MOTORSPORT: Bathurst 12-Hour's international spice
Organisers of next month's Bathurst 12-Hour say it will give the mountain circuit its most international flavour in a quarter of a centuryThey have 12 overseas entries in a 32-car field. It is the second year in which the regulations have allowed international GT3-spec cars to compete. Ten are entered in the outright category – two Lamborghinis, two Ferraris, three Audis, two Mercedes-Benz (pictured) and a Mosler.
As well as the sprinkling of foreigners, the drivers in those cars include Craig Lowndes and Warren Luff, in one of the Audi R8s as they were last year, John Bowe and Allan Simonsen in one of the Ferrari 458 GT3s, Craig Baird in the other Ferrari, Cameron McConville in one of the Lambos and Tim Slade in one of the Mercs.
Class B has three Porsches, with Steven Johnson and Steven Richards in one of them with mining magnate Nathan Tinkler. Class C has three Lotuses, a Corvette and a Nissan GT-R.
The race is on Sunday, February 26, starting at 6.15am and therefore ending at 6.15pm. The final 90 minutes will be broadcast on pay TV – Foxtel’s Speed Channel – with a three-hour highlights package to be shown on the same channel four weeks later – on March 24.
It has the potential to be an excellent enduro. Bathurst had a 12-Hour race from 1991 to ’94, then it returned in 2007, so that makes this year’s the 10th. Each time the event is held there is optimism that it will gain some serious traction. To date it can’t be said to have done that, but might this just be the year that it does?
The organisers have issued a list of facts and figures and here they are:
- 32 cars, up from 26 last year.
- 16 marques, 23 models.
- 12 international cars (including Erebus Racing Mercedes, an Australian entrant with an international car).
- 10 cars in Outright GT3 Class A.
- Three-time and reigning Australian Porsche Carrera Cup champion Craig Baird
- Reigning Touring Car Masters champion John Bowe
- Reigning Australian GT champion Mark Eddy
- Four Bathurst 1000 winners - Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards, John Bowe and Bob Holden – with 11 wins between them.
- Two Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar champions – Lowndes and Bowe.
- Six Bathurst 12-Hour winners - Baird, Bowe, Rod Salmon, Damien White, John Christopher Mies and Daryl O’Young.
- 33 international drivers, although several are yet to be confirmed.
- Two-time Porsche International Supercup champion, Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen.
- Two LeMans 24-Hour class winners - Bleekemolen, LMP2 victor in 2008, and another Dutchman, Peter Kox, GTS class victor in 2003.
- One Daytona 24-Hour Class winner – German Dominik Farnbacher, victor in a Porsche in 2005. He will partner Bowe and Simonsen at Mt Panorama.
- Teams that finished first, second and third in last year’s Production Car (High Performance) class.
- Teams that finished first, second and third in last year’s Production Car (Performance) class.
- Reigning Bathurst unofficial outright lap record holder Allan Simonsen, who lapped Mt Panorama faster than a V8 Supercar late last year in the Ferrari.
- Winners of two recent major endurance races - Jeroen Bleekemolen the Dubai 24-Hour and British driver Matt Griffin the Gulf 12-Hour in Abu Dhabi.
- An improved 14 cars combined in the Production and Invitational classes.
The propaganda makes it sound mighty impressive. Perhaps this time the race will stake a claim as one of major consequence.
Australian motorsport could do with another strong event, as an alternative to the annual banquet of V8 Supercar racing that has the Bathurst 1000 as its centrepiece, a Formula One grand prix and a World Rally Championship round that only comes to our shores every second year now.
The website is bathurst12hour.com.au and the entry list for the February 26 race can be found directly here.
The first official Car of the Future test day will be at Queensland Raceway in the week after the Ipswich 300 in August.
The entry list of more than 100 competitors this weekend is headed by last year’s winner Jason White in his $600,000 Lamborghini Gallardo, Jim Richards in a Porsche GT2 RS and Tony Quinn in a Nissan GT-R.
Young rally star Brendan Reeves will drive a Mazda Motorsport RX8 SP, while multiple Australian rally champion Simon Evans will be in an MPS3 in the showroom class ahead of contesting this year’s Australian Rally Championship in a Mazda 2.
Saturday’s first leg of Targa Wrest Point includes four 22km stages.
Briscoe is paired with his manager Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor in a Corvette DP that qualified 0.121 seconds slower than the Riley-Ford on pole position with Scottish ace Allan McNish as one of its five drivers.
New Zealander Scott Dixon qualified in a Riley-BMW entered by Chip Ganassi Racing third.
Pirelli says it has taken a more aggressive approach with its compounds for the new season starting in Melbourne on March 18. Its tyres will have a squarer profile – that’s viewing them front on, rather than side on! – that it says will improve grip and handling and should increase overtaking even more.
“Our tyres will be a bit softer, which will add speed and show,” Pirelli president Marco Tronchetti said.
The company’s motorsport director, Paul Hembery, said there would be a smaller gap in performance between the four compounds to be offered to the teams this season.
“Last year the teams were making choices based on tyres that had a 1.5-second [a lap] difference. We have tried to get that down below one second – and the aim is to have it around 0.8 seconds,” Hembery said.
Pirelli has named Vitaly Petrov, the Russian driver discarded by the Lotus team – previously called Renault – as its test driver for this year, although it seems Petrov may yet dislodge Italian veteran Jarno Trulli from his seat with the Caterham team that was previously called Lotus.
Although the start of official testing of this year’s F1 cars is still 10 days away, Kimi Raikkonen recently ran two days at Valencia – on the permanent circuit there, not the street circuit that hosts the Spanish city’s Grand Prix – in a two-year-old Renault car ahead of his comeback with Lotus.
The 2007 world champion is returning to F1 after two years in the World Rally Championship and a dabble at American stock car racing.
Raikkonen said that doing more than 170 laps – equivalent to more than two GPs – at Valencia had “helped a lot, even though I was using the Pirelli demonstration tyres”.
Raikkonen admitted that it may take him some time to get back to his best in F1.
Barrichello is close friends with another Brazilian veteran, Tony Kanaan, who drives for KV Racing.
Barrichello tweeted recently that he is still keen to compete this year. “I still have lots of speed in me,” he said.
However, Barrichello has previously told his wife he would not race on America’s often-dangerous oval tracks, which may mean any Indy deal for him may only be for road and street courses.
KV Racing will use the new Chevrolet V6 IndyCar engine this year like the Penske team that fields Australians Will Power and Ryan Briscoe.
Meanwhile, lanky Englishman Justin Wilson has rejoined Dayle Coyne Racing, which he gave its first IndyCar win at Watkins Glen in 2009, after two seasons with Dreyer & Reinbold.
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