BMW Team Schnitzer as the German sqaud makes its first appearance at the Mountain. Experienced Brazilian Augusto Farfus is a familiar face at the team, which also welcomes Chaz Mostert, who last year competed in a MARC GT run M6 GT3, a performance which has led to a promising GT career alongside his Supercars commitments.

The second Team WRT car is the Pro-Am entry steered by Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda, son for three-time F1 champ Niki, Pedro Lamy and Will Davison, the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner was a late addition to the team. Lee Holdsworth rejoins Marc Cini and Dean Fiore in an Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia Pro-Am entry. In Am Class, Australian GT regular Ash Samadi has young hot-shot Dylan O’Keeffe in his camp along with the highly rated Daniel Gaunt. Rounding out the Australian entries are the Koundouris brothers of James and Theo, who welcome back Ash Walsh and Duvashen Padayachee. The final Audi in the field is that of Andrew Bagnall, Matt Halliday and Jonny Reid, a trio of Kiwis in a team with half a century of racing experience, and an almost brand-new Audi R8 LMS, who will compete for Pro-Am honours.

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McLaren

Car: 650S GT3 Teams: YNA Autosport, Objective Racing Set to be replaced by the 720S GT3 for the 2019 season, the 650S GT3 is running out of chances to repeat the success it enjoyed at Bathurst in 2016, where it scored both a recordsetting pole and the race win. Having led the charge in 2016, Shane van Gisbergen has returned from a stint at Mercedes to join YNA Autosport alongside Craig Lowndes and Come Ledogar. It will be Lowndes’ first appearance in a McLaren, having claimed his two 12 Hour wins with Ferrari power, while Ledogar claimed the Blancpain Endurance Series title with van Gisbergen when the pair raced together in Europe in 2016. YNA’s all-Pro assault is backed up by an equally strong Pro-Am lineup, headlined by Scott McLaughlin. The New Zealander will make just his second appearance at the 12 Hour, and the first in a Class A car. He joins Australian GT race winner Fraser Ross, Alexander West, and Englishman Andrew Watson, who have both competed extensively with McLaren in Europe. The third McLaren entry is that of Tony Walls, who has once more recruited Warren Luff and Tim Slade, with the addition of rising star Jaxon Evans.

Porsche Car: 911 GT3-R Team: Manthey-Racing, Craft Bamboo Racing, Competition Motorsports, Black Swan Racing Porsche is the established giant of sportscar racing, with the 911 a stalwart of the sport stretching back to the early 1980s. However, it has never succeeded in Australia’s largest sportscar event. Last year Competition Motorsports raced their way to second overall, an incredible feat from a Pro-Am entry, with three of its four drivers returning in 2018. Aussie Porsche star Matt Campbell rejoins David Calvert-Jones and Patrick Long, while Marc Lieb has been replaced by Alex Davison for this year’s event. Lieb has jumped ship to another American squad, Black Swan Racing, where he’s joined Tim Pappas, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Luca Stolz in a Pro-Am entry. Looking to do the honours in the Pro class is Manthey-Racing. Two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas will share the car with Frederic Makowiecki and Dirk Werner. Craft Bamboo Racing also boasts a two-time Le Mans winner with New Zealander Earl Bamber at the wheel, sharing with Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor in the team’s first appearance at the 12 Hour since finishing third in 2015 (with an Aston Martin).

Making its Bathurst 12 Hour debut in 2014, Bentley has come within touching distance of the event on three occasions. Run by the famed M-Sport operation, the team returns with two of the iconic Bentley Continental GT3s with strong all-Pro lineups in both. In the lead car, Steven Kane and Guy Smith are now old-hands around Mount Panorama, and are joined by Frenchman Jules Gounon who is set to receive his first taste of the famous circuit.

Bentley Car: Continental GT3 Team: M-Sport

Kane and Smith ran fourth in the 2015 event, having led with two laps remaining, while the duo last year partnered Oliver Jarvis to a second successive podium after claiming third in both 2016 and 2017. The lineup in the team’s second car remains unchanged, with Andy Soucek, Maxime Soulet, and Vincent Abril looking to improve on last year’s 12th place finish.

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Meet the Contenders

Lamborghini Car: Huracan GT3, R-EX, Gallardo GT3 Team: Trofeo Motorsport, Lago Racing, Buik Motorworks, Safe-T-Stop The famous Italian marque will be targeting Pro-Am victory in this year’s race, with three cars in the class representing its two most recent GT3 machines. Trofeo Motorsport will sport the race’s only Huracan GT3 in the hands of ex-Ferrari F1 driver Ivan Capelli, Supercars co-driver Dean Canto, Australian GT race winner Ryan Millier, and team boss Jim Manolios. Sharing much of its running gear with the Audi R8 LMS, the Huracan should be strong across the top of the Mountain,

though has historically struggled in a straight line. The opposite is true for the older generation R-EX, which was the last developed by Reiter Engineering before the GT3 project came back under the control of Lamborghini itself. Roger Lago, David Russell and Steve Owen all have vast experience in the car, and ended last year’s race just two laps adrift of the overall race winners. Buik Motorworks also boasts an R-EX, with Yasser Shahin joined by Luke Youlden and former Prost F1 driver Tomas Enge. The final Raging Bull on the grid is that of Richard Gartner, Hadrian Morrall, David Wall and 2014 race winner John Bowe. The quartet will share a Gallardo LP560, which was campaigned in the Australian GT Trophy Series in 2017 by Gartner, running in the Am class.

Best of the Rest GT4, or Class C, is set to be a fascinating battle between major marques, with solid entries for BMW, Ginetta and KTM in the tencar field. Tony Longhurst, Matt Brabham and Aaron Seton make a formidable combination in a BMW M4, but experience could pay off for Justin McMillan in the KTM X-Bow, who’s joined by Gold Star winner Tim Macrow, David Crampton, and rising sportscar racer Caitlin Wood. Of the five Class B entries, the father and son duo of Stephen and Brenton Grove always show well, and with the experienced Ben Barker they head into the race as early favourites in the all-Porsche class. Among the ten Invitational Class entries it’s hard to look beyond Jake Camilleri and Aaron Cameron, alongside the extremely well credentialed Morgan Haber who spearhead the MARC Cars’ challenge against two Daytona Sportscars.

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2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | The history of the Bathurst 12 Hour

The history of the Bathurst 12 Hour T

he Bathurst 12 Hour first sprang to life in 1991 with Allan Grice, Peter Fitzgerald, and Nigel Arkell guiding a Toyota Supra turbo to victory.

Manufacturer interest gathered momentum following the initial staging of the event with Mazda putting in a concerted effort that reaped wins with a factory backed RX-7 rotary winning from 1992 to 1995. Due to rising costs, the promoter was forced to retreat from holding the race at Mount Panorama with the race running at Eastern Creek in 1995, won by Dick Johnson and John Bowe, before it was discontinued the following year. While the future of reviving the 12 Hour remained in limbo, the idea of an endurance race saw the staging of the Ross Palmer-run 24 Hour races which were held for two years; 2002 and 2003. Both instalments were won by the all-conquering Holden Monaros built and prepared by Garry Rogers Motorsport. The 12 Hour for production cars bounced back in 2007 when it was part of the Bathurst Motor Festival before moving away from that event from 2009. Moves to introduce GT3 specifications into the race were made in 2011, before another shot in the arm when an all-pro subclass within Class A was introduced last year, making the event an even greater drawcard for international squads.

GT3 Era

2011: Team Joest Conquers the Mountain The Team Joest Audi R8 GT3s dominated the first of a new era of Bathurst 12 Hour contests headlined by the GT3 regulations. Allowing GT3 machinery to compete for outright victory upset the production car fraternity but a modest entry of 26 cars lined up for the blast around the revered Mount Panorama circuit. It was the German Team Joest squad which shined the brightest with its two Audi R8s dominating the race, leading 223 of the 292 laps. The all-Australian R8 entry of triple Supercar champion Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy pipped the Christopher Mies, Marc Basseng, and Darryl O’Young sister car to pole position by just 0.3s. Following an intriguing tactical battle between the cars it was Mies/Basseng/O’Young which prevailed with a margin of 0.7s over team-mates Lowndes/Luff/Eddy. The Porsche GT3-R of Tony Quinn, Klark Quinn and Craig Baird secured the final place on the podium despite being a lap behind the Audi’s after losing ground under a Safety Car.

This year there are set to be 28 GT3 cars, including 13 Pro and 12 Pro-Am entries, taking on Mount Panorama.

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2012: Audi triumphs again with Phoenix Racing

2013: Mercedes become the mountain masters

The Bathurst 12 Hour was once again an Audi affair when Phoenix Racing took out the 2012 edition of the growing endurance classic.

An all-star German line up of Touring Car legend Bernd Schneider, GT ace Thomas Jager and Alexander Roloff helped Australia’s Erebus Motorsport win the 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour.

The squad were one of three new international crews, who flocked to the race alongside the British United Autosports entry and the renowned Black Falcon Mercedes SLS team.

The race continued to grow on the international stage receiving a record entry of 53 cars. The field included a couple of familiar faces from Formula 1 with Mika Salo and Ivan Capelli joining the Maranello Motorsport and Trofeo Motorsport entries.

The race also welcomed the Australian Mercedes SLS crew from Erebus Motorsport. After starting from pole position, the #1 Phoenix Racing Audi of 2011 winners Mies, O’Young and German debutant Christer Jons led the majority of the contest of which eight of the 12 hours were held in wet weather. The tricky conditions provided a high attrition rate with just three Class A cars reaching the finish. The previous year’s runners-up Lowndes, Luff and Eddy were one of the casualties when their race unravelled after seven hours. A spin on the entry to the pits and a penalty saw the #2 Phoenix Audi lose four laps before Eddy crashed at the top of the mountain, ending their race prematurely. The lead Phoenix entry suffered its own drama in Hour 7 when Mies spun into the gravel trap at Murray’s Corner. Luckily, he was able to recover and resume the lead of the race. In the end Mies/O’Young/Jons came through to take the victory by 1:13s from Erebus Motorsport’s Jeroen Bleekemolen, Peter Hackett, Tim Slade and American Bret Curtis. Despite being unsuited to the conditions, the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 was third in the hands of Craig Baird, Irishman Matt Griffin and Mok Wen Sun.

