Bathurst 12 Hour

[wombat666]

https://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/

FRIDAY’S opening practice sessions for the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour saw three teams end up on top of the four sessions, with Team GruppeM Racing ending the day fastest on their Mount Panorama debut.
After Italian driver Raffaelle Marciello went quickest for the Mercedes-AMG team in the day’s second, red flag shortened practice session, he again put the #999 Mann Filters machine to the top of the time sheets in the day’s last hit-out.
A quick lap of 2:03.5882 halfway through the final 60 minute session was good enough to keep the #999 on top for the remainder of practice with Marciello downplaying the significance of being the fastest driver in two sessions – recognising the job at hand over the next two days.

“It’s still a long weekend, normally my team is pretty quick at any track we go,” he said.
“Everything looks good, the team is good, it’s just to stay safe until the race and the last hour.
“The track is always improving so you have to adjust yourself all the time. The guys who adapt the most will be at the front but with a line-up like this we cannot be slow.
“I know the car pretty well, I did 25 races last year. I have every confidence in the world. We are all three really quick, we just need to stay out of trouble.
“It’s the same tomorrow even if I am on Pole or Super Pole, Sunday evening counts.
“It’s more to put pressure on others than on us because we know where we are and what we can do. We know we can win, so do two or three teams there. We know where we are.”
Four different brands were represented across the top four positions today.
A late dash saw South African star Kelvin van der Linde push his Audi Sport Team Valvoline entry to second place late in the final session, just 0.0419s behind the GruppeM AMG.

A flying lap from Augusto Farfus saw BMW Team Schnitzer grab third, while Ferrari outfit HubAuto Corsa were fourth thanks to the efforts of Nick Foster, Tim Slade and Nick Percat. Less than one second covered the nine fastest times today.
Friday’s first practice session was held only for those not of platinum or gold rank, running for half an hour to give the less experienced more track time.
Ferrari’s Mathias Lauda, driving the #51 machine for Spirit of Race, ended the session fastest after clocking a time of 2:06.8627 in the final moments of the session.
The end of the session did not mean the end of drama with the #3 Audi, driven by Pete Storey, ending up in the wall at the exit of The Chase. The Melbourne Performance Centre team assessed the damage and have removed the car from the 12 Hour, before either Gordon Shedden or Matt Neal could turn a wheel.
The war of attrition continued in the second session of the day with Tim Pappas crashing the #540 Black Swan Racing entry less than five minutes in. Launching backwards across The Chase, he struck the wall and wrote off the Porsche which won’t return to the track this weekend.
A second incident occurred soon after with the #51 car of Paul Dalla Lana, was struck entering the pit lane by Shane van Gisbergen in the #888 Mercedes-AMG GT3. The contact saw minimal damage to the Triple Eight entered car while the Spirit of Race machine didn’t return to the track all day.

 

[wombat666]

Raffaele Marciello put in his fastest time relatively early in the session and it wasn’t eclipsed, though the time of 2:04.968 was almost 1.5 seconds down on the eventual fastest time of the day.
Practice three saw current Mount Panorama lap record holder Christopher Mies put the Audi Sport Team Valvoline on the top spot, his time of 2:04.5139 was the fastest of the day to that point while his co-driver Christopher Hasse was the quickest driver in the middle sector of the circuit.
Audi nearly finished first in two sessions back to back with Kelvin van der Linde coming within an earshot of knocking off Marciello’s quickest time, going fastest of anyone throughout the day over the top of the mountain.
In the other classes, Richard Muscat was the fastest of the Porsche pack in Class B, his time of 2:08.5664 in the first session standing as the fastest in class all day.
Class C saw a day-long battle between the KTM’s and Ginetta’s with Dean Lillie ending up as the quickest, lapping Mount Panorama in a time of 2:17.3572 in practice three.
Steve Owen in the T2 Racing MARC car was the quickest of the Class I runners, putting in his class’s fastest time in the final session of the day with a 2:07.4402.
On-track action for the 12 Hour resumes at 8:35 tomorrow morning, providing one final chance for everyone to get their setups right before qualifying and the top ten shootout later in the day.

Black Swan Racing and the Melbourne Performance Centre’s all-British Audi entry have both withdrawn having fallen afoul of Mount Panorama’s concrete walls at The Chase during practice today.
Meanwhile, Spirit of Race will work late to repair their Ferrari after contact with the Team Vodafone Mercedes-AMG saw them pitched into the wall at Meguiar’s corner in practice two.
US-driver Tim Pappas was behind the wheel of his Black Swan Racing Porsche when his car made heavy contact with the concrete wall on the exit of The Chase, in front of Rydges Mount Panorama.
The car was seen flying across the inside of the corner at near undiminished velocity before making heavy contact with the wall.
A brief fire was extinguished and Pappas removed from the car, conscious and talking to officials.
He was first transported to a Bathurst hospital before then being taken further afield to Sydney for precautionary checks.
The team reported him to be in a stable condition, though after the car suffered severe damage have withdrawn from the race.

 

[wombat666]

Not long prior to Pappas’ crash, Pete Storey crashed the Audi R8 LMS he was due to share with BTCC champions Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden.
The car found the fence on the exit of the Chase. While Storey emerged unscathed, the team declared the car un-repairable and also withdrew.
Italian Ferrari team AF Corse will spend a long night in the pits repairing their 488 GT3 entry after it crashed heavily on the run into Meguiar’s corner.
Paul Dalla Lana was behind the wheel when contact from behind – from the Team Vodafone Mercedes-AMG – pitched the car across the road and into the wall. The team expects the car to be repaired by tomorrow – in time for qualifying, if not the fifth practice session.
Race Control investigated the incident, finding Dalla Lana ‘predominantly responsible’ for casing the contact, having moved to the right of the straight – causing the contact with van Gisbergen as the Mercedes-AMG attempted to pass.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari was penalised 10 grid positions for their role in the incident, adding insult to injury.
Red flags also flew for David Crampton, who spun his KTM X-Bow into the gravel trap at Meguiar’s Corner in practice four, and Adam Hargraves’ MARC II racer (pictured), who hit the wall at the Audi Sport Cutting and was forced to stop at Mount Panorama for recovery in the third session.
Both cars suffered little or no damage and will continue into tomorrow’s program unaffected.

The link in the first section will take anyone interested to the official web page where the live streaming information can be found.

 

[noddy]

One of the greatest track and events on the racing calander.

 

[wombat666]

I managed to plant myself in front of a TV at 05:30 and thoroughly enjoyed a cracker of a race.

Of course, being shown on the worst Commercial network in Australia (or even the known World) made it less than outstanding but it remains the best 'GT' 12 Hour so far IMHO.
A large part was run under Green Flag conditions while the final pass for the lead was heroic.
I'll leave it at that in case I spoil it for anyone who missed it other than to say 5 different manufacturers at the front and 300+ laps is racing that warms my cynical old heart.

 

[Ferry_vO]

One of the greatest track and events on the racing calander.

One of the few tracks I really should like, but just can't get into….

 

[wombat666]

I nicked these shots from the official site.
Next year is a 'Must Attend' for me with cameras at the ready of course.

Might be a good time to start calling in a few favors for a 2020 'Access All Areas' pass.

 

[wombat666]

Generally the boys and girls were very well behaved on track.
And the racing was really tight.

The contest between this pair was epic, right down to the wire.

With 15 minutes to run this what the argument for the win looked like!

Out-bloody-standing.