It is time, for the top GT3 drivers in the world, to begin the Intercontinental GT Challenge season for 2020. G'day, mate. We're here, live at Mount Panorama, "The Mountain", for the annual Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race. A word about the field, before we get started. Due to well documented crashes in practice and qualifying, we've got a reduced grid for the race coming up. Half a dozen cars have had to withdraw from the motor race before it even begins due to irreparable accident damage. These cars will take no part in the motor race today.
#6 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Adrian Deitz, Antonio D'Alberto, Julian Westwood, & Cameron McConville.
#27 Hub Auto Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 Marcos Gomes, Tim Slade, & Daniel Serra
#35 KCMG Nissan GT-R Josh Burdon, Katsumasa Chiyo & Tsugio Matsuda
#62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 Luca Ghiotto, Marvin Kirchhofer, & Oliver Caldwell
#92 SCANDIA Racing by Racer Industries MARC II Mustang Coupe Hadrian Morall, Tyler Everingham, & James Kaye
#777 The Bend Motorsports Park Mercedes AMG GT3 Yasser Shahin, Nick Foster, Anton De Pasquale, & Sam Shahin
Because of extensive damage from crashes and structural rigidity concerns, or mechanical woes, these half dozen GT3 cars have been withdrawn from the motor race, resulting in a reduced grid.
Nonetheless, 34 cars are still out there, set to do battle at The Mountain. We start, in the darkness. Headlights on. The field, formed up, two by two. Even the professional drivers get excited at this stage when the start is at hand. This is the only major endurance race around the world that actually begins in the darkness. The green flag waves in the air, and we're underway in the 2020 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hours! Go! Three wide down the front straight into Hell Corner already! The #76, the Castrol liveried Aston Martin and the only one of them in the motor race is part of this scrap already!
That is the car being shared by Jake Dennis, Rick Kelly from Australian Supercars, and multiple IndyCar Champion, from New Zealand, Scott Dixon. Dixon, a man making his first start at Bathurst in the 12 Hour and who won the Rolex 24 as part of the team with Wayne Taylor Racing at Daytona International Speedway, last weekend. Side by side stuff in the darkness up Mountain Straight for the first time of asking, as we see Patrick Pilet in the Porsche getting down to business right from the word go. Pilet is the starting driver in the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3R he is sharing with Matt Campbell and Matthieu Jaminet, his fellow Porsche factory drivers.
Mercedes is in the lead of the motor race and that's the #77 Maro Engel driven car, for Craft Bamboo Black Falcon Team AMG. That's a mouthful but it's the whole team name. Maro Engel, sharing with countryman Luca Stolz and their usual team mate, Dutchman Yelmer Buurman. This trio of drivers shall also be a force to be reckoned with as the race continues. They stream and snake their way up through The Cutting for the first time of asking as the first vestiges of light begin to peak out of the darkness here, in the Blue Mountains. Two other drivers, in a couple of cars with massive power, are making their way forward.
Maximilian Buhk in one of the Mercedes AMG GT3's is in a hotly contested battle with Alexandre Imperatori at the wheel of one of the turbo V6 powered Nissan GT-R's. Maximilian Buhk is starting the #999 GruppeM Mercedes AMG GT3. Recall, at the finale of the Intercontinental GT Challenge for 2019, last November at Kyalami in South Africa, Buhk didn't even get to start the race due to a mechanical issue. But that's not the case now as Buhk is pushing, pushing, pushing. He shares the GruppeM Mercedes with Felipe Fraga of Brazil and Italian Raffaele Marciello who has a Swiss flag next to his name on the Bathurst entry list, but he is indeed an Italian.
The cars bottom out as they make their way down the mountain through The Dipper. This corner has been compared to The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca Raceway, a place where Intercontinental GT Challenge used to race, but no longer, and this corner, the Dipper, is just as extreme as Laguna Seca's Corkscrew, if not more so. Heavy cars, and cold tires. It's cold for the cars, but we already have an ambient temperature of 30 degress Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), as we are in the throes of the Australian summer. Nonetheless, the tires are still cold as the cars begin their journey on the mountain, thundering through the darkness.
Maximilian Buhk continues to lead the opening stages, a GT3 worldwide champion he is, leading Frenchman Patrick Pilet in the Porsche, with Ben Barnicoat third aboard the McLaren. The margin between Buhk and Pilet stands at one second exactly. Barnicoat is at the helm of one of just two McLaren 720S GT3's in the field for this race, sharing the 59Racing/EMA Racing McLaren with countryman Tom Blomqvist and Portuguese driver, Alvaro Parente, a man who has a knack for being able to drive one of these GT3 cars extremely well. He competed with Bentley last year but is now back at McLaren where he began his career in GT3.