The 2013 edition of the race also doubled as the Australian GT Championship season opener. However, it was the lead Erebus Mercedes SLS of Schneider, Jager and Roloff that grabbed the headlines with the trio emerging from a deluge in the final two hours of the race to take victory by a lap. It was contest full of incidents prompting a record amount of Safety Cars periods with 15 in total. A crash inside the first hour ruled out the Lago Racing Lamborghini and the VIP Petfoods Aston Martin of Tony Quinn. The Team Engstler BMW Z4 and the Maranello Ferrari of Salo, Allan Simonsen, John Bowe, and Peter Edwards also retired before the halfway point. At the front, the race developed into a battle between the two Erebus Motorsport entries with little separating the #36 and #63 cars. However steering damage to the latter with V8 Supercar driver Lee Holdsworth at the wheel ended their victory hopes, finishing the race in sixth. In the end, the lead Erebus Mercedes SLS of Schneider, Jager and Roloff took the chequered flag. Despite receiving three drive-through penalties and a mechanical black flag, Clearwater Racing finished second piloted by Baird/Griffin/Sun. The VIP Petfoods Porsche of Shane van Gisbergen/Klark Quinn/ Matt Kingsley came home in third with the latter a late replacement for Tony Quinn, who injured himself earlier in the race at the wheel of his Australian GT Aston Martin.

2014: Emotions run high as Maranello Motorsport strikes Craig Lowndes led Maranello Motorsport to an emotional vicotry in the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour

the Ferrari with the just minutes remaining, but Lowndes hung on to win by just 0.4s

Lowndes combined with co-drivers Mika Salo, John Bowe and car owner Peter Edwards to recover from two drive-through penalties to win the race.

Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen were third and fourth in the #63 Erebus Mercedes and the Quinn McLaren respectively; the top four separated by just three seconds at the finish.

The five-time Bathurst 1000 winner had to survive a Safety Car restart with 13 minutes to go that saw a 15 second lead evaporate.

It would prove an amotional tripump for Maranello Motorsport with victory arriving just months after the death of regular driver Allan Simonsen, who perished at the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours. The Dane was part of the previous year’s team, and as a mark of respect organisers renamed the pole position award in his honour”

Maxi Buhk in the HTP Mercedes raging up along the outside of

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | The history of the Bathurst 12 Hour

2015: Nismo Godzilla claims tense 12 Hour Nissan claimed a remarkable victory in the 2015 edition, surviving a Safety Car-strewn race which revisited Bathurst history. Brought home by diminutive Japanese driver Katsumasa Chiyo, the GT-R sliced its way from third position and into the lead after the restart from a 20th Safety Car period with just over four minutes remaining. GT superstar and pole-sitter Laurens Vanthoor claimed second for Phoenix Audi while Stefan Mucke finished third in the Craft Bamboo Aston Martin. It was the first win by the Japanese manufacturer since Jim Richards and Mark Skaife took a second successive Bathurst 1000 victory in the R32 Skyline GT-R in 1992. Wolfgang Reip pitted the GT-R from the lead with 1:43s remaining handing it to Florian Strauss who did a quick-fire 40-minute stint before Chiyo completed a tense final hour. The #10 Bentley almost took an against-the-odds win after being hit with two drive-through penalties and a dehydrated Matt Bell before claiming fourth. Bell’s drink bottle malfunctioned in his initial stint causing him to vomit in the car and seek medical treatment before recovering to negotiate the final stint and give team-mates Guy Smith and Steven Kane a sniff of victory. David Brabham was taken to the medical centre in a neck brace and subsequently to nearby Orange Hospital for precautionary x-rays after an incident with Stefan Mucke at The Cutting. Mucke later described the late-race incident, where he attempted to drive through a gap left by Brabham but ended up making side-to-side contact with the Flying B Bentley and putting it into the wall, as a “misunderstanding”. Reigning event winners Maranello Motorsport withdrew from the event early after suffering a car destroying crash in practice.

2016: van Gisbergen leads McLaren to victory Shane van Gisbergen, Alvaro Parente, and Jonathon Webb combined to give McLaren its first win in a major GT3 endurance race in 2016. After Portuguese Parente and Webb drove the Tekno Autosports-entered 650S for the majority of the day, van Gisbergen hopped into the cockpit with two hours remaining. Despite a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding which nearly put the McLaren off the lead lap, van Gisbergen’s sizzling pace and a strategy play put the New Zealander back into the lead with 40 minutes remaining. While Katsumasa Chiyo closed the gap in the dying stages, van Gisbergen prevented a repeat of the Japanese driver’s 2015 heroics as he eased to a 1.3s win. The day had not been without drama for the orange #59 McLaren, with van Gisbergen setting the current lap record (2:01.567s) early on before a technical problem which he described as a “heart in my mouth” moment saw Parente lose 45 seconds on the side of pit straight power cycling the car. The Chiyo/Rick Kelly/Florian Strauss Nissan GT-R took second as the big guns of Supercars joined the field following the controversial test day clash of a year earlier. The Steven Kane/Guy Smith/Matt Bell Bentley Continental rounded out the podium, while the fourth-placed Phoenix Audi of Laurens Vanthoor/Markus Winkelhock/Alex Davison also beat the previous race record of 296 laps (set in 2014) by a single lap.

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2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Tale of 2017

The tale of 2017

Whincup vs van Gisbergen as tempers fray

errari and Maranello Motorsport won the Bathurst 12 Hour for the second time in four years last year in a race which featured more star power than ever before. The race is best remembered, however, for two major Shane van Gisbergen errors and co-driver Maro Engel’s seething reaction on live television. The ultimately victorious #88 Ferrari 488 of GT3 debutant Jamie Whincup, 2014 winner Craig Lowndes, and Finnish Prancing Horse specialist Toni Vilander, battled for much of the day with the factory-backed #22 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of van Gisbergen, Engel, and Craig Baird, In the end, the race came down to a final hour showdown between Triple Eight Supercars team-mates Whincup and van Gisbergen. Whincup came in for a final service for fuel and new tyres with around an hour to go, leaving van Gisbergen with a lead of 54.4s. The Kiwi still needed to pit himself and did so with 45 minutes remaining, but the team opted to take on fuel only and the Mercedes rejoined with a five-second advantage. On fresher rubber, Whincup caught van Gisbergen within a couple of laps and managed to survive despite putting two

wheels in the dirt when the pair bumped as he tore past down Conrod Straight. The desperate defending champ would soon shunt an Am class Porsche into the wall exiting The Chase as he attempted to keep in touch with the leader, bringing about the 15th Safety Car period of the race. Stewards had no sooner issued van Gisbergen with a penalty on the restart than he lost control exiting The Dipper, slewing into the concrete and bringing car #22’s day to an end inside the final 20 minutes. Engel stormed off to his transporter before reappearing for a terse television interview. “It is not motorsport in my book. I have to be careful what I say. All I have seen is a lot mistakes by Shane. It is a tough one,” the German stated. He would later express his regret at what he agreed was a ‘heat of the moment’ comment. There had also been controversy earlier in the day when Baird made an error at a Safety Car restart early in the fourth hour and turned Lowndes around before the pair had even made the green flag.

Recovery crews admirably managed to extricate the Ferrari before it would have lost a lap, another escape for the trio after Vilander was issued a drive-through for weaving after the Safety Car lights had gone out and dropped out of the top 10. The eventual runners-up David Calvert-Jones, Patrick Long, Marc Lieb, and Matt Campbell had a similarly eventful day in the #12 Competition Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3-R. Running as a Pro-Am entry, they finished a lap adrift of the winners despite each driver incurring a pit lane penalty at some stage, three for turning around other competitors and one for pit lane speeding. The #17 M-Sport Bentley Continental of Oliver Jarvis/Steven Kane/Guy Smith rounded out the podium, ahead of the Am class #912 Walkinshaw Porsche 911 GT3-R of Liam Talbot/John Martin/Duvashen Padayachee. Fifth went to the defending race-winning entry, the #1 Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S of Alvaro Parente/Rob Bell/Come Ledogar. Another notable retirement was the highprofile #7 Castrol/Vodafone BMW M6 of Timo Glock/Russell Ingall/Tony Longhurst/ Mark Skaife; in which Ingall came to grief exiting The Esses.

