Armor All Bathurst 12 Hours - Race Preview

It’s welcome to another DSC first timer this morning - Sam Tickell has been a regular writer on the global sportscar scene for some time and he’ll be covering the 2012 Bathurst 12 Hours for us in just over a week’s time.

As an early taster of things to come here’s Sam’s round up of the increasingly impressive entry.

The Armor All Bathurst 12 Hours is just around the corner and the 2012 version offers a strong local and international field.  The second running of the 12 hour race with GT3 machinery has a gained in prestige in the sportscar community, particularly after the tie up with the 24H Series.  We’ll look at each of the Class A entrants and preview each of the classes competing in the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hours.

Class A

Lago Racing

A regular competitor in the Australian Porsche GT3 Challenge, team owner Roger Lago has upgraded to a Lamborghini LP600 GT3 for the 2012 season.  The Class B winning team in 2011 has stepped into Class A for 2012 and while the car is new, they know their way around the Mountain.  An all Australian driver lineup doesn’t have the name drivers of other entrants in Class A, with former V8 driver Wayne Park joining Lago and V8 Development driver David Russell in the cockpit.  Park replaces Matt Kingsley who raced with the team in 2011.

Consolidated Chemicals

Ted Huglin’s team has been around Australian sportscar circles for many years and his yellow Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560 GT3 has been harassing smaller cars in the Production Car Championship and Victorian State Championship for a couple years.  The car has been perfected by Dane, Allan Simonsen who has proven its pace.  For the Bathurst 12 Hours, the car has Peter Kox leading the driving team.  Kox tested the car at Bathurst in December so should be familiar with the car and circuit.  He will be joined by V8 driver Luke Searle and former V8 driver, Cameron McConville – who it should be noted, won the 2002 Bathust 24 Hours in a Holden Monaro.  Ted Huglin himself will complete the driving lineup.  Huglin is a solid driver albeit, slower than this counterparts and would be the weak link in this driver lineup.

Maranello Racing

Maranello Racing has been a mainstay of the Australian sportscar scene for many years, campaigning Ferraris for names like David Brabham and Allan Simonsen.  Simonsen will join the team to race the new Ferrari 458GT3.  In a test session late last year, Simonsen smashed the GT lap record at the mountain in the car.  Joined by Dominik Farnbacher and V8 Supercar legend, John Bowe, the professional element of this team surely places it as one of the favourites.  Gentleman driver, Peter Edwards has raced in some Australian GT rounds and proven a solid driver, despite not having a lot of experience.   The team will be eager to reverse their 2011 fortunes after retiring mid race.

Clearwater Racing

The other Ferrari runner and the first of the international runners, former British GT class Champion Matt Griffin and multiple Australian Carrera Cup Champion, Craig Baird will lead the driving roster.  Mok Weng Sun is the biggest question mark, not having raced widely in Australia, Europe or the US for comparison but does have class GT titles in Asian series under his belt.  Baird will be an undoubted asset to this team as they set up the car and if they find themselves in a late race battle.

Phoenix Racing #1

The defending Champions and defacto factory Audi squad, Phoenix is undoubtedly the favourite for victory.   A lack of local knowledge did not hinder the international drivers in 2011, and the same would be expected in 2012.  Christer Jons comes in for Marc Basseng for 2012.  Jons will partner Darryl O’Young and Christopher Meis in a strong and professional GT lineup.   This squad excels at endurance GT racing and hasn’t spared expense to back up their 2011 title.

Pheoinx Racing #2

Phoenix Racing is the only two car team in Class A and has an unchanged lineup from 2011.  Australian legend, Craig Lowndes will join endurance specialist, Warren Luff and defending, and two time, Australian GT Champion Mark Eddy in an Audi R8 LMS.  Last year this team encountered a little bad luck and was less than one second from the lead car after 292 laps, just missing out on victory.  This squad has only gotten stronger with another year’s experience, particularly Eddy who gained much pace and driver acumen after a closely fought GT Championship in 2011. Having a strong car and wanting to win on home soil could drive this team to victory.

