MOTORSPORT: Bathurst history in lap of the gods

Big quest for track record and Allan Simonsen Trophy
It’s more than a decade since Greg Murphy’s “Lap of the Gods” at Bathurst, and that’s now long since been bettered, but there’s a vibe in the air that an equally – or even more – magical moment is imminent at Mt Panorama.

As 44 cars, and an array of top international and Australian drivers, prepare for what is now The Mountain’s “Other Great Race”, eyes are on whether the clock might stop in less than 2 minutes for a lap of the iconic 6.213km circuit over the next couple of days.

The fastest of the exotic GT3 cars that head the field for this weekend’s Bathurst 12-Hour are faster than the V8 Supercars that run in the Bathurst 1000 in October and some special history could be in the offing.

Irrespective of whether the 2-minute barrier is broken though, the driver who qualifies on pole position tomorrow (Saturday) will receive the new Allan Simonsen Trophy in memory of the popular Dane who made such a mark in Australian GT racing but died in a crash at France’s Le Mans 24-Hour race in June 2013.

In 2011 Simonsen lapped Bathurst in a Ferrari 458 in less than 2 minutes 5 seconds, not only better than Murphy’s 2003 V8 Supercar pole position time but Craig Lowndes’ 2010 best practice lap.

But Simonsen’s time wasn’t set in a race, qualifying or official practice – CAMS deemed it a special speed event, so it wasn’t recognised as a record.

A couple of months later Jenson Button, a Formula One world champion, and Craig Lowndes both went under 2 minutes in a McLaren MP4-26 F1 car, but that was at a promotional event and again didn’t make the official record book.

The Bathurst lap record actually stands with Chris Gilmour at 2:04.61 in a Mercedes-Benz-powered Dallara Formula Three car in 2012.

This weekend’s 12-Hour – or qualifying at least – could see substantially quicker times, with the recent track resurfacing aiding the cause and potentially a rash of drivers bettering that time and closing in on the 2-minute barrier.

The weather might just need to be kind too – no rain and not too hot.

The GT3 entry list comprises Mercedes SLS AMGs, Audi R8-LMS Ultras, Ferrari 458s, Lamborghini Gallardo LP560s, a McLaren MP4-12C (the Bathurst debut for that marque) and a Nissan GT-R Nismo. The latter marked the return of Godzilla to The Mountain more than 21 years after its famous – those Jim Richards branded the “pack of ….holes” would say infamous – 1000 victory.

Murphy will be absent, with the Chevrolet Corvette Z06R he was to have driven, with ex-F1 racer Ivan Capelli as one of his co-drivers, scratched, as have been two mighty BMW Z4s from Germany – one of which might have been a challenger for outright honours.(Murphy instead will race at the second round of New Zealand’s V8 SuperTourer series, which he leads, at Manfield Park.

GT3 the key
The introduction of the GT3s to the 12-Hour over the past three years has brought the event not only strong international participation but much greater recognition.

The European competitors in particular revere Mt Panorama - with its sheer speed, elevation changes, blind corners, unforgiving barriers and opportunities for mistakes - as a shorter version of Germany’s famed Nurburgring Nordschleife.

The internationalisation of the 12-Hour also has meant that there has not been an Australian winner since 2010.

Craig Lowndes, the biggest name in V8 Supercars and a multiple Bathurst 1000 winner and national champion, is out to change that this Sunday – in a Ferrari 458 with Finnish former F1 driver Mika Salo, John Bowe (one of the 2010 winning drivers in a BMW 335i), and Peter Edwards.

Rick Kelly, another former V8 Supercar champion and Bathurst 1000 winner, heads the Nissan Godzilla driver line-up. Kelly’s co-drivers – Alex Buncombe from Britain, Wolfgang Reip from Belgium and Katsumasa Chiyo from Japan – are much more familiar with the GT-R than him but are all racing at Bathurst for the first time.

Will Davison makes his Mercedes debut with Betty Klimenko’s Erebus, along with young Jack LeBrocq and veteran Greg Crick in a similar SLS to that which won last year’s 12-Hour.

German Bernd Schneider, perhaps the best driver on earth in these kind of cars, is back to defend last year’s victory, but with different co-drivers – Maro Engel, dropped from the Erebus V8 Supercar squad after one season, and Austrian Nico Bastian.

One of Schneider’s partners from last year, his countryman Thomas Jaeger, has moved across to the third gull-wing SLS running this time, entered by German team HTP Motorsport.

Among the other stars in the GT3s are Kiwi whiz Shane Van Gisbergen, sharing the Quinn family’s McLaren as is the model’s British development driver Andrew Kirklady. Jason Bright and Warren Luff are together in an Audi, and reigning Bathurst 1000 winner Steven Richards and returning V8 Supercar driver Dale Wood have paired together in a Lambo.

And, even if almost a dozen cars dropped off the entry list posted in December, there’s so much more to the 12-Hour.

Cars are the stars
There are 10 Porsches among the 13 cars in Class B and a mixed bag in Class C – a Lotus Exige Cup R, a Lotus Exige S and a Ginetta G50.

Class D, an invitational class for cars of more than 3-litres, is more diverse – two Seat Leon Supercopas, three BMWs (a 335i, an E46 GTR and an M3 E92), a Daytona Sportscar Coupe and a Subaru WRX STi.

There are celebrity elements too – movie star Eric Bana in Peter Hill’s Class B Lambo and TV man Grant Denyer, returning to The Mountain where he’s been impressive before in this event and the 1000 before a serious back injury, in one of the three Ford Focus GTC cars that make up the Class I invitation class.

Powered by Ford’s 5.0-litre Coyote V8, these Focuses have been built by Ryan McLeod, whose father Peter won the Bathurst 1000 with the incomparable Peter Brock in 1987.

“These cars develop about 500 horsepower and have been built for international endurance racing as a cost-effective option against the leading GT3 sports cars and are a great showcase for the talent and technology that exists in Australian motorsport,” McLeod said.

Then there are the three Fiat Abarths in Class F (invitational for up to 3-litre cars) and which you can read much more about here, each with a name driver (Paul Stokell, Luke Youlden and Luke Ellery) backed up by motoring journalist co-drivers, including our Editor in Chief, Mike Sinclair, in the Youlden car.

Audi won this event outright in 2011 and 2012 before Mercedes prevailed last year. Those brands are sure to be in the fight for line honours again, but with more competition this time.

Reigning 12-Hour “King of the Mountain” Schneider is sure his Erebus SLS is “very well prepared” for whatever may come Sunday.

“We have a good chance of winning the event again with this team – if everything comes together then we have every chance,” Schneider said.

In the team’s other entry, with the Aussie drivers, Will Davison predicts “we will be in the mix come the end”.

“I feel very spoilt to be driving this rocket ship – it is an absolutely beautiful car to drive around The Mountain,” he said.

“It’s a privilege to be part of this program. It’s my first 12-Hour. We have pretty high expectations.”

The Maranello Motorsport Ferrari with Lowndes and co. also looms large, while Warren Luff reckons the Audi he’s in is “right in the mix of teams that have the potential to reach the podium”.

“But there’s a lot of elements that go into being there at the end of a 12-Hour race … a lot of factors come into play at Bathurst,” Luff said.

“So what you do in qualifying, how quick your star drivers are, how much experience you have, sometimes that doesn’t amount to much.”

But for the next couple of days ahead of the race, attention will be on lap times.

Luff said Mt Panorama had been re-sealed with “a material very similar to that at Phillip Island – and at that circuit last year we broke the standing GT3 lap record by over 4 seconds”.

“Given that Phillip Island is 4.445km and Bathurst is more than 6km, it’s not out of the realms of possibility that the 2-minute mark could be broken by any number of the leading teams – us included.

“I’m sure if we’re close someone will go after it.”