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BATHURST 12 HOU Pos

Car

Competitor/Team

Drivers

Vehicle

Cap

Class Laps Fastest Lap

Maranello Motorsport

C.Lowndes/J.Whincup/ T.Vilander

Ferrari 488 GT3

3.9

APP

290

2:02908

Competition Motorsports

D.Calvert-Jones/P.Long/ M.Lieb/M.Campbell

Porsche 911 GT3 R

4.0

APA

289

2:03.873

Bentley Team M-Sport

O.Jarvis/S.Kane/G.Smith

Bentley Continental GT3

4.9

APP

289

2.04.484

912

Walkinshaw GT3

L.Talbot/J.Martin/D.Padayache

Porsche 911 GT3 R

4.0

AAM

289

2:06.337

Tekno Autosports

A.Parente/R.Bell/C.Ledogar

McLaren 650S GT3

3.8

AAP

289

2:03.369

Lago Racing

R.Lago/S.Owen/D.Russell

Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX 5.2

AAM

288

2:04.638

Team ASR

A.Smadi/D.Gaunt/M.Halliday

Audi R8 LMS

5.2

APA

288

2:04.573

Nissan Motorsport

J.Mardenborough/T.Kelly/ F.Strauss

Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3

3.8

APP

288

2:03.309

Hallmarc Developments

M.Cini/D.Fiore/L.Holdsworth

Audi R8 LMS

5.2

APA

287

2:05.832

Trofeo Motorsport

I.Capekki/J.Manolios/ R.Millier/D.Canto

Lamborghini Huracan GT3

5.2

AAM

285

2:05.832

Supabarn Supermarkets

J.Koundouris/T.Koundouris/ M.Marshall/S.Evans

Audi R8 LMS

5.2

AAM

284

2:06.968

Bentley Team M-Sport

A.Socek/M.Soulet/V.Abril

Bentley Continental GT3

4.0

APP

283

2:03.181

Jamec Pem Racing

C/Haase/C.Mies/G.Tander

Audi R8 LMS

5.2

APP

281

2:04.427

BMW Team SRM

S.Richards/M.Wittmann/ M.Winterbottom

BMW M6 GT3

4.4

APP

281

2:04.166

Steve Richards Motorsport

D.Grant/D.O’Keefe/X.West/ D.Wall

Porsche 991 GT3 Cup

3.8

274

2:11.048

Synep Racing

J.Cranston/A.Cranston/ A.Steer/J.Winslow

Porsche 991 GT3 Cup

3.8

272

2:12.645

MARC Cars Australia

W.Brown/K.Kassulke/R.Salmon

MARC Focus V8

5.0

270

2:12.223

MARC Cars Australia

M.Benton/H.Morrall/ A.Seton/G.Seton

MARC Focus V8

5.0

270

2:12.808

IKAD Racing

P.Major/J.Love/N.McBride

Porsche 997 GT3 Cup

3.6

269

2:12.938

Objective Racing

A.Davison/W.Luff/T.Slade/ T.Walls

McLaren 650S GT3

3.8

APA

268

2:04.124

MARC Cars Australia

J.Camilleri/J.Smith/R.Thomson

MARC Mazda 3 V8

5.0

267

2:12.150

SAFE_T_STOP

R.Gartner/R.Shaw/ I.Padayachee/A.Zerefos

Porsche 997 GT3 Cup

3.6

267

2:16748

PROsport Performance

M.Braams/N. Møller Madsen/ J.Viebahn/H.Jones

Porsche Cayman Pro 4

3.4

263

2:17.552

Brookspeed

A.Mason/D.Drinkwater/A.Watt

Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport

3.8

260

2:21.231

MARC Cars Australia

G.Taunton/J.Busk/B.Fullwood

MARC Focus V8

5.0

258

2.12.938

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Bathurst 12 Hour 2017 results

UR 2017 RESULTS 26

R-Motorsport

M.Lungstrass/F.Kamelger/ D.Turner

Aston Martin Vantage GT8

4.7

253

2.15.125

Brookspeed

C.Cowham/L.Kearns/A.Jarvis

Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport

3.8

249

2:19.994

RA MotorsportsGinetta

J.Parsons/S.Sano/Z.Low/ A.Read

Ginetta G55

4.7

247

2.20.504

Daytona Sports Cars

J.Augustine/D.Lillie/B.Schoots

Dodge Viper Competition Coupe

8.3

226

2:10.014

MARC Cars Australia

T.Leahey/G.McLeod/N.Rowe/ L.Tander

MARC Mazda 3 V8

5.0

218

2.13.707

Wall Racing

D.Bilski/A.Flack/C.Pither

Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3

3.8

AAM

200

2:06.560

Nissan Motorsport

A.Buncombe/K.Chiyo/M.Caruso

Nissan GT-R Nisom GT3

3.8

APP

174

2:04.032

DNF

Scott Taylor Motorsport

S.van Gisbergen/C.Baird/ M.Engel

Mercedes-AMG

6.2

APP

282

2.04.093

DNF

DJS Racing

J.Bergmuller/S.Fillmore/D.Stutt

Audi R8 LMS Ultra

5.2

AAM

272

2:10.380

DNF

HTP Motorsport

P/Dalla Lana/P.Lamy/ M.Lauda/B.Schneider

Mercedes-AMG GT3

6.2

APA

263

2:04.165

DNF

M Motorsport

J.McMillan/G.Wood/T.Enge/ R.Kofler

KTM X-Bow GT4

2.0

220

2:16.199

DNF

Donut King Racing

T.Alford/B.Lynton/J.Smith

MARC Foucs V8

5.0

217

2:14.337

DNF

AMAC Motorsport

A.Macpherson/N.Muston/ T.Miles

Porsche 911 GT3 R

3.8

AAM

210

2:07.952

DNF

Wall Racing

B.Hobson/E.Davis/F.Poordad

Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3

3.8

AAM

202

2:05.950

DNF

RA MotorsportsGinetta

T.Berryman/P/Paddon/ M.Simpson

Ginetta G55

3.7

172

2:19.128

DNF

GT Motorsport

N.Antunes/E.Barbour/G.Taylor

Audi R8 LMS

5.2

AAM

161

2:04.161

DNF

Hogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Breath Cafe

M.Griffith/D.Storey/D.Reynolds

Mercedes-AMG GT3

6.2

APA

157

2:04.331

DNF

MARC Cars Australia

C.Moster/M.Haber/M.Twigg

BMW M6 GT3

4.4

AAM

136

2:02.954

DNF

BMW Team SRM

T.Glock/R.Ingall/T.Longhurst/ M.Skaife

BMW M6 GT3

4.4

AAP

134

2:03.977

DNF

Kiwi Racing

G.Smith/K.Bell/N.Chester/ J.deVeth

Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX 5.2

AAM

133

2:14.147

DNF

On Track Motorsport

G.Mennell/B.Verryt/ S.van Bellingen

BMW 335i

3.0

111

2:29.284

DNF

Keltic Racing

K.Quinn/T.Quinn/G.Denyer/ A.Waite

McLaren 650S GT3

3.8

AAM

2:03.774

DNF

Miedecke Stone Motorsport

G.Miedecke/A.Walsh/T.Bates

Aston Martin Vantage GT3

6.0

AAM

2:03.954

DNF

911

Walkinshaw GT3

E.Bamber/E.Estre/L.Vanthoor

Porsche 911 GT3 R

4.0

APP

2:03.988

DNF

Grove Motorsport

S.Grove/B.Barker/A.Imperatori

Porsche 991 GT3 Cup

3.8

2.10.262

DNF

Jamec Pem Racing

M.Winkelhock/R.Frijns/ F.Stippler

Audi R8 LMS

5.2

APP

2:05.994

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In 2017 Michelin extended its uninterrupted winning record at Le Mans 24 Hour to 20 outright victories since 1998 When we win on the track, you win too. www.michelinmotorsport.com

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Previous Bathurst 12 Hour winners

Previous Bathurst 12 Hour winners Year

Drivers

Entrant

Car

2017

Craig Lowndes Toni Vilander Jamie Whincup

Maranello Motorsport

Ferrari 488 GT3

2016

Álvaro Parente Shane van Gisbergen Jonathon Webb

Tekno Autosports

Mclaren 650S GT3

2015

Katsumasa Chiyo Wolfgang Reip Florian Strauss

NISMO Global Athlete Team

GT-R NISMO GT3

2014

John Bowe Peter Edwards Craig Lowndes Mika Salo

Maranello Motorsport

Ferrari 458 GT3

2013

Thomas Jaeger Alexander Roloff Bernd Schneider

Erebus Motorsport

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3

2012

Christer Jons Chrsitopher Mies Darryl O’Young

Phoenix Racing

Audi R8 GT3 LMS

2011

Marc Basseng Christopher Mies Darryl O’Young

Joest Racing

Audi R8 GT3 LMS

2010

John Bowe Garry Holt Paul Morris

Eastern Creek International Karting

BMW 335i

2009

Tony Longhurst Rod Salmon Damien White

TMR Australia

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X

2008

Graham Alexander Rod Salmon Damien White

SKWIRK.com

Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX

2007

Craig Baird Garry Holt Paul Morris

Eastern Creek Karts

BMW 335i

1996 -2006

Not held

1995

John Bowe Dick Johnson *(Race held at Eastern Creek)

Mazda Motorsport

Mazda RX-7

1994

Neil Crompton Gregg Hansford

Mazda Motorsport

Mazda RX-7

1993

Alan Jones Garry Waldon

Mazda Australia

Mazda RX-7

1992

Mark Gibbs Charlie O’Brien Garry Waldon

Mazda Australia

Mazda RX-7

1991

Nigel Arkell Peter Fitzgerald Allan Grice

Toyota Supra Turbo

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BATHURST CIRCUIT

BOOST MOBILE CHASE

PORSCHE CORNER

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Bathurst circuit guide

T GUIDE ICE BREAK BRIDGE

SHANNONS DIPPER

BP ULTIMATE BRIDGE

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MEGUIARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CARS

A LAP OF MO

CIRCUIT GUIDE: Location: Bathurst, New South Wales Length: 6.213 kilometres Direction: Anti-Clockwise Fastest Point: Conrod Straight Corners: 23 (14 Left 9 Right) Qualifying Lap Record: 2:01.286s (Shane van Gisbergen, Tekno Autosports, McLaren 650S, 2016) Race Lap Record: 2:01.567s (Shane van Gisbergen, Tekno Autosports, McLaren 650S, 2016)

FORREST’S ELBOW

Named after Jack Forrest, a motorcycle racer who scraped his elbow away after dropping his bike on the corner, Forrest’s Elbow is a sharp, downhill left-hander. The exit is crucial for lap speed.

The Chase Added in 1987 when the world came to Mount Panorama for the first time for the World Touring Car Championship, The Chase sits where another crest in Conrod Straight used to be. After nearly 80 years it remains the only major circuit modification. Cars drop into the fastest corner in the nation before a hard, uphill braking zone and then another right on exit from the complex.