Fourth place belongs to Alexandre Imperatori, and he is followed immediately by multiple Bathurst champion, in an Australian Supercar, Craig Lowndes. Lowndes is the starting driver in car #1 for Earl Bamber Motorsports. Bamber, the Le Mans 24 Hours winner for Porsche, from New Zealand is not just Lowndes' co-driver, but also the team owner. This is his operation, Earl Bamber Motorsports. Bamber is sharing the car, with Lowndes and with his longtime Porsche factory teammate in the U.S.A., the rapid Belgian, Laurens Vanthoor. Lowndes has had nine victories here at Bathurst, between both the Bathurst 1,000 for the Aussie Supercars and the Bathurst 12 Hours for GT3 cars.
The brake discs are glowing and the headlights pierce the gloom with over 300 laps left to run in this motor race. Dawn has now broken over Bathurst, but we have trouble as we fast forward to the next phase of this race. We've got a slow car at the top of the mountain, and blokes, it's one of the MARC Cars Australian Ford Mustang's. Smoke is billowing from the right front corner of that automobile, look. That is car #20, which has clouted the wall, Aussie Daniel Jilesen at the wheel of it, sharing with New Zealander's Adam Hargraves and Steve Owen, along with Monagasque Cedric Sbirrazzuoli.
They are running 31st in the overall nas the bodywork is rubbing with the Pirelli tire. The car is trundling back to the pit lane under it's own steam, but we can see in replay, the driver runs wide into The Cutting, and... bang! He's had a clatter with one of the barriers up there, one of the Audi Sport billboards. He just understeered straight into the wall by the look of it as we can see in replay and a close shave for one of the GT4 BMW M4's as well. In fact, that is the only GT4 BMW in this motor race, the #13 RHC Jorgensen Strom entry in the hands of American drivers Daren Jorgensen and Brett Strom, sharing with Dutchman Danny van Dongen. The Jorgensen/Strom/van Dongen car we just mentioned, had been passed by Warren Luff, the Australian and Aussie Supercars veteran, driving one of the MARC II Mustangs.
That is indeed, the #95, the factory MARC Cars entry. Warren Luff is sharing with countrymen Brad Schumacher, Bayley Hall, and Geoff Taunton. Oh my gosh! Oh my! This isn't good! Warren Luff, the bloke we just mentioned, has brought this MARC Mustang into the pit lane and the car is on fire! Jeepers creepers! Get out of there, mate! Thank goodness the pit crew made quick work of that, setting the fire bottles onto the blaze straight away. We're into the pit window for the first time as cars begin to make scheduled pit stops. Not sure how far we are into this race so far. Can't see if there's the race countdown clock on the screen.
We've seen pit stops already from Alexandre Imperatori, Chaz Mostert, and Markus Winkelhock. Imperatori in the Nissan. Chaz Mostert is the starting driver in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsports BMW M6 GT3 and that is an international team. Aussie, Mostert, is sharing with Augusto Farfus from Brazil and Nicky Catsburg from Holland. All three of these drivers were in last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona, but they were driving for different teams. Mostert and Farfus ran different cars for BMW and Nicky Catsburg, was one of their competitors in the GT Le Mans class in IMSA, driving the new GTLM/GTE Pro Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. But GT3 racing with all of the same types of car on the track, as we have in this motor race is a different kettle of fish entirely. IMSA has a GT3 class but it's run under totally different rules. This, the Intercontinental GT Challenge is an SRO sanctioned event.
Meanwhile, other drivers in leading cars are also making their pit stops including both Dominik Baumann and Patrick Assenheimer. Patrick Assenheimer, the German has started the #46 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3 that he shares alongside Sergey Afanasiev of Russia and Italian Michele Beretta. Dominik Baumann, has started the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. This car is a Pro Am entry so it has a four driver team. Baumann, the Austrian, is sharing with countryman Martin Konrad, with the car owner, Kenny Habul (the American based Australian, who has decided to focus his team entirely on Intercontinental GT Challenge), and Aussie Supercar driver, David Reynolds.
