The mountain, beckons. Mount Panorama in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. After two years away, due to the lingering, cursed virus pandemic that has become a part of life in our world, Australia is open in New South Wales, signaling a return to Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 12 Hours, albeit, later in the year, towards Australia's winter. Usually, this race is run in the Australian summer, in February. In 2022, May is the date. Today we have in the commentary booth, Matt Naulty, Richard Craill, and Garth Tander, to guide you through all of the racing action along with the pit lane team, downstairs. With the way the world is at the moment, we have a smaller entry list than expected for this race at 15 cars. Usually it is double that, or more. Nevertheless, a competitive race is indeed expected. The field has gone around behind the safety car for a few warmup laps, and now, with ten minutes elapsed on the clock, the motor race can officially begin!
The headlights piercing the early A.M. darkness here in New South Wales. We've got a green flag and we're underway! All 20 cars that began the weekend, begin the motor race. 15 GT3 cars, a handful of GT2 and GT4 entries, and a couple invitational cars as well. Chaz Mostert in the #65 Coinspot Audi R8 Evo II. leads the motor race through Hell corner and up Mountain Straight for the first time of asking. Mostert sharing that car with Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross. Mostert is followed immediately by Kelvin van der Linde, the South African in the #74 Audi Sport Team Valvoline entry sharing with Brad Schumacher and Nathanael Berthon. Berthon is among a handful of international drivers in the race this year, after no race in 2021 for obvious reasons.
Markus Winkelhock next up in line at the wheel of the #777 Audi Sport Team Valvoline Audi R8 sharing with Yasser Shahin and Ricardo "Ricky" Feller. Nearly to the half hour mark now and Mostert remains in the race lead as the cars thunder through the darkness that remains here at Mount Panorama before sunup. Fastest laps being volleyed around already. Mostert uncorked fastest lap of the motor race so far, but we can see van der Linde has more speed in the other Audi, and he is only six tenths of a second behind.
Fraser Ross is listed as the driver with the fastest lap. That might be a typo as Chaz Mostert is definitely aboard the Coinspot Audi, but the purple time is 2:04.509. That's flying around the mountain in a GT3 machine! Take it easy. No heroics yet. This is not Chaz Mostert's first rodeo. He's been around Bathurst a number of times both in this race and in the Bathurst 1,000 for the Australian Supercars which races of course during the summer months in Australia. Mostert, we have also seen him compete, as have other drivers in this race, like Shane van Gisbergen, in guest drives at the Rolex 24 at Daytona for IMSA back stateside.
42 minutes now on the board and David Reynolds is another bloke moving up, passing his fellow Aussie Supercars competitor, Will Brown. Reynolds starting the #24 C Tech Laser Audi R8 he is sharing with Tony Bates and Cameron Waters, another Supercars ace. We have a good number of those blokes from Supercars in this race all the time as many are handy GT3 drivers too. The fog thickens and the sun hasn't even fully risen yet over the top of the mountain. We could see fog becoming a factor as this race goes on at least in the early hours. The fog is thickening, and the plot of the motor race is doing the same. You won't want to miss a minute of this. Stay tuned, as we continue highlighted coverage of the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hours here on Endurance... The Sports Car Racing Blog.
45 minutes in now and we have a visitor to the Craft Bamboo team who are running the #91 Mercedes AMG GT3. Supercars official Paul Martin is checking in with them, presumably about some kind of infraction. Oh, good grief! Their compulsory pit stop time was a second under the delta time for a compulsory time set by the race organizers. 1:59.9 of a two-minute pit stop! Ouch! That's going to hurt and going to put the #91 Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 and drivers Kevin Tse, Daniel Juncadella, and Maro Engel on the back foot! Craft Bamboo played their strategy a certain way and could not avoid getting dinged for it by the stewards. That's motor racing. Sometimes you're the windscreen and sometimes, you're the bug.
Safety car on the speedway. Safety car on the speedway. This is the second safety car of the race and the first for a wreck. Metal grate, and... crunch! That is not one of the GT3 cars. It is one of the Invitational class MARC II, MARC Cars Ford Mustang's that has slammed the barrier. That is the #52 Wheels FX Racing PNG MARC Mustang with Zane Morse at the wheel of it and his motor race has without doubt gone pear shaped. Morse and co-drivers Keith Kassulke and Hadrian Morrall are going to be playing catch up if they continue in the race at best, or worst, it could be game over for these fellas.