CONROD STRAIGHT

Conrod Straight is the longest in Australia at 1.916km, and like Mountain Straight features a considerable rise midway along. While it builds to the fastest point of the circuit, it is also a rare opportunity for drivers to relax.

MURRAY’S CORNER:

Ironically, the lap is bookended by relatively tame 90-degree corners, though Murray’s is an easy place to lock a brake as it is the second of two major stops in quick succession.

HELL CORNER:

A 90-degree left-hand turn, Hell Corner is the first of 23 bends along the track. Heavy braking is required following the slight uphill climb at the end of the main straight.

MOUNTAIN STRAIGHT:

After Hell Corner, the 1.111km Mountain Straight awaits, featuring a significant hump which is steeper to driver’s right than left. Cars reach speeds up to 250km/h.

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | A lap of Mount Panorama

OUNT PANORAMA

SKYLINE

So-named because the track drops ahead and all that is visible is sky, Skyline is the chute which marks the end of the climb.

THE ESSES

The Esses are a tricky descent where visibility of the road surface is all but non-existent, while taking too much ripple strip through the lefthander can easily unload a car into the wall. This complex is also an important braking zone, as the drop soon becomes too steep to do so.

THE DIPPER

Essentially a continuation of The Esses, The Dipper sees the track plunge into what is actually a sharper than 90-degree left-hander, where the left-front corner of the car picks up off the road surface.

REID PARK / SULMAN PARK / McPHILLAMY PARK:

The Reid Park/Sulman Park/McPhillamy Park sequence is generally regarded as driversâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; favourite section of race track in the country. A flowing right leads onto the climb up to Reid Park and a change of direction right up against a concrete wall which sucks cars in. The plunge towards the Metal Grate follows, where drivers aim at a drain right next to a wall before pulling left.

19 17 16

The crest just prior to the McPhillamy Park gates is the highest point on the circuit, 862m above sea level and a full 174m higher than the lowest point (Murrayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Corner). Here, drivers aim almost at the inside wall and let inertia carry them across to corner exit.

14 13 12

2 10

4 GRIFFINS BEND:

Named after Mayor Martin Griffin, who opened what was then known as Mount Panorama Scenic Drive in March 1938, Griffins Bend is characterised by a relatively steep braking zone into a positively cambered corner. The camber does, however, turn dangerously negative if drivers step off the racing line through the corner.

9 THE CUTTING:

The Cutting is the culmination of a narrow, double-left uphill run which requires near-perfect car placement. Overtaking is virtually impossible, while the exit is characterised by a 1:6 gradient, followed by a tricky rise after the following right-hander.

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2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | By The Numbers

By the numbers

16 51 35 09 09 07 08 290 153

Dan Herrero

Speedcafe.com Journalist

This year represents the 16th running of a 12 Hour endurance race at Mount Panorama.

There were 51 starters on the Sunday morning of last year’s race (55 cars took part in practice). Number of drivers who have won the Bathurst 12 Hour. Number of multiple winners (most recently Craig Lowndes last year). A total of nine marques have won the Bathurst 12 Hour (Toyota, Mazda, BMW, Mitsubishi, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Nissan, McLaren). There were seven different marques represented in the top eight in last year’s race. In 2013, eight different nationalities were represented by the 10 drivers on the outright podium (2 German, 2 Australians, Hongkonger, Dutchman, American, New Zealander, Irishman, Indonesian). Laps completed (1802km) by last year’s winners: Craig Lowndes, Toni Vilander, and Jamie Whincup. The race record is 296 laps/1839km (set in 2014 by John Bowe, Peter Edwards, Lowndes, and Mika Salo). The race record of 2014 therefore also represents the highest average speed, 153.15km/h. Last year’s average speed was 150.02km/h.

0.4138 2:01.567

The smallest winning margin in history is 0.4138s, when Craig Lowndes beat Maxi Buhk to the line in 2014. The lap record, set by Shane van Gisbergen in a McLaren 650S in 2016.

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GT racing, on a budget

Steven Richards gives us the inside word on the rise of GT4 Mat Coch

Speedcafe.com Journalist

his yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edition of the LiquiMoly Bathurst 12 Hour heralds the arrival of GT4 racing proper to Australia.

Though part of last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s event it boasted just a handful of cars, but in the twelve months since GT4 has experienced tremendous growth globally, with 10 entries representing four brands racing this weekend. But it begs the question; what is GT4, and where does it fit in against the mighty GT3 machinery which have dominated sportscar racing for the last decade? Following the rise in popularity of sportscar racing in recent years came a growing urge from competitors for a lower entry point. The ongoing development and sustained interest in GT3 racing saw increases not only in the level of competition but also cost, with a new car leaving little change out of a million dollars. It has also become increasingly professional,

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Feature

relegating gentlemen drivers, which have historically been the lifeblood of sportscar racing, to little more than names at the bottom of the entry list.

- the M4, it looks like the M6 inside the cabin - it looks like a race car, and yet they don’t have the mechanical issues that they do with their own modified road car.

Anticipating the change in attitudes, the Stephane Ratel Organisation, the body behind all major GT racing globally, created GT4, a class of racing designed specifically for amateur drivers while maintaining the fundamentals which have made sportscar racing popular.

“I guess what happens in domestic motor racing is everyone has, at amateur level, club level, a perception that professional motorsport is out of reach. “It’s only then when you start to have a chat

While financially and mechanically the cars might be easier to live with than a thoroughbred GT3 machine, their design also makes them easier to race. The relative lack of aerodynamics means they’re more accessible for amateur drivers, and easier to push towards the limit. “We’ve noticed in the testing that we’ve done that our amateur drivers find it a lot easier to get close to the professional drivers,” Richards

“GT4 is based around production race cars, and when I say production race cars, factory built race cars using the road car power train,” Steven Richards explains. “Let’s face it, nowadays most performance road cars come out with quite high level componentry on them that is more than capable of being able to be used in a racing environment. “If you said ‘what’s the difference between GT3 and GT4?’, the simplest description is a GT3 car is 80 percent race car, 20 percent road car. A GT4 car is 80 percent road car and 20 percent race car. “From the outside in, if someone looks at a GT4 car, they look inside, it looks like a race car. But on the exterior, dimensionally, they’re very much the road car version, or the race car version of the road car.” Though sharing a passing resemblance to their GT3 cousins, GT4 machinery more accurately reflects the road going version. It uses the same panels and cars don’t have the same aerodynamic add-ons like expensive carbon fibre front splitters, diffusers, and rear wings as GT3 machinery. Under the skin the car is also more recognisable, unlike a GT3 car which often has the engine relocated to improve handling, and complicated suspension systems designed to maximise the car’s aerodynamics. A GT4 car is far more straightforward, deliberately so. While incorporating all the safety equipment needed of a modern race car, and still boasting impressive performance in their own right, they’re a pared back racer built with the bottom line in mind. “We’ve had people in race cars that have started as modified road cars and spent a lot of money to get to a position where their cars are still three to four seconds a lap slower than a GT4 car,” Richards says. “They’re now looking at what they’ve done, they look at the GT4 car, it’s really cool inside

to these guys to tell them the running costs, and sure the initial costs of the car might be a little bit higher, but what they’ve spent in two or three years running their other car, they get that back in spades. “Our engine and our transmission are both out to 30,000 kilometres (between rebuilds),” he says of the BMW M4. “In Australia, that works out, if you did all of the Australian GT Championship, and the Bathurst 12 Hour, there’s three years of running before you need to worry about anything like that. “The cars are built to go out and do testing,” he adds. “You’re not going to put a lot of cost on your car by going out and doing four or five test days a year, or in six months, so I think where it’s attractive is for the people that want to go and up the ante and go and do a grand prix and race on all the good tracks, even to a point go and do a Bathurst Motor Festival at Easter. This is the perfect car to go and dip your toe in the water because for time poor people, that love their motor racing, it’s a car that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance between test days or events.”

reveals. “The gap between the amateur and professional is a lot less because you just don’t have to take the brave pills to go through the corners fast. The car moves a little bit, it gives plenty of communication and it therefore allows the amateur drivers to drive closer to where the professional is.” It’s a formula that has proved popular, with a host of championships springing up across the globe. Cars have begun trickling into Australia too, with a host of cars from KTM, BMW, McLaren and Aston Martin, already on our shores – and Richards expects more to follow suit. “We seem to take a little while to catch onto things in Australia, but once they do the options available to people to come and drive and purchase these cars is plentiful,” he suggests. “You can have your choice on what type of car you want, most manufacturers now that are involved in the GT arena make a car for GT4. “When BMW announced that they were building a GT4 and they put the orders in, the first 80 cars were sold within two months. So I think once Australia realises what this is about there will be plenty of interest.”

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2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Balance of Performance explained

Balance of Performance explained Mat Coch

Speedcafe.com Journalist

GT racing is a playground for the world’s automotive manufacturers and a shop window for consumers. Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Nissan and more have all embraced the GT racing concept in recent years. Keeping that in check and the sport firmly connected to its roots is the Balance of Performance, a measure by which all cars are equalised. “Balance of Performance is simple,” explains Claude Surmont, SRO’s Motorsport Technical Director. Surmont’s role, aside from ensuring all teams are playing by the rules on race weekends, is to carefully define key performance components to ensure close racing without it becoming a parity series. “In GT3 all cars are different,” he says. “There can be cars with engines in the front, back

and centre. Weights can go from 1330kg to 1220kg so you have to balance all of these cars to make sure they can produce the same performance on track and do the same lap times. “You work around the strong points of the cars which are aero, weight, power and torque. “You analyse those points and you try to make an equation where in the end everybody is doing the same lap times with a 0.3s difference at a maximum.” Surmont pores over data from every car, taken from track data, engine and dyno testing, before feeding the information into simulation software. Each car is considered both in isolation and in comparison to the rest of the field, helping to

maintain the characteristics of each. Different performance figures are applied at different circuits, with Surmont producing four variations to suit the range of circuit styles. Mount Panorama, with its two long straights blasting up and down the Mountain, is considered in the same vein as Monza and Macau. It’s a process he works through at the beginning of every season, and the result is then shared among GT categories globally from the Blancpain GT Series in Europe, to Super GT in Japan, and Australian GT. “It is a lot of work. It is not just the figures but you have to give interpretation to those figures and then you have to make a final decision on the BoP figure,” he asserts.

