2019 Bathurst 12 Hours

A short recap of what happened in the Bathurst 12 Hours in 2019.  This will be followed by a full video of the race.

At 5:45 A.M. in the twilight, just before dawn, the race gets underway on The Mountain, Mount Panorama.  The start itself is very clean.  Everyone seems to get underway, headlights ablaze to find their way up the mountain as the race begins.  The first casualty is a possible anti lock brake system failure for James Winslow aboard the #71 KTM/M Motorsports KTM XBow GT4.  Winslow, the Aussie is sharing with countryman Dean Koutsomidis, and Jake Parsons, who is listed as a Japanese driver, but could be Australian as well.  A miscue, perhaps, on the official entry list.  At any rate... wham!  Poor old Koutsomidis slams the wall at Ice Break hell corner.  Will the team's race continue?  We'll have to see.

The action is hot and heavy as we see a momentary wiggle for the #888 888 Mercedes-AMG Team Vodafone car, with it appears, multiple Australian Supercars champion, Craig Lowndes doing the driving, sharing with 888 Supercars team mates Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen.  Lowndes brings the car to pit lane as the skies lighten over Bathurst.  Another big hit in the opening hour, as Bradley Schumacher at the wheel of the #55 Ginetta Australia Ginetta G55 GT4 also finds the wall, and... slam!  He's demolished the back end of that car and made it a tough go for he, and co-drivers James Vernon and Aaron Love, another all Australian squad in that automobile.  Sadly, that car is the sole Ginetta entered in the race.  Meantime, coming out of The Chase, Chaz Mostert in the #42 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M6 GT3 nearly gets together with the #96 MARC Cars Australia Marc 1 Ford Focus sedan!

Mostert is sharing the BMW with Germany's Martin Tomczyk and Brazilian Augusto Farfus.  How on earth did he miss that car?!  Yikes!  The MARC Cars Focus is being shared by a trio of drivers, including Hadrian Morral from Australia, Einar Thorsen from Norway, and Dutchman Mathijis Bakker.  Leading so far in hour one, are Mercedes-AMG and the #999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3.  Maximilian Buhk, is the driver in the car, leading the motor race.  The German is a familiar name among GT3 fans, and he shares that car with fellow German Maximilian Goetz and Italian Raffaele Marciello.  All three of these blokes are GT3 racing superstars.

It should be noted that in the first hour, Shane van Gisbergen also had a spin and nearly clobbered the wall, or got collected by oncoming traffic!  Close, hair raising moments in the Bathurst 12 Hours, so far!  The #999 Mercedes has been dodging lapped traffic all race so far, and we see our first yellow flag in the race's second hour, our first full course yellow.  David Calvert-Jones spins the #12 Competition Motorsports/McElrea Racing Porsche 911 GT3R.  Calvert-Jones is OK, but it is unclear if his co-drivers, Kevin Estre, Porsche factory driver from France, and up and coming Aussie star Jaxon Evans, will see further action in the motor race today.

Calvert-Jones takes quite the impact on the barrier!  Bang!  He absolutely slammed it!  This means the safety car is deployed for the first time in this motor race.  At the restart, the action is frantic, but speaking of frantic, there's more spins, and more thrills and spills to come, courtesy of the #27 HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3!  More strife too for the aforementioned #96 MARC Cars entry, who had a wreck at Forrest Elbow that the Ferrari got caught in, or it could have been that the MARC Cars machine was caught in the Ferrari's spin.  Car #27 being shared by Nick Foster, Tim Slade, and Nick Percat, all veterans of Australian motorsport and Foster, a touring car veteran who has acclimated well to GT3 competition.

In the third hour, we've reached 1/4 distance.  The safety car came out after the aforementioned Nick Percat shemozzle.  At the restart, it's a drag race down Conrod straight as Steve Kane in the Bentley Continental GT3 is eating up Maximilian Buhk!  These two blokes are door to door down Conrod, look.  Kane, the Briton, is sharing the first of the two factory Bentley Continental GT3's, (with 100 added to their traditional race numbers for Bentley's 100th anniversary), with regular IGTC team mates Jules Gounon of France and Jordan Pepper of South Africa.

The sister #108 Bentley is being shared by it's core trio of Spaniard Andy Soucek, Monagasque Vincent Abril, and Belgian Maxime Soulet.  This is on the run up Mountain Straight on the back end of the course, not down Conrod.  Apologies for the misidentified location.  Meanwhile, big damage... big damage, look, for the #760 Aston Martin R-Motorsports Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the Pro Am class!  Andreas Baenzinger of Switzerland has gone off the road, big style!  The whole nose of the car is heavily crunched, with water pouring out of the radiator.