So, this whole mess took place just as the pit stop sequences concluded. We got onboard with Yasser Shahin in the #777 Audi. Shahin is the reigning GT World Challenge Australia champion sharing that car with Ricardo Feller and Markus Winkelhock as we mentioned. Shahin screams past Martin Konrad now at the wheel of the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. Konrad starting the car and he will hand over later in the race to co-drivers Jules Gounon and Kenny Habul. Habul, the team boss, from Australia, and a man who lives here, at Bathurst. His house is on the infamous Conrod straight. This is his home, his backyard. He would dearly love to win this motor race. Can he and his team do so today? We'll see. A long, long way to go yet.
Shahin was behind the #75 car before the pit stops as Luca Stolz was the starting driver aboard #75. Shahin, amazingly, has also gone by Broc Feeney, the young Aussie Supercars star racing for Triple Eight Race Engineering in yet another Mercedes AMG GT3. #888 has Mann Filter sponsorship in bright yellow. Feeney sharing with Red Bull Triple Eight Supercars teammate and Bathurst 1,000 winner, Shane van Gisbergen, and with Prince Jefri Ibrahim. We are under safety car conditions again, early doors, here at Bathurst. Alright. We are over an hour in and we have a report of a penalty for the #777 Audi.
Passing under the safety car is forbidden and by breach of safety car protocols, Yasser Shahin will cop a penalty and have to do a drive through penalty to satisfy the stewards. Pit lane delta is about 32 seconds and so that's the amount of time poor old Yasser Shahin will lose. Whoa! Shahin is out of shape! Out of Forest Elbow, forget the penalty! Shahin nearly loses control on corner exit! He's jolly lucky he didn't crunch the barrier! Tire pressures are down as we go back to green and are on the out lap from the restart. A battle here, look, for the lead of the motor race coming into The Chase. Feeney in the Mercedes sends it down the inside of Liam Talbot and so, it is advantage Mercedes for the first time today as Triple Eight moves ahead of the Audi #65 for Coinspot.
Liam Talbot plays it smart. He saw Feeney had a head of steam and said, "mate, this is your corner, I am going to give it to you." It is easier to see in the lead than it is in second, as the fog hasn't burned off entirely yet. When Chaz Mostert started the race in #65 he was having much clearer visibility. More fun and frolics down at The Chase as Brad Schumacher wriggles his way through the turn. Schumacher in the #74 Audi R8, the Audi Sport Team Valvoline car. Ah yes. He ran it wide onto the grass. He loses the rear end on entry so that Audi he is driving is a skittish if not evil handling motorcar at the moment.
Down Conrod straight again, as the skies brighten over Mount Panorama. I swear that on television, this bit of road looks far wider than it truly is and I am sure the drivers would tell you the exact same thing. This is a three-way battle with the Audi's of Talbot and Schumacher side by side, and that's Brenton Grove in the #4 Grove Racing Porsche 911 GT3R poking his nose in there. Brenton Grove sharing with his dad Stephen Grove and with Porsche stalwart in Europe and in the World Endurance Championship, Ben Barker. So, another top notch trio aboard that entry. The quantity of this field may be small but the quality is deep. You can see that Talbot has to back off because he doesn't want to go side by side with Joseph "Joey" Mawson at the wheel of the #17 Team BRM Audi R8.
Mawson had to be giving Talbot fits! Mawson sharing car #17 with Mark Rosser and Supercars veteran Nick Percat. This is through The Chase again. That's been calamity corner in the race so far and right about, now, Brenton Grove foot buried into the firewall, on the gas, has to change lanes! This is sketchy stuff, early doors, at Mount Panorama! Hold onto your hollyhocks here ladies and gentlemen! More argy bargy on exit of The Elbow. Liam Talbot to the outside, look, gets the squeeze play from Tony D'Alberto in the bulls eye liveried Lamborghini Huracan GT3. This is the only Lambo in the field, the #6 Wall Racing entry with a paintjob reminiscent of the BASF BMW M1 and Sauber BMW that Hans Stuck drove in Group C prototypes back around, oh 1980, '81, and '82.
Talbot was committed to the turn when D'Alberto snuck up on him and had no chance but to brush the wall. No, the other wall, Wall Racing of course, being the Lambo that made contact. It's always a bugaboo passing at Forest Elbow because you just can't see the other bloke next to you when you dive into the corner. Uh oh. A spot of bother for the Grove Porsche, car #4. Brenton Grove off into the gravel trap with nearly and hour and a half elapsed on the clock. Grove has beached it at Hell corner, turn number one. From the onboard camera in the Porsche, we can see one of the Aud's ahead ran wide and Brenton Grove did likewise and had nowhere to go except to indulge in a wee bit of rallycross.
