MOTORSPORT: Traction at last for Bathurst 12-Hour?

The “other” Bathurst, the 12-Hour being held next weekend (with race day being Sunday, February 10), has attracted a bumper entry of more than 50 cars – 18 of them in the GT3 Outright category. Those 18 cars represent eight marques – and another dozen brands are represented in the other seven classes.

There are 19 international entries for this 11th running of this enduro – it ran from 1991 to ’94 and was revived in 2007 - and drivers of 17 nationalities. The entry is almost twice what it was last year, although at least four cars are competing only in the Australian GT Championship round and will drop out after the first hour.

The TV coverage will be a three-hour package a week later on SBS, with on-board cameras (four) for the first time, but for enthusiasts there will be full coverage on the internet (at bathurst12hour.com.au) - and Radio Le Mans for the first time (radiolemans.com).

At last this enduro may just be starting to gain some serious traction.

The 18 cars in the Outright class comprise seven R8 Audis (four of them Ultras), three Ferrari 458s, two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG “Gullwings”, two Lamborghini LP560s, a Porsche GTR-3, a BMW Z4, a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 R, and a Mosler MT900.

The driver line-up includes four of the top 10 from last year’s V8 Supercar Championship – Craig Lowndes, Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth and Shane Van Gisbergen – five-time German touring car (DTM) champion Bernd Schneider, FIA GT1 world champion Thomas Jager, Britain’s reigning world touring car champion Rob Huff, two-time Bathurst 12-Hour winners Darryl O’Young (from Hongkong, but Canadian-born) and Chris Mies (Germany), and accomplished Formula One racers Mika Salo (Finland) and Ivan Capelli (Italy).

Among other local stars are Greg Murphy (a late call-up for the Corvette), Jason Bright, John Bowe, Alex Davison (and cousin James) in a US entry, Steven Richards and rally specialist Dean Herridge. Also on the entry list are Allan Simonsen – Danish but a regular endurance racer in Australia, this time with Salo, Bowe and Peter Edwards in a Ferrari – and, despite his recent financial headaches, prominent businessman and sports team owner Nathan Tinkler, in Class B sharing a Porsche with Steve Johnson and New Zealander Jonny Reid.

Class B has eight Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and a Lambo LP 520, while the first Aston Martin to run in the 12-Hour is an international entry in Class C (GT4). The full entry list is here.

Mercedes outfit Erebus Motorsport is determined to deny Audi a third straight victory in the 12-Hour, with extra input this time from AMG Customers Sports. Its lead driver Schneider is acknowledged as among the very finest of sedan and sports car racers in the world. This will be the German’s race debut at Bathurst, although he had a taste of Mt Panorama at a private AMG event in 2008.

Schneider also gave Australians a demonstration of his ability in blitzing the GT Championship finale at Sydney’s Homebush street circuit just two months ago.

Erebus has inherited the talents of Slade and Holdsworth through its takeover of Stone Brothers Racing, with which it is to field Mercedes E63 AMGs in this year’s V8 Supercar Championship. It has combined that pair with Erebus regular Peter Hackett, while Schneider is to be partnered in an all-international line-up by Jager and Alex Roloff.

The defending race-winning team, Phoenix Racing, will be back with the No.1 Audi R8 LMS Ultra to be piloted this time by Swiss driver Harold Primat and Swedes Johan Kristoffersson and Andreas Simonsen.

It’s a very different field to an October Bathurst 1000, with just two Holdens (a Commodore and an Astra) and one Ford (a Falcon), much more like the old days although more exotic at the pointy end and with a truly international field.

Perhaps finally the Bathurst 12-Hour will gain its place among the great international enduros in the world of motor racing.

Final aerodynamic parity adjustments will be made on the four types of car competing this season – Nissan’s Altima L33, the Mercedes-Benz AMG E63s, Holden’s new VF Commodore and Ford’s FG Falcon – after testing this weekend at the air force base at East Sale in Victoria.

After the seriousness of the financial plight at Dick Johnson Racing started to emerge a week ago, and the confirmation after a team meeting this week that south-east Queensland car dealer and Finance Ezi owner Maurie Pickering would not be taking up a third of the ownership as envisaged under a plan late last year, there has been no public assurance that DJR will make the Sydney test day or the championship start in Adelaide.

