MOTORSPORT: All together now on The Mountain

Despite taking a few hits recently, the Bathurst 12-Hour this weekend will have 11 makes of car and a driver line-up that combines lots of V8 Supercar stars and many internationals in some world-class teams.

Although the overall entry has shrunk further this week to 37 cars, not quite 75 per cent of the 50 that started a year ago, there are still 22 Class A GT3s (five less than last year) representing seven manufacturers in the field vying for outright honours.

It’s the 14th Bathurst 12-Hour, the sixth as primarily a GT3 race, the first under new promoter V8 Supercars (yes, it bought into the event in the middle of last year), and it’s now part of a new Intercontinental GT Challenge.

That series was to have had four rounds, but in late January it lost the six-hour race planned for the Circuit of the Americas in Texas next month. The Spa 24-Hour in Belgium in July and the Sepang 12-Hour in Malaysia in December remain in the series.

The Class A GT3s at Bathurst comprise seven Audis (four of them the 2015 R8-LMS model making its race debut in Australia), four McLaren 650Ss, three Mercedes AMG SLSs, three Lamborghini Gallardos, two Bentley Continentals, two Ferrari 458s and a Nissan GT-R.

It’s a newer Nissan ‘Godzilla’ than the one that scored a thrilling, narrow victory a year ago, with improved brakes, handling, aerodynamics and driver ergonomics.
It’s been prepared, like its predecessor, by the Japanese manufacturer’s motorsport and performance arm NISMO.

There’s plenty of factory support for the other makes too.

There are eight Porsches on the entry list – seven of them Cup Cars (six 997s and a 911) in Class B and a Cayman Pro 4 in the invitation class.

These numbers are way down on the past, with Porsche competitors knowing they are guaranteed of being outgunned and overshadowed by the Class A GT3s.

Making up the total of 37 entries via the invitational class are a BMW 335i E92, a Daytona Coupe and five of Ryan McLeod’s MARCs – three with Ford Focus bodies, the other two dressed as Mazda 3s.

You can see the full entry list at bathurst12hour.com.au

After V8 Supercars bought out previous 12-Hour promoter James O’Brien’s Yeehah Events there was no danger of a test weekend in Sydney, or anywhere else, to clash with this endure like last year, so there’s a strong V8 Supercar driver presence at Mt Panorama this week.

Five of the top 10 drivers in last year’s V8 Supercar Championship are taking part – David Reynolds in an Erebus Mercedes, Shane Van Gisbergen in a McLaren, Garth Tander an Audi, Scott McLaughlin a Porsche 997 and Rick Kelly in the GT-R.

It would have been six of the top 10 from V8 Supercars if Craig Lowndes hadn’t broken a collarbone playing around on a motorcycle and been unable to take his place in one of the three Audis prepared by Melbourne Performance Centre (MPC) – the one in which Tander has a seat.

Among the other V8 Supercar drivers are a couple more who, like Tander and Kelly, are Bathurst 1000 winners – Will Davison in a McLaren entered, like that of Van Gisbergen, by his new team Tekno Autosports, and Nick Percat in a Lambo.

The international drivers include New Zealander Earl Bamber, outright winner of the Le Mans 24-Hour last June in a Porsche 919 Hybrid but this time sharing the Grove Motorsport 997 with Scott McLaughlin and owner Stephen Grove.

German Rene Rast, an Audi factory driver, is the replacement for Lowndes and comes direct from having won the GT3 class at last weekend’s Daytona 24-Hour in Florida.

Others to have flown in from Daytona this week are Van Gisbergen, well-credentialed Finn Toni Vilander, who is in the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458 with ex-Formula 1 racer and compatriot Mika Salo among his teammates, Germans Chris Haase and Maro Engel and Dutchman Renger Van Der Zande.

Then there’s Bernd Schneider, the German gun and 2013 Bathurst 12-Hour winner back sharing an Erebus Mercedes with Engel and 17-year-old American, son of Roger Penske’s lieutenant Tim Cindric and making his second start in this enduro.

Young Belgian Laurens Vanthoor clocked a lap of 2 minutes 2.55 seconds last year for pole position and may be the man to nudge closer to the two-minute barrier.

He’s in Phoenix Racing’s R8 with German Markus Winkelhock, another ex-F1 driver, and Aussie Alex Davison in what may be the most complete package for the weekend, even though – almost unbelievably - it’s Davison’s Class A debut at Mt Panorama, having been predominantly a Porsche and V8 Supercar racer.

Phoenix fronts this time with an indigenous livery featuring the goanna and platypus so important to Bathurst’s Wiradyuri Aboriginal community.

Audi has won the 12-Hour twice, in 2011 with the Joest team and in 2012 with Phoenix, and is intent on adding a third victory after Phoenix finished runner-up a year ago.

In another of the Audis – one of those from MPC and, like that of Tander, representing Steve McLaughlan’s Jamec-Pem Racing – is Chris Mies, a German who was part of Audi’s previous triumphs and is now twice the Australian GT champion.

A Portuguese visitor is Alvaro Parente, a British Formula 3 and World Series by Renault open-wheeler champion co-driving a McLaren with Van Gisbergen and Tekno team owner Jonathan Webb.

Bathurst and endurance ace Craig Baird is in another McLaren with Australian GT racing’s staunchest disciples, the Quinns – father Tony and son Klark.

Bentley missed out on a podium last year as seven makes filled the top seven finishing positions.

The British marquee, these days part of Germany’s Volkswagen group, has supplemented the strong international line-up in its two Continentals – Brits Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Matt Bell, Spaniard Andy Souceck and Belgian Maxime Soulet – with local Bathurst specialist David Russell.

“It is a major highlight of my career to join such a prestigious and successful international team,” Russell said.

“Bentley Motorsport is an outstanding operation ... it is a privilege to be the team’s sole Australian driver at Bathurst.”

Nissan comes in under the radar again, with last year’s hero, Japan’s Katsumasa Chiyo, and one of his co-drivers from that success, German PlayStation graduate of Nissan’s GT Academy Florian Strauss , trying – this time with Rick Kelly – to emulate the back-to-back wins of earlier Godzillas in Mt Panorama’s 1000km touring car classic in the early 1990s.

They may pull it off, the McLarens and Bentleys loom as big threats, but there’s a sense that Audi could run rings around its opposition for a third triumph in six years in Bathurst’s other Great Race. Certainly it has the weight of numbers on its side.

The race runs from 5:45am to 5:45pm Sunday, with free TV coverage all day on the Seven network. It also will be streamed live on Seven’s ‘Plus7’ and the event website, bathurst12hour.com.au.

Image courtesy of Audi and Bathurst12hour.com.au