BMW takes one-two at Bathurst 12 Hour

BMW has taken its first win in the Bathurst 12 Hour race under the GT3 format and backed it up with a second place.

Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde became the second pair of brothers to win at the famed Australian circuit with co-driver Augusto Farfus, taking a handy 10.25s win from their teammates, Raffaele Marciello, Charles Weerts and Valentino Rossi. The WRT BMW M4 GTRs were the class of the field and were two of the few cars to get their fuel strategy just right.

“It was the hardest two hours of my life,” said Kelvin van der Linde after a tense end to the race.

“We were fuel saving, especially when Chaz (Mostert) was coming, and it so hard. We are very proud.”

Said Farfus, “We have been so, so close, so far and we wound up having a fast car and we executed a perfect race.”

“I have to say it is brilliant,” said Sheldon van der Linde, “I think we were flawless from the get-go this morning. I have no words. We have been trying to win this race for three years!”

The BMWs did somewhat ride their luck. Two safety car periods in the first half of the race fell right in their fuel window and even a drive-through penalty, which Rossi earned when he passed a lapped car under yellow flags, was well-timed. Weerts served the penalty, then pitted out of sequence under a different yellow flag, capping the loss to only six positions.

The No. 46 BMW of Raffaele Marciello, Charles Weerts and Valentino Rossi survived a penalty to finish second. GT World Challenge photo

The two Bavarian cars finished just clear of the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz and Kenny Habul. The two-time race winner Habul suffered some contact early on, notably with the similar car of Stephen Grove, whose car mounted the wall.

The race came down to which cars and drivers had the speed and the gas mileage. With two hours of the race remaining that looked to be the BMWs, even if the No. 32 car was out of position, but the 80-minute stints looked to give WRT an advantage of perhaps two laps over the opposition. The other factor was that the race’s regulations state that any pit stop at which a car is refuelled must be of at least 80 seconds, ruling out any ideas that teams may have been able to splash-and-dash the cars and sprint to the checkered flag.

So it was that the Arise Ferrari 296 of Mostert ended the race as he started it, on the charge and flat-out. But the Supercars ace knew that the Arise Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 would need to pit for fuel, or need a lot of Safety Car laps, to make it to the flag. Sure enough, no yellow flags appeared and Mostert pitted within the final half-hour, and went on to record the race’s fastest lap to finish fourth in the car he shared with Will Brown and Daniel Serra.

In fifth place was the Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG of pole qualifier Lucas Auer/Maxy Gotz/Jayden Ojeda, ahead of the defending Matt Campbell/Ayhancan Guven/Alessio Picariello Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Bronze Class winning entry, the Heart of Racing Mercedes-AMG of Ross Gunn, Ian James and Zach Robichon in seventh outright.

The No. 36 Arise Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Jaxon Evans, Alessio Rovera, Brad Schumacher and Elliott Schutte took Pro Am honours, but it was the No. 91 Porsche thst was one of the stories of the class. With Bronze drivers Sam and Yasser Shahin focused on fulfilling their driving duties safely it was left to Laurin Heinrich and Morris Schuring to keep the car with the leaders, and they did all that and more. The car got back on the lead lap in the eighth hour and the German and the Dutchman took over, pushing the Pro Am entry deep into the all-Pro pack before it dropped back to 10th outright with the Bronze drivers.

It was the No. 93 Wall Racing Lamborghini in the Silver Class, Brendon Leitch, Tony D’Alberto, Adrian Dietz and TV host Grant Denyer having a reliable run to ninth outright.

The Adam Christodolou/Daniel Bilksi/Mark Griffith McLaren was the sole finisher in the GT4 class. The David Crampton/Trent Harrison/Glen Wood KTM X-Bow took out the Invitational Class, in spite of the sole entrant in the class losing 20 laps while crash damage was repaired.

There was a strong run from the sole Aston Martin in the race. British GT champion Jamie Day looked comfortable on the track from the first Practice session and he and fellow Aston Martin Academy driver Mateo Villagomez were strong, as was local Jaylyn Robotham, who at least had previous Bathurst experience in Supercars. But the youngest trio in the race, and the second youngest in its history, were stopped by a clutch problem while leading the Silver class.

Of the fast cars that fell from contention, the last-minute entry of the James Racing Audi had a great run, Broc Feeney and Liam Talbot running with the leaders in the opening half of the race, until co-driver Ricardo Feller ran off the track and ended his day at The Chase.

The Team GMR Mercedes ran in the lead pack at the same time, but Maxy Martin crashed the car on Conrod Straight, putting him and co-drivers Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier into the pits for many laps.

The Cam Waters/Thomas Randle/Craig Lowndes Mercedes had a short race, Lowndes tagging a wall and parking the car with a broken driveshaft in the second hour.

Grove had the biggest crash of the race at the top of the hill, riding the top of the concrete wall after the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG, which he was sharing with son Brenton and Fabian Schiller, made contact with the 75 Express car. Grove was transferred to Bathurst Base hospital and was being treated for a back injury as this report was being filed.