Warren Luff is a stunt driver, original from Sydney, Australia, now living in Queensland. Luff has had much success in the Bathurst 1,000, but its no picnic for him and his team mates at MARC Cars Australia today as the car is about halfway up on it's air jacks. Something has gone horribly wrong. We'll follow that. We also saw the #222 Audi R8 in the lane for Audi Sport Team Valvoline. This is a Pro car with a solid driver lineup, Kelvin van der Linde from South Africa, sharing with Mattia Drudi of Italy and German Markus Winkelhock, the vastly experienced Audi GT3 driver and one-time Formula 1 racer who I believe only ever ran one Grand Prix and when he did so, he led the race. We also see the #18 KCMG Nissan in the pit lane for service. This is the Alexandre Imperatori car, that the Swiss driver is sharing with Italian Edoardo Liberati and Brazilian Joao Paulo De Oliviera.
We also see in replay, how the fire on the MARC Cars MARC II. Mustang began, resulting in an early bath for the team. The flames lick out from underneath the car which indicates the sure signs of a fuel leak. Very, very dangerous stuff, as the crew reacts to man's oldest enemy. The pit crew had the dollies out to roll the car back into the garage anyway, and then, the fuse was lit by some spilled fuel or something, igniting on the white hot exhaust headers. We can see that the dolly is still underneath the left front wheel as the car is now covered in fire extinguishant, the tell tale powder foam of a fire in the lane. Press the Fast Forward button on your DVR and we've got another incident now in full daylight as Come Ledogar has stuffed the #188 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 into the barrier.
This is the #188 Garage 59 entry and the Frenchman Ledogar is sharing the driving chores with Alexander West from Sweden, Chris Goodwin from England, and Maxime Martin, from Belgium, a factory Aston Martin driver who formerly raced for BMW and while he was driving for them, won the 24 Hours of Spa, another race we will see run on the Intercontinental GT Challenge trail later this summer. That car, is done. He's absolutely shattered it in the impact with the barrier at the top of the mountain. That's a sideways impact that has absolute ripped the whole right side of the car away. There is no bodywork on that and the driver's side door is completely gone! Wow! Race Control has no doubt called for intervention from the safety car.
Race Director James Taylor calls for the safety car boards and flags to be displayed fully around Mount Panorama as the driver of the Aston Martin frees himself from the car. He is up and walking, and so there are no serious injuries that we can see, and that's great news! Frenchman Come Ledogar was at the controls of the car when the incident occurred and he's fine. We have our first safety car intervention nearing the hour and a half mark, and exactly at an hour and 26 minutes into the Bathurst 12 Hours. Ledogar has raced here before for McLaren and is a former McLaren factory driver while now taking up the role with Aston Martin in GT3 competition. Where did this massive accident begin? The battered Aston Martin has come to rest at The Dipper, but there's a tell tale set of tire skidmarks and we must know, where did this wreck begin?
We watch in replay as he comes across Skyline and he took way too much curb on the exit at Skyline which drops downhill into the Dipper. He spears across the road and facing backwards looking up the road out of Skyline, he absolutely wallops the other barrier on the lefthand side of the road, but with the driver's side door! Ouch! That smarts! Ledogar should be OK. That massive wallop was on the passenger side of the car and the Aston is lefthand drive. If that had been a car with righthand drive, Ledogar would have been in a world of hurt with that impact against the wall in The Dipper. Screech! Crunch! I hate that sound. Andrew Watson slams on the anchors and just barely squeezes through between the Aston and the wall. Watson, at the wheel of the sister car for Garage 59, the #159 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that the Briton shares with Dutchman Olivier Hart, and from Canada, Roman De Angelis.
All three Aston Martin's had been running together at the time of that incident. Now, we move ahead to the restart after the Come Ledogar shunt, and we're ready to get this race underway again. Ben Barnicoat is in the lead of the motor race aboard the #60 McLaren 720S GT3 he is sharing with Alvaro Parente and Tom Blomqvist, the new recruit for McLaren and a former BMW driver. The Mercedes cars lined up behind Barnicoat, have a torque curve that they can just keep stretching like an endless elastic band. Barnicoat leads and the Mercedes' also get a good jump. But guess who got the best restart there? It's Matthieu Jaminet in the Porsche. "Jam Jam" is at the controls of the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche at this stage.
Jaminet finds himself blocked behind the Mercedes AMG GT3. Maximilian Gotz is at the wheel of the #888 Mercedes he is sharing with Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup, as this car is run by Triple Eight, the same team that runs both van Gisbergen and Whincup in the Red Bull sponsored Holden Commodore factory team in Australian Supercars, being joined by Gotz, this weekend. Matty Jaminet is trying everything he knows to move past Maxi Gotz at the moment. That Mercedes AMG GT3 is loaded with grunt and has the torque from it's massive 6.2 liter V8 engine to pull it up the hill compared to the 4 liter flat six engine in the back of the Porsche.