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Habul: Full of energy

American-based Aussie taking on the world of business, and racing hile there will be more than 20 international drivers in this year’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 hour there will be at least one ‘import’ with a bit of local flavour.

Kenny Habul arrives for his first outing at Bathurst’s famous Mount Panorama this weekend in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 he will share with Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, his regular US sportscar counterpart Tristan Vautier and Mercedes factory driver Raffaele Marciello. Habul has flown directly to Australia from Florida where he finished 28th in the Rolex Daytona 24 hour in his SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Thomas Jaeger, Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier. “Every Australian race car driver wants to compete at Mount Panorama and I cannot wait to get out there,” said Habul. “We are going there with a solid MercedesAMG team and I guess I could not ask to have a better co-driver than a seven-time Supercars champion in Jamie Whincup. “The 12 Hour has really grown in status internationally in recent years and has become a bucket-list thing for competitors around the world.”

Habul grew up on the Queensland’s Gold Coast and completed a law degree at Bond University before going into the property business with his brothers - just down the road from Scott Taylor Motorsport who are supplying the car for this year’s 12 Hour. During a semester break from Bond, Habul travelled to Melbourne and lived out of the back of his car while buying and selling everything from cars and boats to used tyres to try and give his motorsport career a shot. It was during that time that he secured a job with Peter Brock at Advantage Racing, sweeping the floors, cleaning wheels and anything that needed doing.

business world despite becoming a multimillionaire many times over at the age of just 43 - all on the other side of the world, where he has become a leader in the field of solar energy.

Habul returned to the Gold Coast where he teamed up with his brothers to start building eco-friendly homes, which allowed him to pursue his racing ambition part-time in Formula Ford, Formula 3 and the Super2 Series

Ironically, his personal profile is bigger in motorsport where he tries to satisfy his lifelong passion for racing and cars with regular starts in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the IMSA Sportscar Championship where he campaigns a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT Daytona category.

Racing was shelved for a little while before he moved to Canada in 2005 and then sparked up again when he landed in North Carolina, the home of NASCAR, a couple of years later.

His extensive personal car collection includes more 100 classic and modern vehicles, including a 30 year-old Australian-born and bred Brock Commodore as his daily commute.

Habul has flown under the radar in the

Until recently his pride and joy was one of only

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Habul: Full of energy 12 HDT VL Director Commodore road cars that were controversially launched by Peter Brock in 1987 - a decision that basically severed the long-term relationship between the Bathurst legend and Holden. That car sits in the foyer of his Mooresville office in North Carolina, but was recently replaced as his sentimental favourite when he secured Brock’s last winning Bathurst car - the #10 1987 Mobil Commodore from David Bowden on the Sunshine Coast. In the US, Habul was keen to build similar luxury eco-friendly houses that he had managed to make a decent living out of on the Gold Coast with his brothers, Reno and Sam. Not long after arriving in North Carolina, the world was hit with the Global Financial Crisis and the access to credit with US banks all but dried up. While residential solar integration was always on his radar with his personal developments, the GFC saw his focus shift to commercial and utility-scale installations. At the same time, North Carolina tax incentives for solar investment were opening up more and more opportunities and Habul started thinking even bigger. While he enjoys the use of his own aircraft and designer suits, Habul is just as at home up to his knees in mud and driving dozers in the US backblocks checking out potential sites for future projects. His company, SunEnergy1, now builds some of the largest solar systems on the planet with sites of 2,000 acres (810 hectares), producing some 168 Megawatts, now a minimum size requirement.

SunEnergy1 also has a commercial rooftop division, which completed the largest rooftop installation in the US at the Shoeshow building in Charlotte which covers a roof top area 25 acres (9.2 hectares) and produces 5.4 megawatts of power from more than 21,000 Solar panels. “We have been prepared to do the hard work and we have been rewarded for it,” said Habul. “There are so many variables to every deal, but we have a great core group of managers and when we are constructing we try and use local labor and spend money in the towns where they come from. “It has to be a win-win for everyone and at the end of the day it is the environment which benefits more at the completion of each project.”

never-quit attitude,” said Habul. “Of the more than 50 major projects we have built, there has not been one that did not have a major roadblock threatening it. We put our heads down and ran through brick walls to make them a reality. A lot of blood, sweat and tears. “My Bond University law degree has been invaluable. I have just used it more in the field than in the courtroom. It has also come in handy with a couple of racing contracts.” Habul will put away his suit and tie several more times this year as he continues to compete in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship throughout the US. “I just have a passion for the sport and the challenges it offers,” said Habul.

And what advice would Habul have for any young entrepreneur looking to become a local solar king in Australia?

“To be at Bathurst this year for the first time is fantastic and to be there in a Mercedes-AMG is the icing on the cake.

“If you love the industry you can achieve anything you set your mind to, if you have a

“As Brock would have said, ‘we will give it a red hot go’.”

Last year Habul’s company filed for the largest solar system in the United States at 945 Megawatts on 5,500 acres (2,225 hectares). The company sources and secures the land, gets all the required permits, sets up the supply infrastructure and then designs and constructs the facilities all in house. During this process, Habul and his team will negotiate to sell the entire project or keep the facility themselves and pay-off their investment through the on-going supply of electricity in a deal with utilities or corporate customers. North America’s largest power retailer, Duke Energy, has been one of Habul’s biggest longterm clients and it would seem there are no shortage of others lining up for his solar assets.

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Strakka Attack Le Mans winners primed for maiden Bathurst voyage Tom Howard

Speedcafe.com Journalist

he Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour continues to grow in stature and as a result so do the calibre of teams vying to win one of the most prestigious GT3 races in the world. Strakka Racing is among the latest wave of top European GT racing outfits that have been lured by Mount Panorama’s unique challenge. Founded by a former downhill skier turned racing driver Nick Leventis, the Silverstonebased team has committed to a two pronged Mercedes-AMG GT3 attack for their maiden Bathurst appearance. Having earned widespread respect and honours in just 10 years of competition, including an LMP2 class victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2010, Strakka will head down under to represent Mercedes-AMG as one of the German marque’s Performance teams. In fact the race will be the Blancpain GT Series team’s first with Mercedes race cars

and support after choosing to cut ties with McLaren last year, further adding to the daunting task of tackling the Bathurst 12 Hour. However, the former FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 squad is resolute in its decision to line up for the Bathurst 12 Hour. “I think because we have come from a history running in the WEC we are used to doing the

flyaway races and it was definitely something we missed last year,” racing director Jay Davenport said. “The Intercontinental GT Challenge, of which Bathurst is one of the races, appealed to us as a team. We have stopped running in the Blancpain GT Sprint Series and we are focussing more on the longer races. “Bathurst is a great event and it is a very

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Strakka Attack

unique and iconic circuit, so it is one that everybody has got on their bucket list to go and race at. “We are really looking forward to going there and it’s a great way to start off our year.” While Strakka faces plenty of unknowns, the outfit has done its homework in the months since committing to the event. Test sessions have been conducted with its new Mercedes machinery at Silverstone and Barcelona to allow the team to adjust to its new race cars, although Davenport admits heading to Bathurst with relatively unknown machinery is not ideal. “Heading to Bathurst with new un-raced cars is probably not something you would normally choose to do but we have managed to get a couple of days testing (Barcelona and Silverstone) in pre-Christmas,” he added. “We have got a good understanding of the car. The baseline set up that came with the car from Mercedes was very good straight away so that makes life a lot easier.

The transition should be eased by a crack squad of drivers that have been secured for Bathurst, featuring a blend of speed, experience and local knowledge. Founder Leventis is joined by former McLaren factory driver Lewis Williamson, young Italian GT racer David Fumanelli and Tickford Racing Supercars ace Cameron Waters. It is perhaps the sister car which will worry the top teams in pit lane with the #56 Mercedes-AMG GT3 spearheaded Alvaro Parente, who won the Bathurst 12 Hour with Tekno Autosports in 2016. The Portuguese GT superstar is joined by a pair of factory Mercedes drivers in 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up Maxi Buhk and DTM star Maxi Gotz. All drivers have been busily preparing for the race utilising the team’s impressive Base Performance simulator facility at its Silverstone workshop, where several hundred virtual Mount panorama laps have been cut.

“I think from that side of things we don’t have any concerns that we are going to be under prepared or anything like that.

Hard work behind the scenes running through various race strategies have been undertaken with countless hours of previous races watched by its 30 strong team of staff.

“We will know the car better in a couple of races’ time but I think we are still in position where we can do a good job.”

This has left the team certain it has the ingredients to challenge the very best come race day.

“We realise that the level of the teams is very good but for sure we have the strongest driver line ups we can,” Davenport continued. “We are really hoping that we will be fighting at the front and challenging for the podium. “I think we have got good handle on strategy and with that event you just need to be there at the end and make sure you are on the lead lap coming into the last hour. “We want to go this year and go back in the future. “We want to go there to do well and we are under no illusions that it is a tough event. “With both car crews we have got a good chance of doing well. “It is very easy to make a mistake and go in the wall or get penalties. We are preparing as best as we can, we have had the drivers in on the simulator so that will get them up to speed a bit quicker. “We have been watching old races and seeing how they unfold from a race strategy point of view. “We have had good help from Mercedes in terms of making sure the car set-up is where it needs to be so we can be ready straight from the off.”