So, it's likely game over for Baenzinger, along with countryman Florian Kamelger, Australia's Peter Leemhuis, and Brit Matt Parry.  Baenzinger lost control at the exit of The Chase.  The green flag waves again, and the battles are hot and heavy.  At the sharp end, it's BMW vs. Mercedes!  Martin Tomczyk is nearly sent into a spin, look, and takes a tail wagging ride as he is nerfed from behind by the #888 Lowndes/Whincup/Van Gisbergen Mercedes!  Kenny Habul tries to make a pass on the Ginetta, but it didn't work out so well for the SunEnergy1 team owner.

Habul, the American is sharing with Dominik Baumann of Austria and Thomas Jaeger of Germany, and he was valiantly trying to go inside the #55 Ginetta, that we saw in strife earlier.  But that maneuver just wasn't on.  He was way too close to the Ginetta and it all could've ended in tears.  The metal drain grates along the public roads here at Bathurst almost claim a Porsche GT4 car, and then, into Hell corner there was a rugby tackle.  Argy bargy between the #777 Mercedes AMG GT3 sponsored by The Bend Motorsports Park, with Yasser Shahin at the wheel of it, and the #29 Trofeo Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Shahin is sharing the #777, with fellow Aussie's and Supercars veterans David Reynolds and Luke Youlden.  The Lamborghini has a four driver squad, with Jim Manollos, Ben Porter, Supercars veteran Dean Canto, and former Formula 1 driver from Italy, Ivan Capelli.  Capelli ran 98 career F1 races for teams the likes of Tyrrell, AGS, March, Leyton House, Ferrari, and Jordan Grand Prix.  Later in the 1990s he raced in the German Super Touring touring car series with BMS Scuderia Italia aboard a Nissan Primera.  Mark Griffith, on the front straight, gets his Mercedes AMG GT3 out of shape, fishtailing after putting two wheels over the white line.  Griffith is sponsoring the car, and driving with Dutchman Yelmer Buurman, and a familiar face to IMSA regulars, Christina Nielsen, aboard the #19 entered by Black Falcon and Team Nineteen.

That was a 150 meter tank slapper for poor old Griffith before he gathered it up and continued.  After three hours, here is the top ten.

1. #888 A-Pro Lowndes/Whincup/Van Gisbergen     Mercedes AMG GT3
2. #42 A-Pro   Farfus/Mostert/Tomczyk                    BMW M6 GT3
3. #22 A-Pro   Van der Linde/Tander/Vervisch          Audi R8 LMS
4. #62 A-Pro   Dennis/Vaxiviere/Kirchhofer             Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
5. #18 A-Pro   Imperatori/Jarvis/Liberati                  Nissan GT-R GT3
6. #107 A-Pro Kane/Gounon/Pepper                        Bentley Continental GT3
7. #108 A-Pro Soucek/Soulet/Abril                          Bentley Continental GT3
8. #999 A-Pro Buhk/Marciello/Goetz                      Mercedes AMG GT3
9. #51 A-P/A Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda                    Ferrari 488 GT3
10. #75 A-P/A Habul/Baumann/Jaeger                    Mercedes AMG GT3 

In the fourth hour, after his near miss with the BMW, Craig Lowndes hits the pit lane and hands the Vodafone Mercedes #888 to seven-time Aussie Supercars champion, Jamie Whincup, but Lowndes is none too happy with his drive so far.  Lowndes did a double stint.  In the fifth hour, the lead changes hands as the #18 Nissan GT-R GT3 goes ahead of the Schnitzer BMW M6 GT3.  On the run into The Cutting, major argy bargy as Garth Tander in the Audi R8 has no place to go, and... thud!  He clouts the back of Christina Nielsen's #19 Mercedes!  So, repair bills and insurance claims may have to be discussed between Black Falcon and Audi Sport Team Valvoline.

He tried avoiding the big AMG, but there was nowhere to go before, ker-runch!  Nielsen and Tandy limp their way back to the pits, with big damage to both cars.  Drivers feel both the pressure, and the heat, as the grueling race at The Mountain, continues.

