Bathurst 12 Hour

The Bathurst 12 Hour is an endurance event for production racing cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, Australia in February annually. The event was inspired by the long running Bathurst 1000 touring car race, which began in the early 1960s as a race for cars with minimal modifications. As the Bathurst 1000 evolved the touring cars that raced moved further and further away from the minimal modifications of the original race. The Bathurst 12 Hour was re-created the original feel of the Bathurst 1000, while providing a unique test in the longer distance, rather than replicating the 1000 kilometre event.

The inaugural race, the 1991 James Hardie 12 Hour, was run by the Forcefield Marketing company of Vince Tesorieo, himself a former Bathurst 1000 competitor. Race regulations were based on the Group 3E Series Production Car rules then in use in the Australian Production Car Championship. Unlike Group 3E, which at that time was limited to naturally aspirated four and six cylinder passenger sedans, the 12 Hour permitted a wider range of models including turbocharged and V8 engined cars. Exotic mid-engined sports cars and GT cars were however not eligible to enter.

The first race saw just 24 cars entered, spread over six different classes dependent on engine capacity and sporting specification. Despite the events length the competitors proved extremely reliable with 20 making the finish. The first race was won by Allan Grice, Peter Fitzgerald and Nigel Arkell racing Fitzgerald's 1989 APCC specification Toyota Supra. Second place was taken by the Ford Laser TX3 turbo of Ken Douglas and brothers Kent and Brett Youlden.

For the 1992 event the car manufacturers started to enter large teams with Mazda, Holden, Citroen and Peugeot each funding large teams. The Mazda team grew to dominate the event with their Mazda RX-7s, winning the event right up to the final race held in 1995, despite prominent teams using Honda NSX, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Maserati Shamal, BMW M5, Lotus Esprit and a factory-supported team of Porsche 968s which ran in 1993 and 1994, upgrading to Porsche 993s for the final race in 1995.

Facing rising costs the race was moved from Bathurst at Easter to Eastern Creek Raceway in November for the 1995 race but the event did not survive into 1996.

In 2002 the concept of a large production car endurance race returned to Mount Panorama as the Bathurst 24 Hour. The race was the centrepiece of the PROCAR series of racing categories which included Nations Cup GT series, the GT Performance series for Sports Saloons and the GT-Production Car series for sedans. While it's focus was closer to GT racing, and successfully attracted Porsche, Ferrari and Mosler teams from Europe the race was short-lived.

The 12 Hour was successfully revived in 2007 close to its original concept as a race for sports sedans and sports coupes. The race was a centrepiece of a racing festival with many categories present. The first race and was won by the BMW 335i of Garry Holt, Paul Morris and Craig Baird. The race grew in stature each year, firmy entrenching itself as the first or second big race meeting of the domestic Australian season (swapping with the Clipsal 500 depending on dates). For 2011 the race changed as GT cars were allowed back into the field. Existing production car teams deserted the race with just eight appearing on the entry compared to 42 of the previous year. A strong entry of 20 GT teams ensured the entry did not dip into an all-time low for the race, but it was the smallest field since its 2007 re-introduction.

2011 winners Audi have confirmed they are returning to the mountain to defend their title in 2012 in what is set to be a joint operation between the top German-based Phoenix Racing operation, a successful team in both GT and DTM (German Touring Car) competition, and local team Melbourne Performance Centre. Two new-specification Audi R8 LMS GT3's will travel to Australia for the race. Leading Australian GT driver Peter Hackett who races a Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 in the Australian GT Championship has also confirmed that Mercedes-Benz officials in Germany are considering participating in 2012.^[1][2]

The Bathurst 12 Hour is part of the four race 24H series. Other races in the series are the Hungary 12 Hour held at the Hungaroring, the Barcelona 24 Hour held at the Circuit de Catalunya and the Dubai 24 Hour held at the Dubai Autodrome.^[3]

Races

References

External links

• Bathurst 12 Hour official website