Bathurst 12 Hour

Bathurst 12 Hour

Venue	Mount Panorama Circuit
Corporate sponsor	Liqui Moly
First race	1991
Duration	12 Hours
Most wins (driver)	John Bowe (3)
Most wins (manufacturer)	Mazda (4)

The Bathurst 12 Hour (currently called the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour) is an endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, Australia in February each year. The race was first held in 1991 for Series Production cars and moved to Eastern Creek Raceway in 1995 before being discontinued. The race was revived in 2007, again for production cars, before GT cars were made eligible for the first time in 2011. In all, thirteen races have taken place: twelve at Mount Panorama and one at Eastern Creek Raceway.

History

The start of the 2011 race.

Cars on the grid prior to the start of the 2015 race.

The event was inspired by the long-running Bathurst 1000 touring car race, which began in the early 1960s as a race for production cars with minimal modifications. As the Bathurst 1000 evolved, the touring cars that raced in it moved further and further away from the minimal modifications of the original race. The Bathurst 12 Hour was intended to create the original feel of the Bathurst 1000, while providing a unique test in the longer race distance, rather than replicating the 1000 kilometre event.

In 1990, Vincent Tesoriero, a race promoter and former Bathurst 1000 competitor, looked at the decline of Group A touring cars in Australia and saw an opportunity to run a 12 hour endurance race for Series Production cars at Mount Panorama. Tesoriero secured long time Bathurst 1000 sponsor James Hardie as a sponsor for the event in late 1990, leaving limited time to launch and organise the event for the Easter weekend in 1991. The race regulations were based on the Group 3E Series Production Car rules then in use in the Australian Production Car Championship for naturally aspirated four- and six-cylinder passenger sedans, but also allowed turbocharged and V8-engined cars which had been outlawed from the Production Car Championship in 1990. Despite the short deadline, twenty-four cars were entered for the first race, spread over six different classes based on engine capacity and sporting specification.^[1] Exotic mid-engined sports cars and GT cars were not eligible to enter.

The race was originally scheduled to run from 9am to 9pm but this was disallowed by Bathurst Regional Council. The race would instead run from 5:15am to 5:15pm, with the final two hours televised by Network Ten. Despite the event's length, the competitors proved extremely reliable, with twenty cars finishing the race. The race was won by Allan Grice, Peter Fitzgerald and Nigel Arkell racing Fitzgerald's 1989 Production Car Championship specification Toyota Supra Turbo.^[1]

In 1992, manufacturer-backed teams began to appear with large teams entered and funded by Mazda, Holden, Citroën and Peugeot. Porsche would also provide factory support from 1993 onwards. Honda, Nissan, Maserati, BMW and Lotus were also represented but not by factory-supported teams. The Mazda team would go on to dominate the event with the Mazda RX-7, winning four consecutive races from 1992 to 1995.

Facing rising costs, the 1995 event was moved from Bathurst to Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney, and from the Easter weekend to November, before the race was discontinued in 1996.^[2]

After no major race for production cars for a number of years, the concept was revived with the short lived Bathurst 24 Hour races in 2002 and 2003. The races were run by Nations Cup owners PROCAR and were dominated by the controversial Holden Monaro 427Cs of Garry Rogers Motorsport. The Monaros were controversial because of their use of the 7.0-litre, V8 engine rather than the 5.7-litre Gen III engines used by the Monaro CV8 road car. The Bathurst 24 Hour only lasted two years before PROCAR owner Ross Palmer was forced to abandon the race due to rising costs.

The Bathurst 12 Hour was successfully revived in 2007 as part of the Bathurst Motor Festival,^[3] with the regulations close to its original concept as a race for production cars.^[4] 32 cars were entered for the 2007 race,^[5] which was won by Garry Holt, Paul Morris and Craig Baird in a BMW 335i.^[6] The number of entries grew over the next three years, peaking at 49 in 2009, while the final race held strictly to production car regulations in 2010 attracted 42 entries.^[4] The event itself grew in stature each year, firmly entrenching itself as one of the biggest race meetings at the start of the domestic Australian racing season, along with the Clipsal 500.

