Bathurst Thursday Notebook

Photo: GruppeC Photography/SRO

***Teams competing in this weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour took part in the event’s annual parade from Mount Panorama to Bathurst city center, culminating with a fan ‘grid’ walk and autograph session.

***A total of 22 cars are set for this weekend’s Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener following the late withdrawal of the 111 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Eighteen of the cars are GT3 machinery, split up between the Pro, Pro-Am, Silver and Bronze classes.

***Kenny Habul revealed that he’s brought back his 2023 overall-winning Mercedes-AMG for another attempt after using the same chassis, which was craned out of his sixth-floor museum in Connecticut last year, to take part in the race in 2024. The car has not seen any other racing action outside of the two Bathurst races. “I think this car will still have enough mileage left in it for next year and then that will be it,” Habul told Sportscar365.

***Porsche Motorsports boss Thomas Laudenbach revealed they have not allocated any drivers for the full IGTC season. Porsche won the manufacturers’ championship last year, but the drivers’ title went to BMW Team WRT’s Charles Weerts.

***Laudenbach told Sportscar365: “The IGTC, it was one of the biggest clashes I had this year was at the SRO Gala. The IGTC has an idea behind it, which means you have local championships, you pick a race of these local championships. It’s local teams and they’re competing for an international championship where you have a manufacturer trophy.”

***He added: “We stick to that idea. We as Porsche don’t want to send cars all over the planet to win this championship. We’re really proud of that different teams contributed to the title and that’s how we do it this year.”

***It’s understood that longtime Grove Racing driver Ben Barker was due to join Stephen and Brenton Grove in the team’s Mercedes-AMG this weekend before the Ford-contracted driver broke his collarbone in a skiing accident during the holidays that also forced him out of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

***Ford Performance and Chevrolet are understood to have both come close to having customer Mustang GT3 and Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs on the grid for this year’s race but each program fell through for different reasons.

***Corvette GT3 program manager Jess Dane told Sportscar365: “There was talk of Bathurst before my time on the program. For various reasons, it was conversations that happened before I came into this role. I can’t speak to that.”

***Dane, the former co-owner of Triple Eight Race Engineering, said it’s a “massive goal” of hers personally to have the Z06 GT3.R racing in Australia. “Sometimes I have selfish goals for the program that I have to remind myself that they’re self-motivated but on the other hand there are massive benefits of running a Corvette at Bathurst and expanding into that market.

She added: “Australia is a market for Corvette. We do sell cars over [here]. There is definitely relevance. If the opportunity arrises to get cars there and get cars on the grid for Bathurst, then I would jump at it.”

***SRO Motorsports Group celebrated its 30th anniversary last month, which was incorporated on Jan. 24, 1995. The Stephane Ratel-led organization continues to be the operators of the IGTC, which returns to a five-round season this year with the addition of the Suzuka 1000km in September.

***The Mark Goddard-led Eurasia Motorsport squad is providing support for Arise Racing GT’s Ferrari 296 GT3 program. Goddard’s operation was also partnered with Arise for its GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS title-winning season last year. The 296 GT3, meanwhile, makes its event debut.

***BMW Team WRT is running the non-EVO version of the BMW M4 GT3, as the new-for-2025 EVO, which won the Michelin 24H Dubai and 6H Abu Dhabi races with the Belgian squad, has yet to complete SRO’s mandatory Balance of Performance testing.

***A total of 22 drivers arrived directly from last weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona: Matt Campbell, Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde, Ross Gunn, Augusto Farfus, Lucas Auer, Maxime Martin, Luca Stolz, Fabian Schiller, Kenny Habul, Mikael Grenier, Jules Gounon, Maro Engel, Laurin Heinrich, Alessio Picariello, Alessio Rovera, Zach Robichon, Maxi Goetz, Daniel Serra, Scott Andrews and Ayhancan Guven.

***Gounon, Stolz, Martin and several others were delayed by a day after a late flight resulted in a missed connection in Los Angeles. They arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning, along with the majority of the others who were on a different flight one day later.

***Robichon, meanwhile, is the only driver to have contested this month’s Michelin 24H Dubai, the Rolex 24 and Bathurst, all with Heart of Racing Team.

***Defending Australian Supercars champion Will Brown, who will team with Chaz Mostert and Daniel Serra in the No. 26 Arise Ferrari, flew to Bathurst from his home in Toowoomba, Queensland in his own plane. Brown has his own pilot’s license.

***1977 Bathurst 1000 winner and motorsport legend Jacky Ickx, who is attending this weekend’s event as an ambassador for Genesis, was reunited on Thursday with the car that took he and Allan Moffat to victory in the race five decades ago, as well as the trophy he won.

***The Moffat family has donated the winners’ trophy to the Bathurst Regional Council, where it will reside in the National Motor Racing Museum to join the 1977 Ford Falcon XC Hardtop that won the race.

***Mount Panorama staged the first-ever world premiere of a BMW on Thursday morning as the covers came off the BMW M3 CS Touring at Bathurst.

***Track action kicks off on Friday with a total of four 40-minute practice sessions, starting at 8:35 a.m. local time (Wednesday, 4:35 p.m. ET). The second and final sessions in the are reserved for Bronze-rated drivers only.

Slade Perrins contributed to this report