More jostling for position down the order as we watch another of the Audi's trying to make a pass. That's the #9 Hallmarc Pro Am Audi R8 with an all Australian driving trio. Marc Cini is sharing the car with Australian Supercars veterans Dean Fiore and Lee Holdsworth. The cars wriggle their way up the hill through Griffins Bend and The Cutting. Ben Barnicoat controlled the restart extremely well, holding back the field before punching the throttle just before getting into Murray's corner, the final turn here at Mount Panorama Bathurst. Barnicoat has a half a second margin through the first sector over the top of the mountain with the other cars following liner stern in single file formation at this moment.
Maxi Gotz gets a tad loose going across going across Skyline. Jaminet, in the Porsche, may have had an advantage on his tires as the Pirelli tires he is using may have had an extra heat cycle gone through them. Whoops! We have a stalled car at the top of the mountain. That's the #6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 done up in the concentric circle psychedelic paint scheme reminiscent of the BMW M1 Procar and GT car from back in the early 1980s that was particularly driven in a very wet race at the Silverstone 6 Hours by Hans Stuck and Hans Heyer. Stuck also drove this car at Le Mans in 1981 with Formula 1 veteran Jean Pierre Jarier and Helmut Henzler. He and Heyer were reunited in the car for the finale, the Brands Hatch 1,000 Kilometers, but they spun and crashed out.
Anyhow, back to the modern racing at hand and this tribute liveried Lamborghini is stalled on the road. The Honda NSX GT3 has hit the lane due to a puncture. That's the #30 Team Honda Racing factory car, the only NSX in the field, being shared by Dane Cameron, Renger van der Zande, and Mario Farnbacher. The American and the Dutchman are rivals on the IMSA circuit, but, they are teamed together for Intercontinental GT Challenge, starting here at Bathurst. We've got the safety car on standby as this Lamborghini with it's retro livery does not appear it'll move anytime soon. The marshals are giving the Lamborghini all the chances they can, to get going. He's gunning the engine, but will the car move?
This is the #6 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 with a quartet of Australians on the drivers strength. Adrian Deitz sharing with Antonio "Tony" D'Alberto, Julian Westwood, and Cameron McConville, a longtime veteran of Aussie Supercars as is D'Alberto. We watch in replay at The Dipper, the Sparesbox Dipper, to give it it's full name, and again, classic. Turn into the corner too sharp, and wallop! He slams the wall on the inside, pancaking the left side of the Lamborghini. The right hand side of that automobile looks great, and would be the side if you were to photograph the car and put it up for sale, but the left hand side has to be knackered. One, slightly used Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Needs bodywork repair. Please call for inquiries.
Safety cars breed safety cars as we have our second safety car for another single car incident. After a great early stint for Dane Cameron, the #30 Honda NSX that we've mentioned, has had a spot of bother ever since. Uh oh. Fast forward and more calamity at the top of the mountain, look. Through the dust cloud, lets see what's happened here. In the dust cloud we find the #22 Team Valvoline Audi R8. Cough, cough, cough. Let's see what's going on. The left front corner is knackered on that automobile. This is the car being shared by Aussie Supercars veteran Garth Tander, Audi Customer Racing drivers Mirko Bortolotti of Italy (a former Lamborghini driver, now driving for the sister brand at Audi under the VW/Audi umbrella), and Christopher Mies of Germany, another veteran of the Audi Sport GT3 program.
Garth Tander has had a huge shunt at the top of the mountain and the left front wheel has been ripped off the car and we are under Full Course Yellow for the third time in the Bathurst 12 Hours. Garth Tander is moving around in the car but appears to have had his bell rung. The marshals have not gotten the all clear from Race Control as yet, to retrieve the car or tend to Garth Tander if any medical assistance is needed. They need to wait for a call over the radio to do so. This is a blind corner and even though they are under yellow, the cars are still hot, they are still screaming through that area of the track. Tander opens the door and he appears to be unbuckling his safety belts and climbing out.
The marshals do get to Garth Tander's aid and the whole top ten in the field right now is headed for pit lane for service. Mattia Drudi in the Audi, Maxime Soulet, in the Bentley, and Thomas Preining in one of the Porsche's have come to the pit lane, or, they have come through the accident zone with no damage being accrued. Garth Tander is out of the car and the Race Solutions medical team of EMT's and doctors will examine him to make sure he is well after that massive accident. OK. In replay, at first glance it looks like aero wash from one of the Porsche's, but no, no, no. It wasn't that. It was the fact that Tander was going up the inside headed to Skyline and the two team cars from Audi Sport Team Valvoline made contact. Garth Tander went up the inside and lost control after coming across Dries Vanthoor in the sister car.