In 2011, GT3-specification cars were allowed into the 12 hour race for the first time.^[7] Despite this, the number of entries dropped dramatically as many of the production car teams decided not to race. Of the 26 cars that competed in 2011, just eight raced in the production car classes, compared with the 42 that made up the full 2010 field.^[4][8] The German-based Joest Racing dominated the 2011 event, with the team's two Audi R8 LMS GT3s finishing first and second, a lap ahead of the third-placed Porsche.^[9] 2012 saw another small field of just 25 cars. Audi won the race for the second consecutive year, this time with DTM and FIA GT1 team Phoenix Racing.^[10]

The 2013 event ended the two-year run of poor entry numbers, with a record field of over 50 cars.^[11] Another first for the event saw the opening round of the 2013 Australian GT Championship incorporated into the first hour of the race. The results of the GT Championship round were based on the positions of the cars that had elected to race for GT Championship points at the end of the first hour of racing. Teams could then either continue on and complete the full race, or withdraw their car after the first hour. Drivers were allowed to cross-enter between cars so that they could race one car in the one-hour GT Championship race and then drive another car that was entered for the full 12 hours.^[12] Erebus Motorsport took the first win for an Australian team under the GT regulations with German drivers Bernd Schneider, Thomas Jäger and Alexander Roloff taking their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG to victory.^[13]

Maranello Motorsport took an emotional win in the 2014 event—the team's former driver Allan Simonsen was killed in a crash at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans—with V8 Supercar driver Craig Lowndes holding off a late charge from German driver Maximilian Buhk to take victory.^[14] 2014 also saw the introduction of the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy, named in honour of Simonsen, to be awarded to the fastest car in qualifying.^[15] The 2015 race featured a record twenty safety car periods, the last coming just minutes from the end of the race. Katsumasa Chiyo, driving a Nissan GT-R, took the lead with two laps remaining to give Nissan its first major victory at Mount Panorama since the 1992 Bathurst 1000.^[16]

Race winners

Year	Drivers	Vehicle	Entrant	Laps	Distance
1991	Nigel Arkell Peter Fitzgerald Allan Grice	Toyota Supra Turbo		242	1503.55 km
1992	Mark Gibbs Charlie O'Brien Garry Waldon	Mazda RX-7	Mazda Australia	254	1578.10 km
1993	Alan Jones Garry Waldon	Mazda RX-7	Mazda Australia	263	1634.02 km
1994	Neil Crompton Gregg Hansford	Mazda RX-7	Mazda Motorsport	262	1627.81 km
19951	John Bowe Dick Johnson	Mazda RX-7	Mazda Motorsport	409	1607.37 km
1996–2001	Not held
2002–2003	See Bathurst 24 Hour
2004–2006	Not held
2007	Craig Baird Garry Holt Paul Morris	BMW 335i	Eastern Creek Karts P/L	257	1596.74 km
2008	Graham Alexander Rod Salmon Damien White	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SKWIRK.com	253	1571.89 km
2009	Tony Longhurst Rod Salmon Damien White	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	Team Mitsubishi Ralliart Australia	239	1484.91 km
2010	John Bowe Garry Holt Paul Morris	BMW 335i	Eastern Creek International Karting	2022	1255.03 km
2011	Marc Basseng Christopher Mies Darryl O'Young	Audi R8 GT3 LMS	Joest Racing	292	1814.20 km
2012	Christer Jöns Christopher Mies Darryl O'Young	Audi R8 GT3 LMS	Phoenix Racing	270	1677.51 km
2013	Thomas Jäger Alexander Roloff Bernd Schneider	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3	Erebus Motorsport	268	1665.08 km
2014	John Bowe Peter Edwards Craig Lowndes Mika Salo	Ferrari 458 GT3	Maranello Motorsport	296	1839.05 km
2015	Katsumasa Chiyo Wolfgang Reip Florian Strauss	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	NISMO Athlete Global Team	269	1671.30 km

Notes

^1 – The 1995 race was staged at Eastern Creek Raceway as the 1995 Eastern Creek 12 Hour.
^2 – The 2010 race was red flagged for an hour after a tree fell across the track and had to be removed.^[17]

Multiple winners

Drivers

Driver	Wins	Years
John Bowe	3	1995, 2010, 2014
Garry Waldon	2	1992, 1993
Rod Salmon		2008, 2009
Damien White		2008, 2009
Garry Holt		2007, 2010
Paul Morris		2007, 2010
Christopher Mies		2011, 2012
Darryl O'Young		2011, 2012

Manufacturers

Manufacturer	Wins	Years
Mazda	4	1992, 1993, 1994, 1995
Mitsubishi	2	2008, 2009
BMW		2007, 2010
Audi		2011, 2012

Television coverage

The entire 2015 race was broadcast live on the Seven Network and 7mate and was also streamed worldwide on the Bathurst 12 Hour website.^[18] The race has previously been broadcast on Speed and SBS,^[19] and as a highlights package on SBS.^[20] The race was broadcast by Network Ten in the 1990s.^[1]

The estimated viewing audience for the 2014 race was over half a million people from 150 countries.^[19]

See also

• Bathurst 24 Hour

References

External links

• Official website