We've got rain on the front straightaway, mate. The skies are opening or have opened already. Deary me, more trouble in The Chase. Jack Perkins off the road. Oh my goodness! Massive contact with with the wall and Jack Perkins spins off after a severe crunch for the #19 Nineteen Corporation Pty Ltd. Mercedes AMG GT3. Perkins sharing that automobile with Mark Griffith and Will Brown. So, you have two Aussie Supercars regulars on that team. Perkins won't be going anyplace anytime soon because the right rear suspension on that Mercedes is busted.
The car gets away from Perkins. He was trying to run on a slick Pirelli tire in the wet, and that is nigh on impossible even with a drizzling of moisture on the road. It's like driving on ice and you lose traction in an instant. Nearly two hours in and the track is soaked so we are running behind the safety car. Australian motor racing rules have this quirk and that is, you cannot weave back and forth to heat or clean your tires when the safety car lights are extinguished. The Aussie drivers hammer the point home... hammer, hammer, hammer, no weaving allowed!
On the restart we have a four-car breakaway. Fraser Ross in the #65 Coinspot Audi leading Paul Stokell, Aussie racing legend, in the #47 Supabarn Audi R8, Nick Percat, and the #55 Valmont Racing Mercedes AMG GT3. The Valmont entry has Marcel Zelloua at the wheel of it, sharing with Sergio Pires (not to be confused with Sergio Perez, the Mexican Red Bull Formula 1 driver), and Duvashen Padayachee. Nearly two hours in, at 7:15 A.M. we will be, and we have rain and spray from standing water on the road. So the visibility has not improved at all from when we went green in the fog a couple hours ago. Paul Stokell, from Tasmania, has won the Australian Driver's Championship three times. He is another legend of Aussie racing up there with the greats like Peter Brock as well as father and son Jim and Stephen Richards, and one-time Formula 1 racer, Larry Perkins.
The #222 car in a charity effort this weekend, is in the lane. This is a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car being run by one of the few four-driver teams in the race. This is the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia Porsche, with team boss Scottt Taylor sharing with Aussie touring and Supercars legend Craig Lowndes, Alex Davison, and Geoff Emery. Lowndes at the wheel of it right now on this pit stop for fuel. This is a Class B Porsche Cup car as we remain under safety car conditions here at Mount Panorama because of the rain. The track is awash and it was tipping down earlier on.
Yes. To fuel a racing Porsche, the mechanic has to stand on his knees on the bonnet of the car to reach the fuel probe into the filler opening. Can you imagine taking your Porsche to a filling station and doing that? I can't. The third hour of the race having started, so. 1/4 distance means the wave by procedure will begin to be used according to Race Director James Taylor. The wave by has been cancelled however, because of the drenched track and the greasy conditions out there. Better safe than sorry, lads. That's probably a wise decision. Tiptoeing out of Murrays corner, we are on it for a restart.
Nick Percat, Tony D'Alberto, and the #45 RAM Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 is now third. This is Garth Walden at the controls, sharing with Michael Sheargold and Brett Hobson. No grip for Percat turning into Hell corner. Percat's Pirelli P Zero tires will be stone cold. Pit lane penalty for car #75 for breach of safety car protocols. So, this is the SunEnergy1 Mercedes. Kenny Habul, the hometown hero, gets a penalty. Half an hour ago, Habul passed before the start/finish line and he passed two, three, four cars, including Craig Lowndes in the #222 Porsche. Uh oh. Two and a half hours in and now we see trouble as the #55 Mercedes AMG GT3 is wheeled on the dollies into the garage.
Trouble in paradise for the Zaloua, Pire, Padayachee trio in the Valmont Racing Benz. There is front end damage and the bonnet is askew. That car has made contact someplace. Nearing the end of the third hour now as you page to the next chapter in your DVR or Blu Ray or whatever. Nick Percat leads over Lee Holdsworth in second aboard the #9 Hallmarc Audi R8. Holdsworth sharing with Marc Cini, the car owner, and Dean Fiore. So, more Aussie Supercars veterans teaming up. It is also a battle of the Porsche's in different classes with the #222 of Craig Lowndes running Harry Flatters in pursuit of Brenton Grove down Conrod straight. Oh dear. Another off course excursion for the Sheargold Mercedes pointing the wrong way through The Dipper.