From onboard, the team car is wide, and Tander loses grip and spins off into the gravel trap and hits the wall! The impact is so hard, it knocks the rear view mirror off of it's mounting point on the top of the windscreen inside the car! Whack, screech, thud! That was a bad one, ladies and gentlemen. That had to be aerodynamically induced understeer. A little bit of push. So, now that incident is cleaned up, and we have more fun and frolics with GT3 cars on a restart here at Mount Panorama! Three wide into Hell Corner ain't gonna work, boys. Two cars in one corner for the #18 KCMG Nissan GT-R of J.P. de Oliveira! He got two cars into one corner, carving his way through the field!
The Nissan GT-R "Godzilla" is passing cars like no other today, here at The Mountain. Romain Dumas in the NED Australian Whiskey #12 Porsche 911 GT3R is giving that car a good run. That's the NED Racing Team and Dumas, the Frenchman shares the car with team boss, American David Calvert-Jones, and Australian Porsche driver, Jaxon Evans, spelled with an X instead of being spelled, Jackson, as you'd expect. Good to see Romain Dumas back behind the wheel of a Porsche. Dumas is doing his best to stay out of the way of the battles, keeping his nose clean. Everyone else is taking the opportunities they are being given.
We've got more on track drama as the Bathurst 12 Hour continues. The #24 Bostik Smart Adhesives Australia Audi R8 is stopped on the road. This is a Pro Am entry with four Australian's sharing the driving duties. Tony Bates, Geoff Emery, Max Twigg, and Dylan O'Keeffe on the roster. This is an Evo Audi R8 AND IT HAS NO DRIVE. We see some contact coming down through The Dipper and that was the Mann Filter Mercedes AMG GT3, Jamie Whincup at the wheel of it, spinning out the #9 Hallmarc Audi. Two of the Porsche's were right behind that mess as that Audi was rotated into a complete 360. Whincup was trying to go inside of Marc Cini, assuming Cini would move out of the way and he didn't.
Poor old Laurens Vanthoor had to take evasive action aboard the Meguiars #1 Porsche. The Hallmarc Audi tags the wall with the left front corner but right in Whincup's face! Jamie Whincup and Laurens Vanthoor were both lucky blokes to come out of that one unscathed! He's nosed the Audi into the barrier without losing dive planes or bodywork, and is fine, but what a rough ride! That car was surely on the whirligig and it could have been a colossal shunt if Whincup hadn't slowed down, but he's a professional and knew to take evasive action right then and there. Laurens Vanthoor even wallops the curb with all that shemozzle happening right in front of him. Speaking of shemozzle, more woes for the #20 MARC II Mustang!
This car hit the barrier earlier in the motor race on the left front corner and went away trailing a cloud of smoke and is doing the same thing now. Wash, rinse, repeat. Daniel Jilesen was at the controls earlier. Not sure who is driving the car now. It's Jilesen or it is Cedric Sbirazzuoli, Steve Owen, or Adam Hargraves, one of four MARC II Mustang bodied cars in the motor race and they've had their ups and downs today for dead sure. Yet the cars are very durable and stout racing cars not designed for all out pace like a GT3 car. They are designed for durability. More agricultural racing here at Mount Panorama as the Bathurst 12 Hour rolls on. That's the #30 Honda NSX GT3, the Motul sponsored Team Honda Racing entry.
He straightlined the corner at The Chase. That's a very fast section of this track. Markus Winkelhock is plugged into the Audi for Audi Sport Team Valvoline. That's car #222 that we saw in a collision earlier on. Winkelhock was in front of the Honda NSX. Winkelhock has won multiple times in endurance racing especially at the Nurburgring 24 Hours and at another of the Intercontinental GT Challeng crown jewels, the crown jewel, the Spa 24 Hours. We move ahead in the motor race to find dramas for the #76 Castrol R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3. This is the car of Jake Dennis, Rick Kelly, and Scott Dixon.
They've had a rral tough weekend and of course R-Motorsport had that huge shunt with their team car, the gray and blue #62 car that was so badly damaged it was forced to the sidelines and could take no further part in the proceedings here at Bathurst. Right now, the pit crew goes to work on the front end of the #76 Dennis/Kelly/Dixon entry. Dennis, Kelly, & Dixon. Sounds like a law firm, doesn't it? In the garage, everyone on the pit crew can be tornw at it in order to work on it. The AMG sourced yet Aston Martin branded and tweaked V8 is in the front of the car but set so far back in the chassis it could nearly be called a mid-engine car.