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2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | TV Times

TV times The Top 10 Shootout and all 12 hours of Sunday’s race will be broadcast live on 7mate. Streaming in Australia will be available via the Seven Network’s 7Plus platform, while other television and/or online options are available in other countries (See the Bathurst 12 Hour website for details). The on-screen team will be led by Mark Beretta, with Radio Le Mans’ John Hindhaugh and Jonny Palmer joined by Richard Craill in commentary. Beretta, Chad Neylon, and Shea Adam will provide pit lane and paddock coverage along with 7 News’ Alex Hart. Day Session Time (AEDT /GMT +11) Saturday Top 10 Shootout 1600 Sunday Race 0530-1800

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BATHURST 12 HOUR 2

Class A Pro – GT 3 No

Team Name

Model

Driver 1

Driver 2

Driver 3

Driver 4

Bentley Team M-Sprot

Bentley Continental GT3

Steven Kane

Guy Smith

Jules Gounon

Bentley Team M-Sport

Bentley Continental GT3

Andy Soucek

Maxime Soulet

Vincent Abril

Audi Sport Customer Racing

Audi R8 LMS

Garth Tander

Kelvin van der Linde Fedrick Vervisch

Audi Sport Team WRT

Audi R8 LMS

Robin Frijns

Stuart Leonard

Dries Vanthoor

BMW Team Schnitzer

BMW M6 GT3

Augusto Farfus

Chaz Mostert

Marco Wittmann

Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Nick Leventis

Lewis Williamson

Cam Waters

Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Maximilian Buhk

Maximilian Gotz

Alvaro Parente

YNA AutoSport

Mclaren 650S GT3

Shane van Gisbergen

Craig Lowndes

Come Ledogar

Audi Sport Customer Racing

Audi R8 LMS

Christopher Mies

Christopher Haase

Markus Winkelhock

Mercedes-AMG Team SunEnergy1 Racing

Mercedes-AMG GT3

Kenny Habul

Tristan Vautier

Jamie Whincup

Raffaele Marciello

100

BMW Team SRM

BMW M6 GT3

Steven Richards

Timo Glock

Philipp Eng

911

Manthey-Racing

Porsche 911

Romain Dumas

Frederic Makowiecki

Dirk Werner

991

Craft Bamboo Racng

Porsche 911 GT3-R

Earl Bamber

Kevin Estre

Laurens Vanthoor

David Fumanelli

Class A Pro -AM– GT 3 No

Team Name

Model

Driver 1

Driver 2

Driver 3

Driver 4

Scott Taylor Motorsport

Mercedes-AMG Gt3

Max Twigg

Craig Baird

Tony D’Alberto

Audi Sport Customer Racing

Audi R8 LMS

Marc Cini

Lee Holdsworth

Dean Fiore

Objective Racing

McLaren 650s

Tony Walls

Warren Luff

Tim Slade

Jaxon Evans

Competition Motorsports

Porsche 991 GT3-R

David Calvert-Jones

Patrick Long

Matt Campbell

Alex Davison

Nineteen Corp P/L

Mercedes-AMG GT3

David Reynolds

John Martin

Liam Talbot

Mark Griffith

Trofeo Motorsport

Lamborghini Hurracan

Jim Manolios

Ryan Millier

Ivan Capelli

Dean Canto

Lago Racing

Lamborghini R-EX GT3

Roger Lago

David Russell

Steve Owen

Audi Sport Team WRT

Audi R8 LMS

Pedro Lamy

Paul Dalla Lana

Mathias Lauda

Will Davison

YNA Autosport

McLaren 650s GT3

Scott McLaughlin

Fraser Ross

Andrew Watson

Alexander West

International Motorsport

Audi R8 LMS

Andrew Bagnall

Matt Halliday

Jonny Reid

540

Black Swan Racing

Porsche 911 GT3-R

Tim Pappas

Jeroen Bleekemolen

Luca Stolz

Marc Lieb

777

Buik Motorworks

Lamborghini R-EX GT3

Yasser Shahin

Luke Youlden

Tomas Enge

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Entry List

2018 ENTRY LIST Class A: Am – GT3 No

Team Name

Model

Driver 1

Driver 2

Driver 3

Driver 4

Audi Sport Customer Racing

Audi R8 LMS

Ash Samadi

Daniel Gaunt

Dylan O’Keefe

Safe-T-Stop

Lamborghini Gallardo

Richard Gartner

Hadrian Morall

David Wall

John Bowe

Audi Sport Customer Racing

Audi R8 LMS

James Koundouris

Theo Koundouris

Ash Walsh

Duvashen Padayachee

Class B: Am – GT3 No

Team Name

Model

Driver 1

Driver 2

Driver 3

Driver 4

Grove Motorsport PTY LTD

Porsche GT3 Cup

Stephen Grove

Brenton Grove

Ben Barker

JFC- Carter Grange

Porsche 911

Danny Stutterd

Sam Fillmore

TBA

Team Carrera Cup Asia

Porsche 991

Paul Tresidder

Chris van der Drift

Andrew Tang

Chen Yi-Fan

On Track Motorsport

Porsche 997 GT3 Cup

Garry Mennell

Kean Booker

Aaron Zerefos

Mark Caine

Wall Racing

Porsche 911 GT3 Cup

Charles Putman

Charles Espenlaub

Joe Foster

Class C – GT4 No

Team Name

Model

Driver 1

Driver 2

Driver 3

Driver 4

RHC-Lawrence/Storm (MarcGT)

BMW M4 GT4

Daren Eric Jorgensen

Cameron Lawrence

Brett Storm

Kuno Wittmer

Baigent Motorsport

BMW M4 GT4

Kent Baigent

Neil Allport

Matt Spratt

Ash Blewett

Boat Works Racing

BMW M4 GT4

Aaron Seton

Matt Brabham

Tony Longhurst

BMW Team SRM

BMW M4 GT4

Dean Grant

Xavier West

Cameron Hill

Prosport Performance GABH

Porsche Cayman PRO4

Jorg Viebahn

Max Braams

Marco Schelp

M Motorsport P/L

KTM X-Bow GT4

Justin McMilan

David Crampton

Tim Macrow

KTM/M Sport Motorsport

KTM X-Bow GT4

Glen Wood

Tent Harrison

Cody Hill

Ginetta Australia

Ginetta G55

Mike SImpson

Coleby Cowham

Lindsay Kearns

Ginetta Australia

Ginetta G55

Will Tregurtha

Jaie Robson

Ben Walsh

111

Ginetta Australia

Ginetta G50

TBA

Caitlin Wood

Class I – Invitational No

Team Name

Model

Driver 1

Driver 2

Driver 3

MARC Cars Australia

MARC Mazda V8

TBA

MARC Cars Australia

MARC II V8

Tony Alford

Kyle Alford

Chad Parish

Daytona Sports Cars

Daytona Coupe

Jamie Augustine

Dylan Thomas

Rhys Howell

Daytona Sportscars

Dodge Viper

Ben Schoots

Adam Macrow

Michael Caine

MARC Cars Australia

MARC II V8

Jake Camilleri

Morgan Haber

Aaron Cameron

MARC Cars Australia

MARC II V8

Keith Kassulke

Rod Salmon

Will Brown

MARC Cars Australia

Marc Mazda V8

Zane Goddard

Rob Thomson

Drew Ridge

MARC Cars Australia

Marc Mazda V8

Nick Rowe

Tyler Everingham

James Kaye

Eastgate Engineering

MARC Focus V8

Geoff Taunton

Jason Busk

Bryce Fullwood

MARC Cars Australia

MARC Focus V8

John Goodacre

Peter Major

Jordan Love

mercedes-benz.com.au

Driver 4

PRO CLASS STEVEN KANE (NIR)

GUY SMITH (GBR)

JULES GOUNON (FRA)

ANDY SOUCEK (ESP)

MAXIME SOULET (BEL)

VINCENT ABRIL (FRA)

GARTH TANDER (AUS)

KELVIN VAN DER LINDE (RSA)

FREDERIC VERVISCH (BEL)

ROBIN FRIJNS (NED)

STUART LEONARD (GBR)

DRIES VANTHOOR (BEL)

Age: 37 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr podiums: 2 2001 British Junior Formula Ford champion

Age: 43 2017 series: Blancpain GT Endurance B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr podiums: 2 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours winner

Age: 23 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2017 Spa 24 Hours winner

TEAM: BENTLEY TEAM M-SPORT MANUFACTURER: BENTLEY CAR: CONTINENTAL GT3

Age: 32 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 7th (2016) 1 Blancpain Endurance race win (2017)

Age: 34 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: 7th (2016) 1 Blancpain Endurance race win (2017)

Age: 22 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 12th (2017) 2015 Blancpain Sprint champion

TEAM: BENTLEY TEAM M-SPORT MANUFACTURER: BENTLEY CAR: CONTINENTAL GT3

TEAM: AUDI SPORT CUSTOMER RACING MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

Age: 40 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: 8th (2016) 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour winner 3 Bathurst 1000 wins 2007 Supercars champion

Age: 26 2017 series: Blancpain GT Sprint, VLN B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 2016 Sepang 12 Hours winner

TEAM: AUDI SPORT TEAM WRT MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

Age: 21 2017 series: Aus GT, ADAC GT Masters B12Hr starts: Debut 2017 Nurburgring 24 Hour winner 2014 ADAC GT Masters champion

Age: 26 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2016 Dubai 24 Hours winner

Age: 31 2017 series: TCR International Series B12Hr starts: Debut 2008 German Formula 3 champion

Age: 19 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2016 Nurburgring 24 Hour class winner (Cup 5)

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Driver Profiles

PRO CLASS AUGUSTO FARFUS (BRA)

Age: 34 2017 series: DTM B12Hr starts: Debut 2015 Daytona 24 Hours class runner-up (GTLM)

CHAZ MOSTERT (AUS)

Age: 25 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 2014 Bathurst 1000 winner

MARCO WITTMANN (GER)