That is a treacherous corner, so Mike Sheargold has to get out of that area and get back on his merry way, pronto. Those are the esses between The Dipper and The Elbow. David Russell also has a brief spin at Murray's at the wheel of the #47 Supabarn Audi. So that car is in the wars another time. Sheargold catches the inside curb, smokes the rear tires, and spins off, clouting the barriers. David Russell, meanwhile, runs it wide through the final turn at Murray's. We have another safety car on the road with three hours and 20 minutes on the board. We are under safety car conditions as more fog has descended over Mount Panorama.
The marshals cannot see between the flagging posts, the marshal posts, nor can the stewards in Race Control. This is purely for safety's sake. The safety car is being deployed as this huge, foggy cloud has descended over the mountain. The run between the Dipper, the esses, and the Elbow is shrouded in an eerie fog blanket. The marshals cannot see between the f;ag posts. OK. Now the fog has lifted enough for us to go back to racing in the back half of the fourth hour. Markus Winkelhock now leads Brad Schumacher and the rest including Grant Denyer in the Lamborghini in third. Two lapped cars exist between the top three. Shane van Gisbergen is one of them in the Triple Eight Racing Mercedes AMG GT3, the yellow Mann Filter car.
SVG is a lap down to everybody else and there is one of the MARC Cars Mustang's in that lot as well. van Gisbergen will push like no tomorrow to get his lap back so that when and if the next safety car falls, he will be back in contention. You can bet your house that he will be back on the lead lap, if he can pass Markus Winkelhock and Winkelhock, as they say, is one tough customer. Oh, good grief! Craft Bamboo Racing, again on a restart have the #91 Mercedes back on the pit lane with Daniel Juncadella still at the wheel of it. These boys have had a fraught motor race here at Bathurst so far. The Juncadella/Tse/Engel trio are in yet another spot of bother.
Whoops. Press fast forward on the DVR, folks. Four hours and 40 minutes into the race. Safety car boards and flags. Safety car scramble. Winkelhock in #777 is declared the race leader. Now, the order has shuffled a bit. Before we get to this yellow the top ten is Markus Winkelhock, Jules Gounon, Chaz Mostert, Tony Bates, Grant Denyer, James Koundouris, Marc Cini, Daniel Juncadella, Brad Schumacher, and Shane van Gisbergen. Holy cow! #777, Audi Sport Team Valvoline knew the yellow was coming out so whoever their race strategist is, they made a banzai call here to get him to the lane ASAP.
The call was being made by the stewards as they rolled into the lane. So, they might just bish bash bosh this if they're lucky. Mostert also in the pit lane in the Coinspot Audi, the #65 car. Gounon stays on track so the boys at SunEnergy1 they might get caught out here. That car is also being assisted by Triple Eight, the Supercars team that is running the bright yellow Mann Filter Mercedes as well. All the Audi's are in the lane. #74, we don't see them, but we do see the #24 car, the C Tech Laser entry. That is the Bates, Reynolds, Waters entry. As we continue under safety car, you can see from your pictures watching at home, on your television or your mobile device, the fog is getting thicker at the bottom of the mountain. So, we just might be under safety car conditions for a wee while.
Fans here at Mount Panorama can sit at the Skyline corner and be above the clouds! What a gorgeous picture this is. Absolutely incredible! No wonder Mount Panorama is one of the top race tracks on this planet. Alright. We've gone back to racing and will complete four hours very shortly. We ride aboard the second place Coinspot Audi, Chaz Mostert at the wheel of it. Mostert wants by Winkelhock through The Elbow, the Meguiar's Elbow, sponsored by the car care company that makes polish, wax, and other detailing products. Mostert is making his move as the two Audi's will drag race onto Conrod straight. Winkelhock, hanging tough, has to give it up and know discretion is the better part of valor.
OK. Let's fast forward a couple of chapters. We have just begun hour five, closing in on halfway. New race leader with seven hours and 55 minutes left on the board. That's Daniel Juncadella. The Spaniard has recovered and brought the Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG to the top of the shop. Juncadella thundering through Sulman Park on his way up to McPhillamy Park and he has a seven plus second lead over the similar AMG Mercedes with Shane van Gisbergen at the controls right now. Juncadella is pulling a margin on Shane van Gisbergen at the moment thundering once more across Skyline. These Mercedes-AMG's, as we've said before, they seem to be the best overall package in GT3 racing no matter what series we are talking about.
