Australia’s longest endurance race is here with the Bathurst 12 hour this Sunday at Mount Panorama.
In 1991, after growing disillusioned with the Group A cars that raced in the Bathurst 1000 in 1990, a few people organised an endurance race with the principle of “race on Sunday and buy on Monday”.
The 12-hour race was open to production cars with minimal modification. This event, which ran at the start of the year, had four races overall from 1991 to 1994 before being moved to Eastern Creek in 1995.
This was to be the last 12 hour until 2007 when the format returned to the mountain.
From 2007 to 2010 the race was based on the early editions of the 12 hour with production cars from the Australian Manufacturers Championship competing.
In 2011 the race changed dramatically, with organisers opening the regulations to allow GT3 cars to compete. Since then the race has gone from strength to strength, as international support from manufacturers has increased participation numbers.
In just four years the race has more than doubled in entries: from 26 entries in 2011, the 2015 version has 53.
It shapes to be a massive weekend for the race as it competes with the V8 Supercars test day at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Here is all you need to know about the event.
Coverage schedule
The whole Bathurst 12 hour will be broadcast live on 7mate and 7 for the duration of the race on Sunday, with the race starting on 7mate and move to the primary channel during the day. For Sydney and Melbourne the race will finish on 7mate. In other centres it will finish on 7.
(As always, check your local guides for details.)
Saturday’s qualifying session will be broadcast live on the Bathurst 12 hour website.
Audio of Friday’s four practice sessions will be streamed from the Radio Le Mans website as well.
Three things to look out for
What are the classes?
Overall there are five classes competing.
Class A, which will see the outright winner, is open to GT3 cars that can compete in the Australian GT Championship. It has 28 entries.
Class B is made up of 11 Porsche GT3 Cup cars.
Class C is GT4 cars, and is the lowest entered category with three racing this year.
Class D is production cars that have been invited by the organisers, with six cars involved.
Class I is invitational. These five entries don’t fall into the other categories but have been allowed to compete by the organisers.
What cars will be involved?
The event sees 15 manufacturers competing.
In the leading class, Class A, there are nine manufacturers with 28 cars set to compete for overall honours: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin, Bentley, Nissan, Mercedes and McLaren.
In the other categories, BMW, Lotus, Ginetta, Mazda and Daytona are all entered to race.
The final manufacturer, MARC Cars Australia, will race three Ford Focuses which have five-litre V8 engines in Class I. They have been invited by the organisers to compete and show what they can do in 12 hours of racing.
Who are the contenders for Class A?
Picking an overall winner this year is similar to picking the lottery numbers, with up to 15 combinations.
Leading the charge is last year’s winners, Maranello Motorsport. Racing a Ferrari, the team has Mika Salo, Tony D’Alberto and Ben Collins in the team. Collins – who used to be The Stig – will race alongside an ex-Formula One driver and a current V8 Supercar co-driver. They will be strong at the mountain.
Factory teams make sure they are in contention to win the event, so the factory outlets of Bentley, Nissan and Aston Martin will also be teams to look out for.
Nissan, who crashed out spectacularly at the top of the mountain last year, will be looking to bounce back after a horror 12-hour last year.
Last year’s podium finishers Erebus Motorsport, and fourth placed finishers VIP Petfoods Racing are also back with combinations that can win the race.
Tony and Klark Quinn, who own VIP Petfoods Racing, will race with Kevin Estre this year in a McLaren.
Erebus will race with two Mercedes cars, as they look to win again after claiming the 2013 event. The entry of Jack LeBrocq, Dean Canto and Richard Muscat look extremely strong.
Finally Audi, who won the event in 2011 and 2012, have eight cars in the field, the most of any manufacturer in Class A.
Strategy, pit stops, tyre and fuel conservation, and luck, will be critical for each team as they look to win the 2015 Bathurst 12 hour.
Looking for great odds on racing and sport? Get into the action with PlayUp today. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
The absolute vitriol against the Canadian that has come from the incident is beyond reprehensible.
The Long Beach Grand Prix is the Monaco of American motorsport, and this past weekend, the IndyCar Series reminded everyone exactly why. We witnessed…
New Zealand made a triumphant return to the Supercars championship calendar since the demise of the much-loved Pukekohe Park Raceway – as Taupō delivered…
Ricciardo was forced to retire after the Aston Martin driver slammed into the back of his car during a safety car restart but Stroll…
It’s time that serious questions are asked of his Lance Stroll and his future in the team.
Five-years is a long time in motorsport, let alone the general state of the world – especially given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic…
