MOTORSPORT: Record 61 cars for Bathurst 12-Hour

More than 60 per cent of field are GT3s, representing a 'Perfect 10' makes

Entries have closed for the Bathurst 12-Hour race, with a record 61 cars – 37 of them GT3s representing 10 car brands.

The enduro at the mighty Mt Panorama circuit is now barely six weeks away on Sunday, February 5 and many top Supercars drivers, as well as ace internationals, will tackle The Mountain that weekend.

The final driver line-ups – while largely known – are yet to be added to the official entry sheet.

Three of the last entries before last Friday’s deadline were GT3 race cars.

They are a third BMW M6 entered by Germany’s Walkenhorst Motorsport, after the two local entries by BMW Team SRM (Steven Richards Motorsport). There's also a second Porsche 911R from the Walkinshaw operation in Melbourne; and Melbourne businessman Peter Edwards’ Heretic Autosport entered its Bentley Continental GT3, joining the two Bentley Team M-Sport cars from overseas.

The GT3 entry boasts seven Audis, six Porsches, four McLarens, three Mercedes AMGs and three Lamborghinis, two Ferraris and two Aston-Martins.

The 12-Hour race has four classes and each car can have three or four drivers. The 61-car entry tops the previous best of 55.

The GT3s in Class A must have drivers categorised by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) driver ranking system as either platinum, gold, silver or bronze.

Platinum and gold drivers are considered ‘seeded’, silver and bronze are ‘unseeded’.

The KTM X-Bow GT4 will join the Bathurst 12-Hour fray in February 2017

Class A is divided into three sub-classes – Pro, for cars with all drivers professional; Pro-AM, for entries with a maximum of two professional or seeded drivers; and Am, for cars with no more than one professional or seeded driver.

Class B is the domain of Porsche’s GT3 Cup Car seen at other times in the Carrera Cup, but even after a late entry from SRM of a current-spec 991 there are only four cars in that class.

The new GT4 class (C) is the “baby brother” of GT3 for more production-based GT cars complying to global regulations.

A pair of Ginetta G55s from Sydney’s RA Motorsport (the NSW distributor of Radical Sports Cars) has boosted the Class C entry to eight cars, with four makes. The others are Aston Martin, Porsche and KTM – the latter the eye-catching X-Bow – from international and local teams.

Then there’s the invitational class, with 12 entries. We're looking at eight V8s from MARC Cars Australia, six with the Ford Focus body shape and two as Mazda 3s, as well as a Mazda RX-7, Aston Martin Vantage GT8, Daytona Coupe and BMW 335i.

While the 12-Hour organiser – an arm of Supercars for the second year – was obviously chuffed to announce a 61-car field it said: "The final entry list is subject to change with several pending entries yet to formally complete the entry process."

The 2016 Bathurst 12-Hour was won by McLaren. Full event information can be found at Bathurst12hour.com.au.

Entry list for February 3-5, 2017, Bathurst 12-Hour
(at December 16, 2016, deadline)

1	Miedecke Stone Motorsport	Aston Martin	V12 Vantage	A
2	Miedecke Stone Motorsport	Aston Martin	V12 Vantage	A
3	DJS Racing	Audi	R8 LMS	A
4	Supabarn	Audi	R8 LMS	A
5	GT Motorsport Pty Ltd	Audi	R8 LMS	A
6	Jamec Pem Racing	Audi	R8 LMS	A
7	Jamec Pem Racing	Audi	R8 LMS	A
8	Hallmarc	Audi	R8 LMS	A
9	Team ASR Pty Ltd	Audi	R8 LMS	A
10	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	Continental GT3	A
11	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	Continental GT3	A
12	Heretic Motorsport	Bentley	Continental GT3	A
13	BMW Team SRM	BMW	M6 GT3	A
14	BMW Team SRM	BMW	M6 GT3	A
15	Walkenhorst	BMW	M6 GT3	A
16	Maranello Motorsport	Ferrari	488 GT3	A
17	Vicious Rumours Racing	Ferrari	488 GT3	A
18	Lago Racing	Lamborghini	R-EX	A
19	Trofeo Motorsport	Lamborghini	Huracan GT3	A
20	Kiwi Racing	Lamborghini	R-EX	A
21	Objective Racing	McLaren	650S	A
22	McLaren GT	McLaren	650S	A
23	McLaren GT	McLaren	650S	A
24	Keltic Racing	McLaren	650s	A
25	Scott Taylor Motorsport	Mercedes AMG	GT GT3	A
26	Mark Griffith	Mercedes AMG	GT GT3	A
27	HTP MOTORSPORT	Mercedes AMG	GT GT3	A
28	Wall Racing	Nissan	GT-R	A
29	Wall Racing	Nissan	GT-R	A
30	Nissan	Nissan	GTR Nismo GT3	A
31	Nissan	Nissan	GTR Nismo GT3	A
32	Walkinshaw GT3	Porsche	911 GT3 R	A
33	Walkinshaw GT3	Porsche	911 GT3 R	A
34	Competition Motorsports	Porsche	991 GT3R	A
35	AMAC Motorsport	Porsche	GT3 R	A
36	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Porsche	911 GT3 R	A
37	Craft-Bamboo Racing	Porsche	911 GT3 R	A
38	Grove Motorsport	Porsche	TBC	B
39	Wall Racing	Porsche	997 GT3 Cup Car MY07	B
40	Synep Racing	Porsche	991 Cup Car	B
41	Steve Richards Motorsport	Porsche	991 Cup Car 2014	B
42	R-Motorsport	Aston Martin	V8 Vantage GT4	C
43	RA Motorsports - Ginetta	Ginetta	G55	C
44	RA Motorsports - Ginetta	Ginetta	G55	C
45	M Motorsport	KTM	X-Bow GT4	C
46	Brookspeed	Porsche	Cayman GT4 Clubman	C
47	Brookspeed	Porsche	Cayman GT4 Clubman	C
48	PROsport Performance	Porsche	Cayman PRO4	C
49	PROsport Performance	Porsche	Cayman PRO4	C
50	R-Motorsport	Aston Martin	Vantage GT8	I
51	On Track Motorsport	BMW	335i	I
52	Daytona Sportscars	Daytona	Coupe	I
53	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	I
54	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	MAZDA 3 V8	I
55	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	MAZDA 3 V8	I
56	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	I
57	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	I
58	Donut King Racing	MARC	Focus V8	I
59	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	I
60	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	I
61	Ric Shaw Racing	Mazda	RX7	I

MOTORSPORT: Record 61 cars for Bathurst 12-Hour

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