The car shares the engine with the road going Aston Martin's and it's been tuned and worked on the fueling map. The pit crew is working on the front end. There's some scars on the rear end of the car. This will be a long stop as Jake Dennis stays in the car. The amount of dust and dirt on the road, with the wind picking up again, is staggering and there will be more clag on the road soon no doubt. We fast forward again to another segment of this race as it continues and we see a slow Porsche at the top of the mountain coming down the hill. It's one of the leading contenders from Porsche! It's the #911 Absolute Racing car with Patrick Pilet behind the wheel.
Patrick Pilet is well inside the top ten, but he isn't up to speed by the look of it and is being passed left and right. We might just be seeing the first chink in the Weissach/Stuttgart armor for the Porsche brigade. That car may have a slow right rear puncture even though the tires all look to be up to pressure and properly inflated from this angle. Ah. It's sitting low on the right rear corner, and yes, there is a flat right rear Pirelli tire as he makes his way onto Conrod straight. Is it a puncture, or a structural failure of the tire?
It's got to be a puncture and the car is rtrailing on the deck. Poor old Patrick Pilet is hoping to get back to the pit lane ASAP. They will lose a lap after all this mess. They were 14 laps into their stint and the only good thing is if they give him fuel and fresh tires now, he may be able to stay in the car until the end of the fuel load. Maybe a stint and a half. It's not disastrous but they will lose track position under gren flag racing. He's done a great jon bringing the car back and without the tire ripping itself to pieces, flailing around, damaging the rear fender. Another well honed team is repairing their car in the garage. That's the #2 Audi Sport Team Valvoline entry for Christopher Haase, Dries Vanthoor, and Frederic Vervisch, the two Germans and the Belgian, are Audi Sport veterans in GT3 racing.
They are making reapirs to the back of the car within the engine bay. Now, we have a replay from the top of Mount Panorama, going across Skylin, onboard with Maro Engel in the #77 Mercedes AMG GT3, the Craft Bamboo Black Falcon car. Engel is second to the Bentley which has been leading this motor race for a good while and that's why we haven't really talked about them because they've serenely been whistling off into the distance. However, Maro Engel does have some argy bargy giving the Bentley a love tap. Meanwhile, Maxime Soulet, in the leading #8 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 is being delayed significantly by lapped traffic. This is the #7 car, of Maxime Soulet of Belgium, sharing with Jules Gounon of France and Jordan Pepper from South Africa.
The sister #8 Bentley is the all British crew of Alex Buncombe, Oliver Jarvis, and Sebastian Morris. The gap is 6/10ths of a second. Meantime, Audi #2 remains in the garage, being repaired and there's nothing that Dries Vanthoor can do but wait until his mechanics have fixed the problem. It's the mechanic's job to fix the car and the driver's job to drive it, giving 100%, scratch that, 110% at all times. That's modern endurance sports car racing for you. Instead of just preserving the car, you have to go flat out to be able to win one of these modern day endurance races, so they say. Audi #2 is a lap down and they will be going another lap down. Team boss Troy Russell, looks on, as the team is plugging the laptop computer into the car for data acquisition.
Are there any codes in the ECU that can be used to trace the source of the problem? We fast forward again, and we have another Valvoline Audi in the wars, again. This is the sister #222 car. Right rear Pirelli tire, down, on the #222 Audi Sport Team Valvoline entry, for Kelvin van der Linde, Mattia Drudi, and Marcus Winkelhock. This is right at the halfway mark of the motor race. We've talked about (in the pre-race news flash), Audi's tenth anniversary of competing here at Mount Panorama in the 12 hour in the GT3 era, and how significant it was. But the Audi teams have had nothing to celebrate today. Their races have come unraveled. They've gone pear shaped as we reach the halfway mark, six hours into the motor race.
Poor old Mattia Drudi has had to be in limp home mode, but the tire isn't going to last. It's rubbing the fender, and good heavens, hopefully it doesn't go pop. That right rear Pirelli has only run 16 laps. This is more than tire pressures. Audi could be dealing with a flaw in another place that we're not quite aware of just yet. He took the shortcut through Skyline and McPhillamy Park which are two of the higher elevation points on this race track. McPhillamy is at turn ten and this track is 19 corners, so he's halfway 'round the lap.
That tire was rubbing hard on the fender and that does it no good. There's a couple millimeters of tread on that tire being rubbed away by the bodywork friction. Now, we have even more drama as the #1 Earl Bamber Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R heads to the garage! This is one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win! This is the Bamber/Vanthoor/Lowndes entry! Dear me! They pitted from fifth spot with Craig Lowndes at the wheel of it. He ran 34 laps and we see from the onboard camera that Laurens Vanthoor has just gotten into the car for another stint. They did the full service but then rolled the car back into the garage.