SRO are the originators of GT3, but we have also seen it come across into IMSA in the United States and the German DTM series which for it's entire existence up until a couple years back was exclusively the domain of rapid touring cars. But GT3 globally, has been going from strength to strength for the better part of a decade now. Juncadella's lead over van Gisbergen has ballooned to 17+ seconds and there has been a bit of a change. The MARC Cars Ford Mustang in the hands of Jake Camilleri is now on the podium for the time being. That is the Camilleri/Taunton/Fraser entry. Jake Camilleri, Geoffrey Taunton, and Declan Fraser.
The rest of the top ten as we do a check of the field, is Chaz Mostert, Luca Stolz, David Reynolds, Markus Winkelhock, Mark Rosser, Marc Cini, and Brad Schumacher. So we have quite a few Aussies in the picture along with a couple of the German hotshoe factory drivers for Mercedes and Audi, duking it out here at the mountain. Reynold vs. Winkelhock, and Reynolds wriggles his way up the mountain almost losing control of the car! That was up through The Cutting and a very sketchy moment indeed! Oops! Speaking of sketchy moments, on the front straight, the #95 Mustang goes for a ride and that's Jake Camilleri into the spin cycle, look. He spins a complete 360 and keeps on trucking.
#75 Mercedes to the pit lane. SunEnergy1, is this scheduled service? Or is this a problem of some kind? Nope. This is scheduled service. Fuel in the tank, air jacks raise the car, and the wheels are changed as the mechanics apply the rattle guns. No driver change as Luca Stolz continues behind the wheel, but a brand-new set of Pirelli P Zeros going onto that car. Porsche also in the lane with the #4 Grove Racing entry. They are down the order, with Steven Grove in 12th overall. Brad Schumacher in the #74 Valvoline Audi is right behind Luca Stolz, so a bit of backwards symmetry with the numbers there, with 75 ahead of 74 as we are four and a half hours done and dusted already. So, roughly 1/3rd of the motor race will be in the bag soon.
Uh oh. Just past the fifth hour commencing and we can see drama for the #65 Audi. The CoinSpot car is crawling up Mountain Straight. Liam Talbot at the controls. Now, is this a true mechanical problem? Or is this a reset of the electronics that's needed? Talbot has stopped the car. He was running seventh overall and on the lead lap. Talbot, you can see from the onboard camera is resetting the master control switch on the dashboard. This looks like a Control, Alt, Delete, just like if your computer freezes or crashes at home. OK. The engine is fired and you can hear the buzzing of what is a compressor for the pneumatic action on the gear change. It was a full reset for Talbot and now he is back on his way.
At six hours and 45 minutes though, the #65 Audi is going back to the garage tail first. So, the team knows they can fix this thing and get Liam Talbot back on track. The team will lose time and they'll be about ten laps behind. So I am afraid the chances of overall victory won't be there for the Talbot/Mostert/Ross entry. They are back on track but have a true uphill battle ahead. OK. Kevin Tse continues to keep the #91 Craft Bamboo Mercedes in the lead of the motor race. He is over a minute ahead of the other two Mercedes' chasing, the #75 for Jules Gounon and the #888 now with Prince Jeffri Ibrahim at the wheel of it. Oh boy. Tse makes contact with the wall out of The Elbow chasing down the Audi, the #24 entry to put them another lap down. Tony Bates is in fifth overall.
That brush with the wall was at the exit of Reid Park. It eas a glancing blow but will there be damage? Pit lane penalty being called by the race director for the #95 car. That's the MARC Mustang we saw in strife earlier. It is a simple speeding penalty. Speeding in the lane, means a drive through. Now, seven hours and 20 minutes in and drama at The Elbow for Tony Bates! There's a tire gone on that Audi. A flat tire. Have to see which of the four has been stripped off of it's wheel. Safety car scramble. This is an awful spot to park on the mountain. Would not recommend it. Still trying to see which tire is down. Whoa! The Grove Porsche has to take evasive action as poor old Tony Bates is pointed nose first at oncoming traffic!
Double waved yellows. Oh my gosh! A tight squeeze with one of the other Audi's trying to get through behind Bates! Very close shave there, look, for Mark Rosser in Audi #17! Oh baby! How did he not get squished between Bates' car and the wall?! Here's the Meguiars Elbow and a replay of Bates' accident. He just loses control down the hill through the turn, at the elbow and... crunch! He wallops the wall, big style! That was a massive thud into the wall. So, was the tire the cause or the outcome of this shemozzle? Here's it all again in slow motion from a different angle. The tire, the culprit. Once again, smash! That is the worst sound in the world. No one wants to hit walls in motor racing but poor old Tony Bates, it has happened to him. Game over.