While DJR remains desperately short of sponsorship, Pickering remains committed to running two of DJR’s old Falcons – outdated by the new “Car of the Future” rules – in the development series for teenagers Josh Hunter and New Zealander Andre Heimgartner.

DJR’s “main game” drivers, provided it overcomes its latest hurdle, are expected to come from Karl Reindler, Tim Blanchard and Steve Johnson.

Ford Performance Racing is now the only V8 Supercar team with financial backing from the Blue Oval. On the other side of the traditional fence, Holden continues to back its official Holden Racing Team - winless last year and under extreme pressure to produce results this year – and dominant Triple Eight Race Engineering, but the manufacturer has just committed a reported $10 million over three years to sponsorship of rugby league, in particular the annual three-game state-of-origin series that is a television ratings bonanza.

A potentially plum drive at Erebus Motorsport/Stone Brothers Racing in the third AMG E63 remains open. The delay in the announcement on that seat is contributing to speculation that it may be filled by a European driver, perhaps Austrian ex-F1 racer Christian Klien, rather than development series driver Chaz Mostert, who was thought to be going to be “lent” by Ford Performance Racing, which is unable to accommodate him yet in one of its four seats filled (with Alex Davison in the new Charlie Schwerkolt entry, alongside Mark Winterbottom, Will Davison and David Reynolds).

Youngster Scott Pye, originally from Mt Gambier, will be confirmed today as a “main game” driver with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport after a season in the development series and Formula Ford and Formula Three experience in Britain.

McLaren seems intent on hiding the ugly “stepped” nose that appeared on F1 cars last year.
The MP4-28, created in the 50th year of the team founded by New Zealander Bruce McLaren, has been described by its engineers as “a deep and sweeping re-design” of last year’s car.

Formula1.com reports that the changes are “most notably around the nose (now higher and still stepped, but with the step covered by a 'modesty panel' as permitted by the 2013 regulations) and front suspension (now a pull-rod configuration), the sidepod profiles and the rear bodywork”.

“The team have followed Ferrari's 2012 lead in using pull-rod front suspension, providing a lower centre of gravity, while at the rear the driveshaft and lower wishbone have been packaged in one element,” it said.

Of the Lotus E21, Formula1.com said: “Lotus will continue to develop the passive double-DRS system that they tested but never raced in 2012. And, in the car’s launch form at least, the team have elected to retain a stepped nose - foregoing the ‘vanity panel’ permitted in the 2013 regulations - in order to save weight.”

Ferrari’s F138 – the 13 being for the year and the 8 in recognition of the last year of F1’s normally-aspirated V8s before next year’s turbocharged V6s – will break cover at the Italian team’s Maranello factory tonight, Australian time.

World champion team Red Bull Racing’s RB9 will be launched on Sunday at its Milton Keynes base in England, while Mercedes will display the W04 for its prize recruit Lewis Hamilton on Monday. That will be at the Jerez circuit in Spain, where Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso will uncover its STR8.

Australians Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo are expected to give the RB9 and STR8 their track debuts when the first of three four-day pre-season tests get underway there at Jerez on Tuesday.

The other tests are scheduled for Barcelona on February 19-22 and February 28-March 3, the weekend of Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 and the opening round of the Australian Rally Championship in Canberra.

Webber this week responded to the recent acidic comments about him by Red Bull motorsport supremo Dr Helmut Marko.

"Look, everyone at this level has their own agendas and it's been evident for a long time now that I've never been a part of Marko's," Webber said.

Marko, who has championed the career of Webber’s young triple world champion teammate Sebastian Vettel, had said: "It seems to me that Webber has on average two races per year where he is unbeatable, but he can't maintain this form throughout the year. And as soon as his prospects start to look good in the world championship, he has a little trouble with the pressure that this creates. In comparison with Seb's rising form, it seems to me that Mark's form somehow flattens out. Then, if some technical mishap occurs, like with the alternator for example, he falls relatively easily into a downward spiral."

While Marko has said that Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner’s contract has been extended until 2017, Webber’s words in reply to Marko may be a big clue that, with just a one-year contract, he is entering his final season with the team.

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