Age: 28 2017 series: DTM B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 14th (2017) 2 DTM championships

10 43

TEAM: BMW TEAM SCHNITZER MANUFACTURER: BMW CAR: M6

NICK LEVENTIS (GBR)

Age: 37 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours class winner (LMP2)

TEAM: MERCEDES-AMG TEAM STRAKKA RACING MANUFACTURER: MERCEDES-AMG CAR: GT3

TEAM: YNA AUTOSPORT MANUFACTURER: MCLAREN CAR: 650S GT3

LEWIS WILLIAMSON (GBR)

Age: 28 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2017 Blancpain Sprint class runner-up (Silver)

DAVID FUMANELLI (ITA)

Age: 25 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2015 Renault Sport Endurance Trophy champion

CAMERON WATERS (AUS) Age: 23 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: Debut 2017 Sandown 500 winner

MAXIMILIAN BUHK (GER)

MAXIMILIAN GOTZ (GER)

ALVARO PARENTE (POR)

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN (NZL)

CRAIG LOWNDES (AUS)

COME LEDOGAR (FRA)

Age: 25 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: 2nd (2014) 2013 Spa 24 Hours winner 2015 Blancpain Sprint champion

Age: 28 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 4 B12Hr wins: 1 (2016) 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour winner 2016 Blancpain Endurance champion 2016 Supercars champion

Age: 31 2017 series: ADAC GT Masters B12Hr starts: Debut 2013 Spa 24 Hours winner 2014 Blancpain Sprint champion

Age: 43 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 6 B12Hr wins: 2 (2014, 2017) 2 Bathurst 12 Hour wins 6 Bathurst 1000 wins 3 Supercars championships

Age: 22 2017 series: Blancpain GT Sprint, Pirelli World Challenge B12Hr starts: 2 B12Hr wins: 1 (2016) 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour winner 2016 Pirelli World Challenge champion

Age: 26 2017 series: Blancpain GT, International GT Open B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 5th (2017) 2016 Blancpain Endurance champion

mercedes-benz.com.au

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Driver Profiles

PRO CLASS CHRISTOPHER MIES (GER)

TEAM: AUDI SPORT CUSTOMER RACING MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

Age: 28 2017 series: Blancpain GT, ADAC GT Masters B12Hr starts: 7 B12Hr wins: 2 (2011, 2012) 2 Bathurst 12 Hour wins 2 Nurburgring 24 Hour wins 2015 Australian GT champion

KENNY HABUL (AUS) Age: 44 2017 series: IMSA SportsCars B12Hr starts: Debut 2017 12 Hours of Sebring class podium (GTD)

TEAM: MERCEDES-AMG TEAM SUN ENGERGY1 MANUFACTURER: MERCEDES-AMG CAR: GT3

TEAM: BMW TEAM SRM MANUFACTURER: BMW CAR: M6

TEAM: MANTHEY-RACING MANUFACTURER: PORSCHE CAR: 911 GT3-R

CHRISTOPHER HAASE (GER)

Age: 30 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 9th (2015) 2 Nurburgring 24 Hour wins 2016 Sepang 12 Hours winner 2009 FIA GT3 European champion

RAFFAELE MARCIELLO (ITA) Age: 23 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: Debut 2013 FIA European F3 champion GP2 race winner (2014)

TRISTAN VAUTIER (FRA) Age: 28 2017 series: IMSA SportsCars B12Hr starts: Debut 2012 Indy Lights champion

MARKUS WINKELHOCK (GER)

JAMIE WHINCUP (AUS)

Age: 37 2017 series: Blancpain GT Sprint, Intercontinental GT B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 2nd (2015) 2 Spa 24 Hours wins 2017 California 8 Hours winner 2012 FIA GT1 World champion

Age: 34 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 1 B12Hr wins: 1 (2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour winner 4 Bathurst 1000 wins 7 Supercars championships

STEVEN RICHARDS (NZL)

TIMO GLOCK (GER)

PHILIP ENG (AUT)

100

ROMAIN DUMAS (FRA)

FREDERIC MAKOWIECKI (FRA)

DIRK WERNER (GER)

911

Age: 45 2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 6 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B, 2012) 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour winner 4 Bathurst 1000 wins 2012 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B)

Age: 40 2017 series: FIA R-GT Cup, Dakar, Pikes Peak Hill Climb B12Hr starts: Debut 2 Le Mans 24 Hours wins 2016 World Endurance champion 3 Pikes Peak Hill Climb wins

Age: 35 2017 series: DTM B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 2007 GP2 champion 91 Formula 1 starts

Age: 37 2017 series: WEC B12Hr starts: Debut 2014 WEC class runnerup (LMGTE Pro)

Age: 27 2017 series: Blancpain GT, ADAC GT Masters B12Hr starts: Debut 2015 Porsche Supercup champion

Age: 36 2017 series: IMSA SportsCars B12Hr starts: Debut 2015 Daytona 24 Hours class runner-up (GTLM) 2 Grand-Am Sports Car class championships (GT)

mercedes-benz.com.au

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Driver Profiles

PRO CLASS

TEAM: CRAFT BAMBOO RACING MANUFACTURER: PORSCHE CAR: 911 GT3-R

EARL BAMBER (NZL)

KEVIN ESTRE (FRA)

LAURENS VANTHOOR (BEL)

991

MAX TWIGG (AUS)

CRAIG BAIRD (NZL)

TONY Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ALBERTO (AUS)

MARC CINI (AUS)

LEE HOLDSWORTH (AUS)

DEAN FIORE (AUS)

WARREN LUFF (AUS)

TIM SLADE (AUS)

Age: 27 2017 series: WEC B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr class wins: 2 (B, 2014, 2016) 2 Le Mans 24 Hours wins 2017 World Endurance champion 2014 Porsche Supercup champion

Age: 29 2017 series: WEC B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: DNF (2015, 2017) 2013 Carrera Cup Germany champion

Age: 26 2017 series: IMSA SportsCars B12Hr starts: 4 Best result: 2nd (2015) 2015 Nurburgring 24 Hour winner 2016 Sepang 12 Hours winner 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (Pro-Am)

PRO-AM CLASS

Age: 46 2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 7 Best result: 11th (2013) 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour class runner-up (B)

Age: 47 2017 series: AEC B12Hr starts: 10 B12Hr wins: 1 (2007) 2007 Bathurst 12 Hour winner 2008 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B)

Age: 32 2017 series: AEC B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: DNF (2016) 2017 Bathurst 1000 podium 2007 Super2 champion

TEAM: SCOTT TAYLOR MOTORSPORT MANUFACTURER: MERCEDES-AMG CAR: GT3

Age: 56 2017 series: Carrera Cup B12Hr starts: 6 B12Hr class podiums: 2 (Pro-Am 1, Am 1) 2 Bathurst 12 Hour class

TEAM: AUDI SPORT CUSTOMER RACING MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

TONY WALLS (AUS)

2017 series: Australian GT B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: 20th (2017) 2 Australian GT race wins (2016)

TEAM: OBJECTIVE RACING MANUFACTURER: MCLAREN CAR: 650S GT3

Age: 34 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 4 B12Hr class podiums: 1 (Pro-Am) 2009 Bathurst 1000 podium

Age: 41 2017 series: Pirtek Enduro Cup B12Hr starts: 8 Best result: 2nd (2011) 2011 Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up 4 Bathurst 1000 podiums

Age: 34 2017 series: Pirtek Enduro Cup B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr class podiums: 1 (Pro-Am) 2014 Gold Coast 600 Sunday race podium

Age: 32 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 5 Best result: 2nd (2012) 2012 Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up

JAXON EVANS (NZL)

Age: 21 2017 Series: AEC, Carrera Cup B12Hr starts: Debut 2 AEC race wins (2017)

mercedes-benz.com.au

PRO-AM CLASS DAVID CALVERT-JONES (AUS)

TEAM: COMPETITION MOTORSPORTS MANUFACTURER: PORSCHE CAR: 911 GT3-R

Age: 48 2017 series: Bathurst 12 Hour B12Hr starts: 4 Best result: 2nd (2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (Pro-Am)

PATRICK LONG (USA)

MATT CAMPBELL (AUS)

JOHN MARTIN (AUS)

LIAM TALBOT (AUS)

RYAN MILLIER (AUS)

DEAN CANTO (AUS)

Age: 36 2017 series: Pirelli World Challenge B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 2nd (2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up 2 Le Mans 24 Hours class wins (GT 1, GT2 1)

Age: 22 2017 series: Porsche Supercup B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 2nd (2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up 4 Porsche Supercup race wins (2017)

ALEX DAVISON (AUS)

Age: 38 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 4 B12Hr class podiums: 1 (B) 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour class runner-up (B)

DAVID REYNOLDS (AUS) Age: 32 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 5th (2016) 2017 Bathurst 1000 winner

TEAM: NINETEEN CORP P/L MANUFACTURER: MERCEDES-AMG CAR: GT3

MARK GRIFFITH (AUS)

2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr class wins: 2 (Pro-Am 1, C 1) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (Pro-Am) 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (C)

2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr class podiums: 1 (I) 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour class podium (I) 2 Australian GT class championships

JIM MANOLIOS (AUS)

2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 10th (2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class podium (Am)

TEAM: TROFEO MOTORSPORT MANUFACTURER: LAMBORGHINI CAR: HURACAN GT3

Age: 33 2017 series: AEC B12Hr starts: 1 B12Hr class wins: 1 (Pro-Am) 2006 Australian Formula Ford champion 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (Pro-Am)

IVAN CAPELLI (ITA) Age: 54 2017 series: Australian GT B12Hr starts: 3 Best result: 10th (2017) 93 Formula 1 starts

2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: 10th (2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class podium (Am)

Age: 37 2017 series: Pirtek Enduro Cup B12Hr starts: 2 Best result: 5th (2015) 2012 Bathurst 1000 runner-up