Circulating under yellow, we can see Yasser Shahin in Audi #777 is the first car behind the race leader. Maro Engel has taken over from Kevin Tse in Mercedes #91 with over 20 minutes to go in the seventh hour. Yasser Shahin is fighting to get his lap back, but that may be easier said than done because he has Maro Engel, one of the best GT3 drivers on the planet straight ahead. Jules Gounon and Shane van Gisbergen are also in the picture. Now, maybe, Martin Konrad has taken over the #75 SunEnergy1 Benz. Not sure. Green flag back in the air and we're underway again.
Everybody else was pointed past the safety car and there's a clump of five cars in the lead scrum all by their lonesome right now. Just past the beginning of the eighth hour and we see the #65 Audi again. Now, is it more trouble for these boys? We have to see what is going on. Oh criminy. #65 has been off the road and has a wobble wheel on the right rear. Fraser Ross is chucking gravel all over the road as he comes into the lane and they've sunk like a stone down to 12th in the overall. In the hours of darkness after the start, the #65 crunched one of the Lamborghini's in The Elbow. That only nicked the door but now the wheel is busted. More work for the mechanics from Melbourne Performance Center. Oh dear.
In replay we see the tail end of the incident coming down from Skyline and he whacked the wall and got the tire, the right rear tire. Big damage with a broken rear toe link in the suspension. A crunch into the wall hard enough, will do that. Eight and a half hours gone and Maro Engel has brought Mercedes #91 to the pits for service. Engel finishes his stint handing over to Daniel Juncadella, I think. We saw Kevin Tse in this car earlier. Oh. OK. It's Tse back behind the wheel. Tse has to do an hour in the second half of the race and will do so. Kevin Tse passes Jeffri Ibrahim, the Prince, and Kelvin van der Linde has brought the #74 Valvoline Audi to third overall. van der Linde in second will chase down Tse for the lead of the motor race.
van der Linde running three seconds quicker than Tse and he is making his move, look. This is up Mountain straight I believe. Yup. van der Linde passes and goes to the lead. van der Linde is running 3-6 seconds quicker than the other two. 2:09 for van der Linde, 2:13 for Tse, and 2:15 for Ibrahim. Wow. How close do you like it? Just over four hours left. OK. We have crossed over into hour nine I believe and we have a spun Porsche. The #11 Porsche Cup class 991 for Our Kloud-UpTo11 Motorsport. This car being shared by Indiran Padayachee, Eric Constantintindis, and Aaron Zerefos. Oh! That's the danger zone!
Kelvin van der Linde, the race leader, has to take evasive action to avoid broadsiding the Porsche! One of the other Audi's also gets through, barely! It looks like #11 is back on his merry way, but that was a close shave, again. Pit stop time for Audi #777, but they are in trouble as tire debris has wrapped it's way around the suspension of that automobile. The tire carcass has wrapped around the axle and the other suspension components. This is bad deal for Audi Sport Team Valvoline. Those are the steel belts of the Pirelli tire that have wrapped themselves 'round the suspension system. Not good. Not an easy fix at all.
Big slide for Prince Jeffri Ibrahim going downhill! It is raining here at Mount Panorama with just under three hours and 40 minutes to go. The wettest part of the road is the jog from Skyline down to The Dipper. Drivers will be losing adhesion on slick tires. Rain tires needed, stat. Oh boy. Time penalty for #74 for exceeding mandatory stint time for Kelvin van der Linde. Oh my! The penalty has to be served before the team can work on the car. This is crushing for Audi Sport Team Valvoline! #74 is out of contention. van der Linde has to be fuming inside his helmet and the team are fuming as well, obviously.
Oh dear. Another wreck. At the top of the mountain, the #45 RAM Motorsport Mercedes has stopped. Michael Sheargold at the wheel of it. This is the car he shares with Garth Walden and Brett Hobson. He has stopped at the top of the mountain and is exiting car. Safety car boards and flags. So we have another safety car intervention here. The mountain rolls the dice. Three and a half hours left on the board. We have had nearly two hours of green flag racing. In replay, Mike Sheargold loses it and slams the inside wall up the hill with the front of the Mercedes. That's a massive wallop at John Hinksman vista. Wow. Slick tires on a wet track don't mix.