The rear brakes will be changed and the wrap, the graphics wrap is peeling away from the roof. The car was not slowing down as well into The Chase and the brake pedal went to the floor during Craig Lowndes' stint as he explains. The team wanted a safety car. Uh oh. More drama. More bother. One of the other contending cars is crawling on track. That's Dennis Lind at the wheel of the #63 Orange 1 FFF car. Lind, the Danish driver, shares with Marco Mapelli from Italy and Italian Andrea Caldarelli who also happens to be the team boss. So, he's the team owner/manager and the driver in this case. But, his co-driver, Dennis Lind is the bloke in a spot of bother at the moment. He's crawling up Mountain Straight having been running in fifth spot in the overall.
He has a long way to make it home. The car is sitting down on the deck and he's got left or right rear tire down. He's parked it a tad up the road from where the #24 Bostik Australia Audi R8 had it's woes earlier on in the race and this could very well produce a safety car situation. We've had a long spell of green flag running, which has lasted now for four hours and ten minutes. Meanwhile, Earl Bamber has the #1 EBM Porsche, back on track. So the boss is driving the car right now after their earlier issues. Whoa! At the top of Conrod straight, we also see some amazing action as one of the GT4 class Mercedes AMG GT4 cars get split on both sides by GT3 cars! That's the EBM Porsche on the right and the Triple Eight Mercedes on the left!
The Triple Eight Mercedes is forced to take evasive action and there ain't too much runoff when you have a mountain road like we do here at Bathurst. Shane van Gisbergen had to go the opposite way the Porsche was going and had to split the difference. Drama now, for the #8 Bentley! He's crashed that car! That's the sister Bentley to the lead car with Oliver Jarvis at the controls. That's the Dipper and you don't have a small accident there. Remember, that's the Australian equivalent to the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, a winding, downhill turn, or the Mineshaft at Kyalami in South Africa. You don't have a small accident at The Dipper. Jarvis cannot afford to do a three point turn where he is on the road.
He'll have to roll backwards and use gravity to his advantage. Jarvis has hit the wall with the left rear corner. He's going to have to sit there and not even try to rotate the car so he does not risk getting T boned as the marshals are scrambling the safety car. Jarvis has hit the wall. He may have broken the left side driveshaft. Or, the driveshaft itself could be tweaked, because there's a wheel rotating on just one side of that automobile. We watch in replay, and he clipped the curb out of the Sparesbox Dipper, but miraculously, didn't hit anything. Nonetheless, the left rear Pirelli tire is still flat. The GT3 cars pass by one of the MARC Cars Mustang's with it's 5.2 liter Ford Coyote V8 which sounds wonderful but does not have quite the oomph to match it's GT3 counterparts.
We have a king sized battle royale here between the #888 and #999 Mercedes'! Both of them are right in the thick of it! #999 is Maximilian Buhk making the pass on the #888 Triple Eight Mercedes of Maximilian Gotz! Two Mercedes' and two Maximilian's, in a ding dong fight for position here at Mount Panorama! These two are team mates and no love lost between these two blokes through Hell Corner. Guess who is lurking behind? It's Edoardo Liberati, the Italian, at the wheel of the #18 Nissan GT-R. Watch out for the Nissan. It's a big car, but it has the power from it's turbocharged V6 lump. Again, in case you are wondering, in British English, the lump is the engine. The two Maxi's swap places as there is 14 seconds to the leader.
What does the Nissan have for power? Maximilian Gotz has knackered tires. So, fresh tires for #888 and Shane van Gisbergen will get into the car. SVG will do a double stint, with under two hours to go. Jamie Whincup has taken his driving stints for the race to have them counted. The #222 Audi is also in the lane, Markus Winkelhock at the controls. Winkelhock still has the fastest lap of this motor race at a 2:03.9. Raffaele Marciello finishes his service. Poor old Maximilian Gotz finally gets new Pirelli tires as the old P Zeros, they were knackered after having run a 33 lap stint around Mount Panorama. 33 laps, or 128 miles. No lateral grip. Shane van Gisbergen has brand new tires.
Leading the motor race, Bentley Continental GT3 #7. He needs to go for the undercut and maximize his lap times. Jules Gounon is driving, but he may have a problem with that car! It sounds like it is slowing down! Now, this is the only Bentley left in the motor race after the tankslapper that the #8 car took in Forrest Elbow earlier. Jules Gounon is or was en route to turning the fastest lap of the motor race, but he too, has a cut down tire, a flat Pirelli! Oh boy. This is going to be razor thin stuff, ladies and gentlemen. Hang on for a wild ride as we are coming to the finish here at Mount Panorama!