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Driver Profiles

PRO-AM CLASS ROGER LAGO (AUS)

DAVID RUSSELL (AUS)

2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: 8 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B) 2011 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B)

Age: 36 2017 series: AEC B12Hr starts: 8 B12Hr class wins: 2 (B 1, C 1) 2 Bathurst 12 Hour class wins (B 1, C 1)

STEVE OWEN (AUS)

PEDRO LAMY (POR)

PAUL DALLA LANA (CAN)

WILL DAVISON (AUS)

Age: 43 2017 series: Pirtek Enduro Cup B12Hr starts: 9 B12Hr class podiums: 2 (Am 1, B 1) 2 Bathurst 1000 runnerup finishes

TEAM: LAGO RACING MANUFACTURER: LAMBORGHINI CAR: R-EX

Age: 45 2017 series: WEC B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 5 Nurburgring 24 Hour wins 2 World Endurance class championships (LMGTE Am)

TEAM: AUDI SPORT TEAM WRT MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

Age: 35 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr podiums: 1 2 Bathurst 1000 wins (2009, 2016) 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour podium

MATHIAS LAUDA (AUT)

Age: 36 2017 series: WEC B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 2017 World Endurance class champion (LMGTE Am)

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN (NZL) Age: 24 2017 series: Supercars B12Hr starts: 1 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B) 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B) Bathurst Supercars practice record holder

TEAM: YNA AUTOSPORT MANUFACTURER: MCLAREN CAR: 650S GT3

Age: 51 2017 series: WEC B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 2017 World Endurance class champion (LMGTE Am)

FRASER ROSS (AUS) Age: 27 2017 series: Australian GT, AEC B12Hr starts: Debut 1 Australian GT race win (2017)

ALEXANDER WEST (SWE)

ANDREW WATSON (GBR) Age: 23 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 2016 Best result: 9th (2016) 1 International GT Open race win (2015)

2017 series: International GT Open B12Hr starts: Debut 3 International GT Open race wins (2016, 2017)

mercedes-benz.com.au

PRO-AM CLASS

TEAM: INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

ANDREW BAGNALL (NZL)

MATT HALLIDAY (NZL)

Age: 70 2017 series: AEC B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 11th 2016 Bathurst 12 Hour class podium (Am) 2014 New Zealand Endurance champion

Age: 38 2017 series: Various B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr class podiums: 2 (Pro-Am 1, Am 1) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class runner-up (Pro-Am)

TIM PAPPAS (USA)

JEROEN BLEEKEMOLEN (NED) Age: 36 2017 series: ISMA SportsCars, Pirelli World Challenge B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 2nd (2012) 2013 Nurburgring 24 Hour winner 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours class winner (LMP2)

Age: 44 2017 series: Pirelli World Challenge B12Hr starts: Debut 2 ALMS class championships (GTC)

TEAM: BLACK SWAN RACING MANUFACTURER: PORSCHE CAR: 911 GT3-R

LUCA STOLZ (GER) Age: 22 2017 series: Blancpain GT Endurance B12Hr starts: Debut 2016 Blancpain Sprint class champion (Silver Cup)

YASSER SHAHIN (AUS)

2017 series: Carrera Cup B12Hr starts: Debut 1 Australian GT race win (2016

TEAM: BUIK MOTORWORKS MANUFACTURER: LAMBORGHINI CAR: R-EX

LUKE YOULDEN (AUS)

Age: 39 2017 series: Pirtek Enduro Cup B12Hr starts: 4 B12Hr class wins: 2 (F) 2 Bathurst 12 Hour class wins (F)

JONNY REID (NZL)

Age: 34 2017 series: AEC B12Hr starts: 1 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B, 2013) 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner

MARC LIEB (GER) Age: 37 2017 series: Pirelli World Challenge B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: 2nd (2017) 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours winner 2016 World Endurance champion 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner

540

TOMAS ENGE (CZE)

777

Age: 41 2017 series: Blancpain GT B12Hr starts: 1 Best result: DNF (2017) 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours class winner (GTS)

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Driver Profiles

AM CLASS

TEAM: AUDI SPORT CUSTOME RACING MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

ASH SAMADI (AUS)

DANIEL GAUNT (NZL)

DYLAN Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;KEEFFE (AUS)

RICHARD GARTNER (AUS)

HADRIAN MORALL (AUS)

DAVID WALL (AUS)

ASH WALSH (AUS)

Age: 48 2017 Series: Australian GT, B12Hr starts: 2 B12Hr class podiums: 1 (Pro-Am) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class runner-up (Pro-Am)

2017 series: Australian GT Trophy B12Hr starts: 8 B12Hr class wins: 2 (E 1, F 1) 2 Bathurst 12 Hour class wins (E 1, F 1)

TEAM: SAFE-T-STOP MANUFACTURER: LAMBORGHINI CAR: GALLARDO GT3

Age: 32 2017 series: Various B12Hr starts: 3 B12Hr class podiums: 2 (Pro-Am 1, B 1) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class runner-up (Pro-Am)

2017 series: Australian Production Car B12Hr starts: 5 B12Hr class wins: 1 (C, 2010) 2010 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (C)

JOHN BOWE (AUS) Age: 63 2017 series: Touring Car Masters B12Hr starts: 11 B12Hr wins: 2 (2010, 2014) 2 Bathurst 1000 wins 2 Bathurst 12 Hour wins 1995 Australian Touring car champion

JAMES KOUNDOURIS (AUS)

Age: 51 B12Hr starts: 8 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B, 2015) 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B)

TEAM: AUDI SPORT CUSTOMER RACING MANUFACTURER: AUDI CAR: R8 LMS

THEO KOUNDOURIS (AUS)

Age: 49 B12Hr starts: 8 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B, 2015) 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B)

2017 series: Carrera Cup B12Hr starts: 1 B12Hr class wins: 1 (B, 2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (B)

Age: 35 2017 series: Carrera Cup B12Hr starts: 7 B12Hr class wins: 2 (B 1, I1 1) 2017 Carrera Cup champion

Age: 30 B12Hr starts: 2 B12Hr class podiums: 1 (E) 2011 Bathurst 12 Hour class podium (E)

DUVASHEN PADAYACHEE (AUS)

Age: 27 B12Hr starts: 2 B12Hr class wins: 1 (Am, 2017) 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour class winner (Am)

mercedes-benz.com.au

STRONG SUPPORT FOR TODAY & TOMORROW MARK WINTERBOTTOM SUPERCAR CHAMPION, SUPERCARS, FORMULA 4, KARTING.

“I REMEMBER BEING 11 YEARS OLD WITH A CASTROL STICKER ON MY GO-KART. THEY WERE A SUPPORTER OF MY KARTING TEAM AND THEY’RE NOW A PARTNER OF MY SUPERCARS TEAM. THEY’VE SUPPORTED THE GRASSROOTS FOR A LONG TIME... THIS IS WHERE THE FUTURE GUYS AND GIRLS COME FROM.” MARK WINTERBOTTOM, SUPERCARS CHAMPION AND BATHURST 1000 WINNER

Boosted with TITANIUM FLUID STRENGTH TECHNOLOGYTM, Castrol EDGE is our strongest and most advanced range of engine oils yet. Its TITANIUM FST TM doubles the oil film strength*, preventing oil film breakdown and reducing friction. This gives you the confidence to be in perfect sync with your car and push the boundaries of performance. *Products representing 61% of our 2012 sales volume were tested. Tribological tests have shown that Castrol EDGE boosted with TITANIUM FST TM doubles its film strength, preventing oil film breakdown and reducing friction to help maximise engine performance. CastrolRacingAU

castroledge.com.au

@CastrolRacingAU

CastrolRacingAU

2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour | Support lineup for 2018

Support line-up for 2018 A diverse range of support categories will again help to entertain the crowd on the Friday and Saturday at Mount Panorama. The Radical Australia Cup has become a mainstay of the Bathurst 12 Hour undercard, and the Le Mans-style sportscars again open their season at the mountain. Skye Sands Combined Sedans brings together a wide variety of cars, including ex-Supercars which have competed in the Bathurst 1000. The new addition in 2018 is Group S Classic Sports Cars, incorporating vehicles from the 1950s to the 1970s.

mercedes-benz.com.au

EVENTS SCHEDULE OF

Friday February 2

Saturday February 3

Start 7:15

Duration 0:25 0:05

Category Skye Sands Sedans

Session Practice/Qualifying

Start 7:15

Duration 0:45 0:10

Category Porsche Sports

Session Driving Experience

7:45 8:25

0:30 0:30 0:05

Group S Racing Bathurst 12 Hour

Practice/Qualifying Practice 1 (Amateurs only)

8:10

0:35 0:10

Skye Sands Sedans

Race 2 - 10 Laps

8:55

Practice 5

0:45 0:05

Bathurst 12 Hour

Practice 2

0:40 0:05

Bathurst 12 Hour

9:00

9:40

Race 2 - 8 Laps

0:10 0:05

Manufacturer Sport

On Circuit Session at Speed

0:30 0:10

Group S Racing

9:50 10:05

0:30 0:05

Radical Aus Cup

Practice/Qualifying

10:20 10:50

0:30 11:00 0:05

Sponsor Ride Session Manufacturer Sport

On Circuit Session at Speed

10:45 11:45 12:50

0:45 0:50 0:35 0:10

Bathurst 12 Hour Resident Access Skye Sands Sedans

Practice 3 Time Certain Race 1 - 10 laps

11:05

0:45 0:05

Bathurst 12 Hour

Qualifying 1 (All Except Class A)

13:35

0:45 0:10

Bathurst 12 Hour

Practice 4

11:55 12:45 13:50

0:30 0:50 14:35 0:10

Bathurst 12 Hour Resident Access Radical Aus Cup

Qualifying 2 (Class A Only) Time Certain Race 2 - 16 Laps