Big damage to the front of the RAM Motorsport Benz and that one will be loaded onto the flatbed. Game over. More rain falling and the mountain claims another victim. The #4 Grove Porsche has crashed. Steven Grove at the wheel of it, and he's spun off in the wet. These conditions are getting trickier and trickier. In replay, let's see if we can tell what happened to Steven Grove. You can't see the wreck, but you can hear it. Painful! Screech! Crunch! He's slammed the wall. That is a massive accident for car #4 at Brock Skyline. Safety car into the lane after this most recent yellow and Luca Stolz punches it and we're back to green.
Hallmarc Audi, the #9 car hit the pit lane right from the restart. The track is wet with just a shade over three hours to go. Another penalty for exceeding minimum drive time and this one is handed to the #777 Team Valvoline Audi. Yasser Shahin running eighth overall will have to take his medicine and get it done. Thankfully it is just a 30 second penalty as they exceeded drive time by less than five minutes. If it were more the five, it would be a longer penalty. Broc Feeney, the young Supercars talent for Triple Eight at the wheel of their dayglow yellow Mercedes, he almost goes off track but keeps it together.
A tight squeeze here, look, in the Meguiar's Elbow for the #91 Mercedes on the #17 Audi. Craft Bamboo vs. Team BRM. Joseph "Joey" Mawson, the team's third driver, and he is a couple laps down. So he has no business trying to poke his nose in with the leaders. Simmer down, mate. Simmer down. Meanwhile more Audi fun and frolics. That's the Supabarn Audi entry, the #47. Not sure who is driving right now. That is one of the few four-driver lineups in the race. David Russell, James Koundouris, Theo Koundouris, and Aussie racing legend, Paul Stokell.
Whoa! Close shave for the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes just barely getting around Porsche #11 who ws ducking to pit lane! Aaron Zerefos entering the lane. Use your mirrors, sunbeam! That was ugly! Both of them could have been taken out! Zerefos cops a penalty for that move from the stewards. You can bet he won't make that mistake again in the future! Luca Stolz had to have a panic attack when that happened! Egad! More agricultural racing for Audi #47 through The Chase. Speaking of agricultural racing, the #91 of Maro Engel, running third for Craft Bamboo Mercedes is plowing through the gravel trap! He's back on the button now but he was jolly lucky not to bury himself into that gravel trap! Another close shave. Boys, take it easy! There's still over two hours to go.
There'll be gravel all over the shop when he dives on the brakes and tries to shake that out. Triple Eight will have to get on the horn to Shane van Gisbergen and warn him of the impending road debris. An hour and a half to go and the #74 Audi has recovered to fourth. Kelvin van der Linde chasing Shane van Gisbergen for the final podium place. The Audi today has been very quick down the straightaways which traditionally is not one of the strongpoints for the boys from Ingolstadt here at Mount Panorama. Laurens Vanthoor flew around this place in an Audi before moving to the Stuttgart camp and becoming a Porsche factory pilot. van Gisbergen wisely backs off the gas and let's the Audi through.
Press the DVR fast forward again ladies and gentlemen. Just a tad over an hour to go here at Mount Panorama and Triple Eight car controller Mark Dutton is assisting the #75 team on what will be their final stop as they are looking for victory here at Mount Panorama. They are fueling the car to the end and will put four new boots on it as well. Under IGTC rules you have to shut the car off and fuel the car before you change tires. The team is also set up for the sister #888 Mercedes of Shane van Gisbergen to make his last stop of the day.
We can see the #888 car down through Hell corner and he will do an extra lap. A slow change on the left front for #75. The mechanic had the rattle gun turned upside down! That's strange. They pull the air jack hose out and he's down and away. This is the Triple Eight endurance pit crew and not the Supercars team. Finally, Jules Gounon fires up the V8 and motors away back onto the track. Whoops! Shane van Gisbergen overcooks it into Skyline. He was offline passing a Porsche through Skyline and got into the dust and debris on the dirty side of the road. That's where we saw the Grove Racing Porsche crunched into the wall earlier.
Use the fast forward button again and now, we are less than 45 minutes from the end of this great motor race. Just over 42 minutes on the clock yet. Steven Grove had a similar wreck to (if you Bathurst fans remember), to the great Allan Moffatt's crackup here in the 1986 Bathurst 1,000 aboard the Mobil oil liveried Holden Commodore for Brock Racing. He was sharing with the late, great Peter Brock at the time. Moffatt, the Canadian, another Aussie racing legend. A massive accident indeed, too, for Steven Grove when he cannoned into the barrier from the other side of the road much like what happened to poor old Allan Moffatt in the '86 Bathurst 1,000.