Over the hump, and, bang! The tire explodes on the back of the Bentley. Now, Raffaele Marciello is in the pit lane for what will presumably be his final stop of the motor race. Marciello in the #999 Mercedes AMG Team GruppeM Racing car, has a puncture. The right rear tire is down. This makes the battle between Shane van Gisbergen and Matty Campbell, for second place in the motor race. How quickly will GruppeM execute this pit stop? #999 is in the lane, and we are coming close to the end of the Bathurst 12 Hours. We have light rain falling in pit lane right now. What will this do in terms of how this race is going to finish up? No tires for Mercedes.
Now, we fast forward and it's the final lap of the Bathurst 12 Hours coming through Murrays corner this time. The #7 Bentley is out front, for Jules Gounon, Maxime Soulet, and Jordan Pepper. One more lap and the Bathurst 12 Hours is theirs if they can keep the car on the road. Bentley has never won here at Mount Panorama. They have not won an endurance race since getting their sixth crown at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the fabulous Bentley EXP Speed 8 LMP car, way back in 2003. The final lap of the race is now. We've run 1,950 kilometers (1,219 miles, or 1,218 and 3/4 miles to be exact). That is the equivalent if you were to drive, in Australia, from Adelaide to Brisbane.
Bentley came to Mount Panorama in 2015. Meanwhile, under investigation by the stewards for an infraction is Raffaele Marciello in the #999 Mercedes AMG GT3 while he is chasing after Tom Blomqvist who is taking it home in the #60 59Racing/EMA Racing McLaren 720S GT3. Bentley were close in 2015, missing a podium. They scored third place twice in 2016 and 2017. They were fast in 2018 but had a DNF. Last year, they could only muster a sixth place finish. Bentley has wanted to win here at Mount Panorama for a long, long time. Kelvin van der Linde will score the race's fastest lap. Now, Raffaele Marciello tries diving inside of Tom Blomqvist in the McLaren! Will he make it? Yes! Marciello and Mercedes go to second spot!
The most recent pit stop, their final stop of the motor race, for GruppeM is under investigation by the stewards. Bentley leads. They look like they're on their way to a win as Shane van Gisbergen and Matt Campbell are scrapping for fourth place. It could be third. Bentley has run a great race today. They came back to front with the sister #8 car before they had their mechanical woes and the well documented spin through the Dipper. Oliver Jarvis, Alex Buncombe, and Sebastian Morris gave it everything they had but it wasn't enough. They supported their team mates, but it looks as if their team car is just about to bring it home! They will set a new distance record, and the trio of Jordan Pepper, Maxime Soulet, and Jules Gounon will become a first-time winner at Mount Panorama!
We had all sorts of weather around us that will miss us as the race ends but it could be a drenched podium. That doesn't matter so much as what does matter, is the boys from Crewe in England, Bentley Team M Sport, will be victorious at Mount Panorama Bathurst for the first time! Bentley wins on the mountain! Jules Gounon is ecstatic! Bentley scores their first Intercontinental GT Challenge race!
Overall/Pro: #7 Jules Gounon, Maxime Soulet, & Jordan Pepper Bentley Team M Sport Bentley Continental GT3
Silver Cup: #59 Dominic Storey, Fraser Ross, & Martin Kodric 59Racing McLaren 720S GT3
Pro Am: #4 Stephen Grove, Brenton Grove, & Benjamin Barker Grove Racing Porsche 911 GT3R
Invitational #91 Aaron Cameron, Brock Feeney, & Nick Percat SCANDIA Racing - By Racer Industries MARC II Mustang V8
GT4: #13 Daren Jorgensen, Brett Strom, & Danny Van Dongen RHC Jorgensen/Strom BMW M4 GT4
Two cars in GT4 separated by 12 laps after troubles for the #19 Nineteen Corp Mercedes AMG GT4 in the hands of Mark Griffith, Dirk Muller, and Harrison Newey, so, an Aussie, a German, and a Brit. That's a wrap from the Bathurst 12 Hours. We'll see you next year for another edition of this great race at Mount Panorama Bathurst. But, we also look forward to round two, this summer, at the 24 Hours of Spa, the crown jewel not just for Intercontinental GT Challenge but also for the Blancpain European Endurance Cup Series coming up at the end of July. Hooroo, from Australia and Mount Panorama, for now.
See you in the Ardennes Forest, in July, for the 24 Hours of Spa. So long, everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment