MOTORSPORT: The US-Australia endurance double

As sure as night follows day, the Bathurst 12 Hour now comes the week after the biggest endurance race in the United States.

It's the 55th Daytona 24-Hour this weekend, with 55 cars entered. Many of the top international drivers taking part will fly to Australia immediately after for the 12 Hour at Mt Panorama on February 5.

Reigning 12 Hour, and Supercars, champion Shane Van Gisbergen is at Daytona. The Australian-based New Zealander has been a regular there at this time for several years and this time is racing a Mercedes AMG GT3 for Riley Motorsports-WeatherTech Racing.

Three Aussies are competing.

Ryan Briscoe is in one of the Ford GTs that made their debut a year ago and that have set the pace in the GT Le Mans class. Van Gisbergen's Merc is in the less expensive GT Daytona class.

In another Mercedes are solar energy products company chief Kenny Habul, a former Queenslander now based at Charlotte in the heart of NASCAR country and owner of the SunEnergy1 team, and late call-up Paul Morris, winner of the Bathurst 1000 in 2014 and now largely retired.

Daytona is seeing the debut of a new era of American sports car racing with a dozen prototypes.

The seven cars in the Daytona Prototype International (DPI) category, while the most technologically-advanced modern sports cars built in the US, are quite different to (less sophisticated than) the Le Mans/World Endurance Championship hybrid prototypes raced by Porsche, Toyota and until the end of last season Audi.

These are powered by Cadillac, Mazda and Nissan engines, but (like the five cars in the more European LMP2 category, for teams with their sights on the Le Mans 24-Hour in France in June) they must use a chassis from one of four constructors – Dallara, Ligier, Multimatic/Riley and ORECA.

Each of the DPIs has bodywork specific to the engine manufacturer aimed at aligning certain features of the maker's production vehicles with the race cars.

There are two twin-turbo, four-cylinder Mazdas, two twin-turbo V6 Nissans and three normally-aspirated Cadillac V8s. It's the Caddies that have been the fastest in the lead-up.

Apart from the DPIs and LMP2s there are five ORECA-chassis, open-cockpit prototypes in a 'Challenge' class in its last year after the merger of the American Le Mans Series and the GrandAm Series four years ago.

The GTLM class – with 11 entries, primarily factory-supported – is providing the worldwide racing debut of the 'mid-engined' (moved forward, at least) Porsche 911 RSR, while the GT Daytona class has among its 27 entries new cars from Lexus (a pair of RC F GT3s) and Honda's US brand Acura's NSX. It is the competition debut for the latter.

Favourites in the class though are Lamborghini, with eight entered after the fast but unreliable debut last year of the Huracan GT3, while Mercedes AMG is making its debut in that class.

The Van Gisbergen Merc, in which 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour winner Thomas Jaeger is one of four drivers, is entered by David McNeill, founder of the American sports car series' major sponsor WeatherTech, a company that makes automotive internal furnishings.

Briscoe's co-drivers in one of the four Ford GTs are New Zealand's IndyCar star Scott Dixon and Brit Richard Westbrook.

The Blue Oval is up against two Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs, two BMW GTLMs entered by Bobby Rahal, two Porsche 911 RSRs (one driven by Rahal's son Graham) and a Ferrari 488.

Supercar stars at Bathurst
Two years ago Supercar drivers were 'banned' from participating in the Bathurst 12 Hour, or at least a compulsory two-day test weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park which clashed made it impossible to take part.

Now, in the second year of Supercars' buyout of James O'Brien's Yeehah Events as the Bathurst council's partner in Australia's international enduro, nine of the top 10 drivers in last year's Supercars Championship will be driving at Mt Panorama on February 3-5.

The exception is Scott McLaughlin; neither of the Penske Supercar Kiwis (the other is Fabian Coulthard) are racing in the 12-Hour.

Top Kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen, who won the enduro last year in a McLaren, will defend his crown in a Mercedes AMG entered by Scott Taylor Motorsport, with support from the Mercedes factory and German outfit HTP Motorsport and Craig Baird and European Maro Engel as his teammates.

Engel, a flop in his 2013 season in Supercars, has just won back a DTM (German touring car championship) drive with Mercedes.

The 12 Hour has 15 marques represented -- although two, Ford and Mazda, are only bodyshapes over MARC chassis in the invitational class.

Three dozen GT3 cars are the focus of the event and comprise 10 brands: Aston-Martin; Audi; Bentley; BMW; Ferrari; McLaren; Mercedes; Nissan; Porsche; and Lamborghini. In total a field of 61 cars is entered.

Six-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup will make his 12 Hour debut with long-time teammate and 2014 12 Hour winner Craig Lowndes in a Ferrari 488 entered by Melbourne's Maranello Motorsport. Toni Vilander, a Finnish gun contracted to the Ferrari factory, completes the driving trio.

Will Davison, Bathurst 1000 victor three months ago, is in the second of two McLaren 650 GT3s entered by the Tekno Autosports of Jonathon Webb, who has 'benched' himself after triumphs as a co-driver in both of Bathurst's 'great races' last year.

While Davison is paired with experienced Brit Jonny Kane and McLaren young driver Ben Barnicoat, the line-up in the other entry (Portugal's Alvaro Parente, France's Come Ledogar and Brit Rob Bell) may prove more formidable.

Mark Winterbottom is partnered with team owner Steven Richards and German dual DTM champion Marco Wittmann for BMW's assault with its M6, although the other entry with veterans Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall, Tony Longhurst and German ex-F1 driver Timo Glock is likely to be the focus of more attention. From the mainstream media at least…

Winterbottom's Prodrive Supercars teammate Chaz Mostert is in another of two privateer M6s – his is entered by Ryan McLeod's MARC Cars. A fourth M6 GT3 entered by the Germany Walkenhorst squad arrives with an international driver line-up.

Although the M6s have been uncompetitive in Australia GT3 racing to date, last-minute technical upgrades from the factory could push them into contention.

Tim Slade is in another McLaren 650S entered by Objective Racing, with team owner Tony Walls, Warren Luff and Alex Davison as co-drivers.

Six Audi R8 LMSs are entered, but only two (those of Steve McLaughlan's JAMEC-PEM outfit) are in the all-pro category. The top Audi line-up comprises Bathurst specialist Garth Tander, with German two-time 12 Hour winner Christopher Mies and his countryman Christopher Haase, also with plenty of Bathurst experience.

Nissan's GT-R Godzilla has been a force at 'The Mountain' the past three Februarys, always in contention to win – and doing that in 2015 and finishing second last year.

This time the Japanese company is represented by two factory and two privateer entries.

Nissan's top Supercar driver last year, Michael Caruso, joins 2015 winner Katsumasa Chiyo from Japan and Brit Alex Buncombe in one factory car, with Todd Kelly sharing the other with German Florian Strauss (one of Chiyo's 2015 teammates) and perhaps Nissan's favourite rising star out of computer gaming, Brit Jann Mardenborough.

The other two GT-Rs were acquired out of America's Pirelli World Challenge by Sydney's Hobson Motorsport, overhauled in Canada and are now prepared by Wall Racing.

One of Australia's emerging talents, Matt Campbell (winner of the Porsche junior program shootout in Europe that has secured him a drive in the marque's international Supercup and set to partner Van Gisbergen in the Supercar endures) has scored a slot in a Porsche 991 GT3 R for next week.

Campbell's partners will be one of last year's Le Mans winners, German Marc Lieb, American Patrick Long and Competition Motorsport team owner, American-based Aussie, David Calvert-Jones.

There's plenty of other top talent sprinkled through the field including: New Zealand's 2015 Le Mans victor Earl Bamber; inaugural Intercontinental GT Challenge winner, Belgian Laurens Vanthoor -- switching to Porsche this year after almost a decade with Audi; and Frenchman Kevin Estre, having joined Porsche from McLaren. The trio are together in a Walkinshaw Porsche.

And, among Australians, there's David Reynolds (Mercedes), Lee Holdsworth (Audi) and Liam Talbot, an amateur who has done well in GT racing overseas and is teamed in another Walkinshaw Porsche with fellow Queenslander John Martin and Sydney's Davashen Padayachee.

Apart from the racing, there will be track demonstrations by Mercedes – with the legendary Bernd Schneider driving the brand-new 'Beast of the Green Hell' AMG GT R that lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in little more than 7 minutes last year. The Benz will compete with Ferrari with its awesome LaFerrari hypercar and F12tdf for streetcar laptine bragging rights.

In a sign of the 12-Hour's growth, and now being the first round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the competing manufacturers are entertaining many more corporate guests this year.

The race, starting pre-dawn, will be telecast live – and free – by 7mate, as will Saturday afternoon's new top 10 qualifying shootout.

Picture courtesy of WeatherTech Racing