Kelvin van der Linde, the South African, has recovered from that botched pit stop but he is fourth, a lap down to the leaders. Nevertheless, van der Linde is uncorking fast laps like clockwork. We move forward again in our coverage and now, just a tad over half an hour to go. Mercedes Benz run 1-2-3 and the battle now sees a gap of 9.2 seconds between Jules Gounon and Maro Engel. Gounon finds another chunk of time. The pace is hot as towards the end of the motor race we see the leaders running in the 2:04 bracket for their lap times. 20 minutes left now and the gap has come down to 8.7 seconds. Half a second here and there between Gounon and Engel.
Jules Gounon, the Frenchman, son of one-time Formula 1 and sports car driver, Jean Marc Gounon, who is regarded as one of the best factory contracted ace GT3 drivers in the world. He won here at The Mountain with Bentley in 2020, the last time we were here. Can he go back to back? It won't be successive years but it very well will be successive races. Five minutes and change to go. Closing in on the finish and there's a yellow. Now, is that a local yellow or a Full Course Yellow? It looks like a local yellow for native wildlife. Yes, kangaroos and wallaby's, and echidnas and a number of animals have been spotted here at Mount Panorama trying to make their way home. We had a poor echidna frightened out of it's wits a few years ago in the 1,000 for the Aussie Supercars and the animal made it home safe.
Drivers who come to Bathurst for the first time are flabbergasted seeing in the briefing notes that there are warning flags for kangaroos. It is Australia after all, mate. Something for the Euro drivers and drivers from other nations who come here, to get used to. OK. Final lap of the motor race. SunEnergy1 looking, knocking on the door of one of the biggest wins ever for them, in one of the greatest endurance sports car races. Kenny Habul, the team boss who lives here at Bathurst. His house is on Conrod straight. He will be delighted if his team can pull it off. 291 laps will be completed. 1,144 miles will be the distance. Jules Gounon flashes the headlights at a lapped Porsche and runs 9.1 seconds ahead of Maro Engel. Craft Bamboo Racing will be on the podium today after missing qualifying as they had the car in the shed yesterday making repairs to it after a Free Practice accident. But they will score a podium finish here at Mount Panorama.
They had an engine change and missed all of the Saturday running the day before this race. The team also had a huge effort to make it here. But Jules Gounon, he is on a Sunday cruise. He has driven to the maximum but has made no mistakes. Kenny Habul will be over the moon, a man who worked for the great Peter Brock on his pit crew in 1987 at the Bathurst 1,000. The team and drivers come to the pit lane. 830 days since we had the Bathurst 12 Hours and now, Mercedes will triumph, locking out the podium. Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul, Martin Konrad, and Luca Stolz win the 2022 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hours!
For Kenny Habul, his dream has come true!
#75 Gounon/Habul/Konrad/Stolz SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes AMG GT3
For the first time in race history, a brand has locked out the podium. For Jules Gounon, he becomes the first driver since Darryl O'Young to win the Bathurst 12 Hours back-to-back. In 2011 and 2012 O'Young did it for Audi. He shared an Audi R8 with Christopher Mies both years and they co-drove with Marc Basseng to the 2011 win and with Christer Jons to the 2012 triumph a decade ago. The winning margin, 8.7 seconds. Triple Eight get another podium. Audi Sport Team Valvoline finishes a lap down in fourth. Fifth goes to Lee Holdsworth, Marc Cini, and Dean Fiore in the Hallmarc Audi R8. The #222 Porsche for the Prostate Cancer Foundation charity team, they finish in the top ten with Scott Taylor, Geoff Emery, Craig Lowndes, and Alex Davison.
They also win the class in Class C. Special recognition as well, to Am class winners, Supabarn Supermarkets Audi. Am honors go the way of Audi R8 #47 for James Koundouris, Theo Koundouris, David Russell, and the legend, Paul Stokell. After writing the car off and bringing a spare car from Melbourne to Bathurst to make the race, they triumphed in class. Great effort! So, the 2022 Bathurst 12 Hours is in the bag and so is round one of the 2022 SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge. We will see you from The Mountain, in February, 2023 for the next installment of this great race.
Later in the summer, round two of IGTC will be the crown jewel race, the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps at Spa Francorchamps in southern Belgium. You don't want to miss it. For now, hooroo from Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. Take care, everybody. Bye bye.
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