MOTORSPORT: Clocking on for the long haul

While short games are all the rage in ball sports, in motor racing the fever is for endurance events at the minute.

As Australia's most international race, the Bathurst 12-Hour, looms this weekend, confirmation has come of a long-distance sports car racing career for arguably the world's best driver on tarmac, Fernando Alonso.

Not only will Alonso drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, but in as many of the World Endurance Championship rounds as his Formula 1 schedule with McLaren allows.

His sports car racing will be with Toyota, which is odds-on to win Le Mans after the withdrawal of Audi and Porsche from the premier hybrid prototype class over the past two years.

Five times in 19 tries the Japanese manufacturer has been the 'bridesmaid' at the French classic, most painfully in 2016 when victory slipped away with just a lap to go.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda could barely contain his excitement in confirming "this opportunity for growth" with Alonso in one of its two 1000hp TS050 hybrids.

The 36-year-old Spaniard, who may well be a five-time rather than dual F1 world champion by now if not for his team choices in the past decade, tested for Toyota at the end of last year and made his sports car race debut, in a Ligier, at America's 24 Hours of Daytona last weekend.

McLaren's 'divorce' from Honda in F1, in favour of Renault power this year, paved the way for his Toyota drive in the WEC.

However, he will miss Toyota's home round at Fuji in October because of a clash with the United States Grand Prix.

The WEC races other than Le Mans are six hours, but with a 1½-year 'super season' scheduled, running to the middle of 2019, there is a prospect of second crack at the twice-around-the-clock event Alonso covets, along with America's open-wheeler Indianapolis 500 in which he made a stunning debut last year (although it will be a while now before he can go back to it).

Meanwhile, the field is assembled at Bathurst for the 12-Hour, in which two-thirds of the more than 50 cars are GT3s - although no Ferrari now after the Prancing Horse's victory last February.

However, there is a growing band of the more-affordable, less-modified GT4s and also the invitational class, now containing seven of the Australian-made MARC cars with Ford Coyote V8s, the latest of them with Ford Mustang bodywork.

Almost a dozen full-time drivers from the Supercars Championship are in the 12-Hour this year (what a turnaround from just a couple of years ago), while almost two dozen of the international drivers have come straight from Daytona.

Of the total 175 drivers competing, they are of 17 nationalities and include lots of past endurance winners at Mt Panorama, victors at Le Mans and five who drove 220 F1 GPs between them.

Sunday's race will be the first of four rounds in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the others being the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium at the end of July, the Suzuka 10 Hours in Japan in late August and the California Eight Hours at Laguna Seca (now officially Mazda Raceway) on the last weekend of October.

While a dozen makes will be represented in the 12-Hour, only five - Audi, Bentley, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche - are registered for the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the only global GT3 championship.

Audi is the reigning series champion manufacturer and there are eight of its R8s in the field, two of them from the WRT team of Belgium for the first time.

The four-rings brand has twice won the 12-Hour and its R8s are notoriously quick across the top of the mountain circuit in the opening round, but they struggle for top speed on the long straights.

The two turbocharged V8 Bentley Continentals running are dated, while Porsche has never won a 'major' outright at Mt Panorama, leaving McLaren and Mercedes-AMG as favourites.

Most likely of the twin-turbocharged V8 McLaren 650s is that to be shared by Shane Van Gisbergen, the 12-Hour winner in just such car two years ago, Craig Lowndes, victor in a Ferrari last year, and accomplished Frenchman Come Ledogar.

The best chance among the five naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre front-engined Mercs looks to be the factory-supported entry in which Jamie Whincup, winner last year with Lowndes, is partnered with Frenchman Tristan Vautier, as well as an ex-Ferrari Academy driver, Italian Raffaele Marciello, and American-based Australian Kenny Habul.

Scott McLaughlin, runner-up to Whincup in last year's Supercars Championship, is in another McLaren, but it is a pro-am entry.

BMW's best hope of winning the 12-Hour for the first since it became predominantly a GT race will be the M6 from the renowned Team Schnitzer which Supercar gun Chaz Mostert is sharing with German ace Marco Wittmann and Brazilian Augusto Farfus, a rookie at The Mountain.

One of the beauties of the 12-Hour is that Australian greats like John Bowe and Tony Longhurst still compete, while there is a ton of the country's young talent on show too - including Matt Campbell, Matt Brabham, Aaron Seton, Dylan O'Keeffe, Will Brown and Jason Love.

And the variety among the machinery is enhanced by the presence of three British-constructed Ginettas, the lightweight 2-litre, turbocharged four-cylinder X-Bows and a couple of Daytona Sportscars - a V8 Coupe and a 10-cylinder converted Dodge Viper.

Milder temperatures than last year could see the 2-minute lap barrier challenged, most probably by lap record holder Van Gisbergen (2:1.567 in 2016), while the distance record of 1,845km if the inevitable safety car periods are not too long and the number of interventions is less than the 15 last year and average of almost 11.

Practice starts Friday morning, qualifying is Saturday morning with a top 10 shootout in the afternoon, and the race starts in darkness at 5.45am Sunday.

The Seven Network's 7mate channel will screen the shootout from 4pm Saturday and Sunday's action from 5:30am until 6:00pm, while the weekend will be streamed on the event website, bathurst12hour.com.au, where the full entry list can be found under 'The Race'.