1.  #42 A-Pro   Farfus/Mostert/Tomczyk                    BMW M6 GT3
2. #999 A-Pro Buhk/Marciello/Goetz                         Mercedes AMG GT3
3. #2 A-Pro Mies/Haase/Winkelhock                         Audi R8 LMS
4. #62 A-Pro Dennis/Vaxiviere/Kirchhofer               Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
5. #108 A-Pro Soucek/Soulet/Abril                          Bentley Continental GT3
6. #18 A-Pro   Imperatori/Jarvis/Liberati                  Nissan GT-R GT3
7. #107 A-Pro Kane/Gounon/Pepper                        Bentley Continental GT3
8. #77 A-Pro Engel/Stolz/Paffett                              Mercedes AMG GT3
9. #912 A-Pro Werner/Olsen/Campbell                    Porsche 911 GT3R
10. #911 A-Pro Dumas/Muller/Jaminet                    Porsche 911 GT3R

The Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche's are creeping up into the top ten, car #912 of Dirk Werner of Germany, Dennis Olsen of Norway and Australia's Matt Campbell run ahead of their team car, #911 in the hands of Frenchmen Romain Dumas and Matthieu Jaminet, and Germany's Sven Muller.  Hour six marks the halfway point in the motor race.  After their earlier accident, it's game over for the #22 Audi of Kelvin van der Linde of South Africa, Aussie Supercars veteran Garth Tander, and Belgium's Frederic Vervisch.

Problems too, for the #35 KCMG Nissan GT-R.  Former Bathurst 12 Hour winner, Katsumasa Chiyo of Japan is on the driver's strength in this car.  But, the engine packed up with Aussie Joshua Burdon at the wheel of it, and it's game over for Chiyo, Burdon, and Chiyo's countryman, Tsugio Matsuda.  Another major wreck as the #43 whacks the wall and spins out.  This is Danny Stutterd of New Zealand, sharing with Aussie's Sam Fillmore and Richard Muscat at the wheel of the #43 Ashley Seward Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.  Stutterd is out in the clag on the outside of the circuit, spins, and... smash!  He slams the wall.  He loses control into the McPhillamy Park part of the track.

Stutterd's shunt, brings out the safety car.  Game over.  Meanwhile, the intense scrap at the front continues between BMW and Mercedes.  Maximilian Buhk, gets dinged by the stewards for weaving to clean his tires behind the safety car, and then, down Con rod straight, he has a wrestling match and some argy bargy ensues between himself and the BMW, look.  Boom!  Another trip into the wall for the #55 Ginetta.  Bradley Schumacher is having a race to forget on The Mountain in 2019.  Augusto Farfus has lost the lead on the pit stop exchange, as we look at the current standings, halfway through the race.

1. #62 A-Pro Dennis/Vaxiviere/Kirchhofer               Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
2. #77 A-Pro Engel/Stolz/Paffett                              Mercedes AMG GT3
3. #912 A-Pro Werner/Olsen/Campbell                    Porsche 911 GT3R
4. #888 A-Pro Lowndes/Whincup/Van Gisbergen    Mercedes AMG GT3
5. #42 A-Pro   Farfus/Mostert/Tomczyk                    BMW M6 GT3
6. #911 A-Pro Dumas/Muller/Jaminet                       Porsche 911 GT3R
7. #108 A-Pro Soucek/Soulet/Abril                          Bentley Continental GT3
8. #107 A-Pro Kane/Gounon/Pepper                        Bentley Continental GT3
9. #18 A-Pro   Imperatori/Jarvis/Liberati                  Nissan GT-R GT3
10. #75 A-P/A Habul/Baumann/Jaeger                    Mercedes AMG GT3

We see the #912 Porsche running wide out of Murray's corner, look.  Dirk Werner was at the wheel.  One of the MARC II Mustang's is stopped on the circuit.  The #91 machine, in a spot of bother.  That's the MARC II Mustang being shared by Keith Kassulke, Paul Morris, Anton de Pasquale, and former IndyCar/Champ Car champion, Canadian Paul Tracy.  From the lead, the #62 Aston Martin goes off the road at Skyline corner!  Wow!  He got back onto the circuit and continued.  The battle is on at the sharp end betsween two great British marques, Aston Martin, and Bentley.

The Bentley out brakes itself, and almost runs right into the back of the Aston Martin!  Close shave indeed!  The very next lap, the team strategists at R-Motorsport had to be thinking, "right, we don't need this nonsense.  We're not on the same strategy plan as Bentley."  Full course yellow has come out at the end of the hour.

1.  #911 A-Pro Dumas/Muller/Jaminet                       Porsche 911 GT3R
2. #912 A-Pro Werner/Olsen/Campbell                      Porsche 911 GT3R
3. #18 A-Pro   Imperatori/Jarvis/Liberati                   Nissan GT-R GT3
4. #888 A-Pro Lowndes/Whincup/Van Gisbergen    Mercedes AMG GT3
5. #75 A-P/A Habul/Baumann/Jaeger                       Mercedes AMG GT3
6. #999 A-Pro Buhk/Marciello/Goetz                       Mercedes AMG GT3
7. #42 A-Pro   Farfus/Mostert/Tomczyk                   BMW M6 GT3
8. #62 A-Pro Dennis/Vaxiviere/Kirchhofer              Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3
9. #108 A-Pro Soucek/Soulet/Abril                          Bentley Continental GT3
10. #107 A-Pro Kane/Gounon/Pepper                      Bentley Continental GT3

It's game over for the #77 Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes AMG GT3!  Their race has fallen to pieces.  The water pump belt came off, and the engine, overheating, cried, enough!  Gary Paffett, from Great Britain, and German's Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, are out of the Bathurst 12 Hours.  Frederic Vervisch is riding a bucking bronco as his Audi clatters over the runoff area at the top of the mountain, through Skyline!  The car is damaged, but that incident could have been much worse.  The long-time Pro Am class leading #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes heads to the garage.  They've holed a couple of radiators during this motor race.  Fuel pump and/or fuel pickup issues for the #107 Bentley.  No fuel from the tank, getting to the engine.

On the incline, the car stopped.  But, going downhill, the fuel came back into the motor and allowed it to fire up, so the driver could get the machine to the pit lane.  Poor old Jules Gounon had quite the challenge to get it back and after his stint, he needs a cold towel, and a rest.  We are working our way towards the final two hours here at Mount Panorama Bathurst.  The pace all day has been both brutal and relentless.  Some teams have had issues on pit stops with getting their wheels undone to put new tires onto the car.  The poor old blokes in the #55 Ginetta keep finding the kitty litter or other obstacles here at Mount Panorama.  They've been through a lot.  That's why this is called endurance racing.

Plenty of great racing as both KCMG Nissan GT-R's have made it back onto the circuit after the #35 car had to do a complete engine change.  The #42 Schnitzer BMW had a brief brake fire on it's pit stop and the crewman extinguishes the blaze.  It's been hot and thirsty work all day here on the mountain.  Just one hour now remains.  Nissan has done very well as KCMG makes their debut at Mount Panorama.  Some late drama for one of the KTM X-Bow GT4 cars.  That is the leading Class C car.  The final round of pit stops have come.  A brief stall for the Mercedes AMG GT3, the #999 car.  But they had a bigger problem, again, coming to Skyline corner and going off into the gravel trap with the right side wheels!  Raffaele Marciello was one lucky chap to be able to keep everything together there!  Bentley are your current leaders at Mount Panorama.  The final, action packed hour, is, next!

On a late pit stop, Bentley was in contention for the victory, but Andy Soucek stalls the Bentley coming off pit lane, not once, but twice!  Soucek would come back to place in the top six, the Spaniard sharing with Vincent Abril and Maxime Soulet.  The big moment of the final hour is when the KTM X-Bow, from second in GT4, expires from the race in a plume of very expensive smoke.  The #50 KTM M Motorsports car is out.  Driver Tim Macrow is beside himself and must be gutted for his team mates David Crampton, Trent Harrison, and Caitlin Wood as well.  The all Australian team, were out.

Matt Campbell in the Earl Bamber Racing Porsche is coming, dispensing of the BMW M6 GT3 with Chaz Mostert at the wheel of it.  The question is, was Campbell's move on Mostert a fair hip check, or something a tad more belligerent?  That's for the stewards to decide.  Alexander Imperatori is disqualified by the organizers for ignoring a black flag.  ...and now, ladies and gentlemen, the move of the race.  An incredible pass through Forest Elbow as Matty Campbell muscles his way past Jake Dennis in the R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3.  Porsche wins on The Mountain, for the first time!  They've won at all the other famous tracks, Spa Francorchamps, Daytona, the Nurburgring, Sebring, and of course Le Mans, more times than anyone else.  But now, they can add Mount Panorama Bathurst to their trophy case.

Congratulations to Porsche, and to the driving trio of Matt Campbell, Dirk Werner, and Dennis Olsen for EBM (Earl Bamber Motorsport).

#912 Campbell/Werner/Olsen     Porsche 911 GT3R

Round one of the Intercontinental GT Challenge is in the books for 2019.  Four more incredible races, still to come.  Next up, in a date swap, will be the California 8 Hours at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, on the Monterey Peninsula in the United States, on March 30th, so, in a little less than two months time.  See you on the final Saturday in March, to continue the adventure that is the Intercontinental GT Challenge.  Hooroo, from Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.  See you for next year's race in 2020, and soon, for the California 8 Hours.  Take care, everybody.