United Autosports

A team that has surged onto the world stage recently needs no introduction.  Their third Audi R8 will, perhaps be the weakest in the German arsenal but an important backup should anything happen to the Phoenix cars.  None of the drivers have much knowledge of the Bathurst circuit but drivers Alain Li and Frank Yu have been racing together for many years, achieving solid results in the Merdeka millennium 12-hour race at Sepang.  Mark Patterson is also no slouch behind the wheel but the lack of local knowledge and a ‘gun’ driver could hurt this squad.

Black Falcon

The first of two Mercedes SLS GT3 cars, the German team (oddly named after a native Australian bird) are a favourite, particularly after their run to victory in the 2012 Dubai 24 Hours race.   It is worth nothing, however that they haven’t brought over any of their winning drivers from that race to this one.   Sean Paul and Sean Patrick Breslin both have form in longer races with class wins and podiums at the Nurburgring/VLN races.   Rob Wilson has been around for many years as a racer and driver coach and will very much be an asset to the team.  Sometimes Black Falcon driver, Vimal Mehta completes the driver lineup.

Erebus Racing

The Australian Mercedes team will utilise the second Black Falcon Mercedes SLS GT3 for the Bathurst 12 Hours.  V8 Supercar driver Tim Slade and Australian GT regular Peter Hackett will make a strong local driving contingent and will be joined by ALMS GTC driver Bret Cutis and Jeroen Bleekemolen make a very strong driver lineup and a team that doesn’t have a real weakness.  It would be expected that this team would fight for victory with the Maranello Ferrari and Phoenix Audis.

Bar One World

Australian Rod Salmon is back for another tilt at Bathurst glory after taking class and overall wins in 2008 and 2009 when it was a production car race.  Salmon is a long time racer in Australia, mainly participating in the Production categories.  His preparations were thrown into last minute turmoil when one of his drivers pulled out.  At the time of writing, the driver lineup isn’t complete.  The car, however has been rebuilt after last year’s event when it crashed heavily after a tyre failure.  It was extensively rebuilt by the former owners and will be most remembered for leaving its windscreen at the top of a powerpole when the car disintegrated. 

Class B

Class B is a little thin on the ground.  The class designed for older generations GT3 cars and Porsche cup cars has three entries – two for international competitors, Motorsport Services and one for local squad, Tinkler Motorsports.   With two leading drivers in Steven Johnson (V8 Supercars) and Steven Richards (Carrera Cup/V8 Supercars) this team should be favourite to win, should they make it through the 12 hours of racing.

Class C

The GT4 and other sportscar class caters for Production and ‘challenge’ class competitors from Australian sportscar racing.  Five cars have entered with three Lotus Exige S cars, a Corvette Z06 and Nissan R35 GTR.  These cars have all produced great racing in the Australian GT Championship over the past few seasons and it will be difficult to pick a winner out this lot.

The Nissan and Corvette will have the power but the Lotus’ will get their own back over the top of the Mountain.  The Nissan does tend to experience overheating problems in longer events.  One curious entrant is that of Christian Klien – former F1 and Peugeot driver who is racing a Lotus.  The name driver in this field will be the one to judge the other class C drivers on.

Class D

The high performance production cars were battling for outright victory before the 2011 rule change.   Many car owners have been upset at the change and stayed away for a second year.  The five car entry sees three BMWs (2x135i and a 335i) a Holden HSV GTS and Subary WRX STi.  Motorsport Services, campaigning two cars in Class B are also competing two of their BMW 135i cars in this class.  The local crowd may cheer for the Holden squad led by Rick Newman but will have a hard race, particurly against the Subaru WRX led by former rally driver, Dean Herridge.

Class E

This class caters for production cars less powerful than the Class D cars.  Four entrants will duke it out here with 2 BMWs a Ford Falcon XR8 and a Holden HSV XVR.  These cars will, undoubtedly put on a fine race despite their lesser numbers and the BMW entrants should not be discounted against the usual Australian Ford vs Holden battle that the Mountain is so used to.

Class I

The invitational class sees cars that don’t fit elsewhere and has a Mazda RX7 a Mini Cooper and diesel Seat Leon.  The Red Camel Jordans team running the Seat is the final international runner and will have many curious eyes on them, to see what kind of lap times this once-European touring car gives on at Mt Panorama.