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Bathurst 12 hour

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour 2020

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HI to all you Supercars fans around the World!

On the weekend of January 31 to February 2nd was the 2020 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12-hour, a pre supercars season race.

This is one of the years most gruelling endurance races for GT cars. It is so well known it draws many international teams and drivers.

In the preliminaries to the race there were a number of mishaps.

The 777 car didn’t take the start due to too much damage on Saturday. Team manager, Roland Dane was not happy. He said that Cameron McConville should have retired a long time ago. Joke or not, that is pretty harsh!

39 cars were entered but only 34 started the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour before the sun came up, at the unholy time of 5:45am.

Most cars had experienced international drivers start behind the wheel.

The number 8 Bentley started near the back of the pack after not making Qualifying.

Matt Campbell put the Porsche on pole position but co-driver Patrick Pilet started the car.

During the opening stages the 999 Mercedes led the opening lap, then not long after that the McLaren took the lead and was hard to catch from there.

Craig Lowndes started the number 1 Porsche and he did a double stint early on.

When the sun came up the accidents started to happen.

The first safety car was dispatched just under 90 minutes into the race. Car 188, the Aston Martin driven by Côme Ledogar took a turn too wide, bounced over S-bend curbs and heavily hit a concrete wall. He then bounced off the wall and made contact with cars on the left and then the right. The the whole right hand side was torn clean off the car, passenger door and rear wheel included coming to a halt in the middle of the track

This wasn’t the last of the carnage. There was much more to come during the race.

Chaz Mostert’s 12-hour race got ruined in the third hour. After his co-driver Nicky Catsburg took the wheel, in his first few laps collided with a kangaroo. It must have been a big disappointment; Chaz Mostert is yet to win the 12 hour.

Also, Warren Luff was behind the wheel when the 95 MARC car caught fire in the pitlane. Twice!

Garth Tander crashed out in the # 22 Audi between Reid Park and McPhillamy Park after contact with the 222 Audi which completely decimated the 22 Audi. I thought there is no way that the team could repair the car in time for the rest of the race, which unfortunately they didnt.

Jamie Whincup spun Marc Cini around in number 9 Hallmarc Audi and didn’t get pinged for it.

In the middle of the race most of the teams changed brake pads and rotors. This improved performance and the drivers went nuts with grip.

The number 1 Porsche had brake dramas and finished the race 2 laps down.

Towards the end of the race the bad weather forecasted hit with a dust storm, thunder, lighting and buckets of rain.

I was surprised how many crashes there were in the Bathurst 12-hour last weekend.

Out of the 34 cars that were in the start line only 23 finished. Awesome but gruelling race!

 

Results for the 2020 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour:
1st Jules Gounon & Maxine Soulet – Bentley Team M Sport.
2nd Alvaro Parente & Ben Barnicoat – 59 Racing.
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen Jamie Whincup & Maximilan Gotez. – Mercades AMG Team Triple Eight.

Bathurst 12 hour

Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour 2019

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Hi to all you Supercars fans around the world!

On the weekend 1st to the 3rd of the February, 2019 was the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour which is a pre-season race before the Supercars Championship starts.

This is an international endurance race for GT and production cars, not V8 Supercars but there were so many drivers from the Supercars Championship in the race I include it in my reviews.

The title ‘Bathurst 12 Hour’ is true to its name. It is a time based race of 12 hours and disregards the number of laps performed.

In order to do the 12 hours in one hit the race started at 5:45am when it was still dark.

Englishman, Jake Dennis driving the Aston Martin was originally supposed to start in pole position but had been docked 2 grid spots for speeding in the pit lane. Then due a technical infringement by the team the Aston Martin started in 12th spot.

Car #999, the Mercedes Benz driven by Maximilian Buhk started in pole position; alongside him was the Mercedes Benz #77 driven by Luca Stolz.

V8 Supercars star, Shane Van Gisbergen started 19th on the grid after not making the top ten shootout on Saturday afternoon.

When the Mercedes Benz safety car took off for the warm up lap the 12-hour clock started for the race. After the first lap the race gets underway with a rolling start (not a standing start).

During the opening laps everybody was trying to keep their cars nice and straight as they knew it was a long race.

The two AMG Mercedes, cars #999 and #77 maintained their 1st and 2nd places.

In this early stage Shane Van Gisbergen made up 4 positions going from 19th to 15th. An excellent start but there was a long way to go.

It wasn’t long after that the carnage started.

On lap 6 while still early and quite dark car #71 ended up going down the escape road, an error not often seen.

Car #27, the Ferrari driven by Nick Percat got spun around at Forest Elbow after getting involved with the lapped car, MARC Focus V8 driven by Dutchman, Mathijs Bakker.  Later, Percat laid claim that this was an incident that couldn’t be helped and a result of multi-class racing. Bakker was not so diplomatic and did not hold back to vehemently blame Percat. The repair time cost percat at least 25 laps.

The 888 Vodafone Mercedes had a drama with the brakes. After Shane Van Gisbergen had to pit to try and have it repaired the team could not find the issue. Shane Van Gisbergen had to return to the track he was not happy. Little did he know how this was going to affect all the drivers.

Martin Tomczyk was battling with Craig Lowndes and nearly took his BMW into the wall on the right-hand side.

James Winslow received a lot of damage to the rear of his car and had parts flapping around which meant he had to pit to get them removed, otherwise risk receiving a mechanical black flag.

Garth Tander in car #22 had an accident by running into the back of #19 driven by Danish Kristina Neilson. He had to limp his Audi back to the pits and was soon declared out of the race.

When the accidents started, I thought these are going be expensive repair jobs.

On the race broadcast Chad Neylon, pit reporter for fox/10 used a giant touch screen to explain how he believed the strategies would unfold. It was a great insight.

Mark Dutton, racing engineer and current manager of Triple 8 was the Car Controller for the day, which was cool to see.

Shane Van Gisbergen ran wide at turn 1 due to sitting on the left-hand side of the car and lost the positions he had previously made.

When the sun started to rise the race was still under green. The cars that started further back in the pack now tried to make their move to get inside the top ten.

Braking problems continued to bother the three drivers of the 888 Vodafone Mercedes. The crew were unable to repair the issue and drivers were required to use both feet to apply the brakes. I am sure this did not help their driving form. At the end of the race Shane Van Gisbergen literally rolled out of the car onto the ground in exhaustion.

The funniest part of the weekend was when Chad Neylon gave David Reynolds a lift in the AMG Mercedes Benz Safety Car to the race track. Neylon’s driving caused Reynolds to spill his coffee. Chad Neylon said ‘Lesson learnt, don’t drive to the track in the AMG Safety Car’. Reynolds response was “you’re a bad driver”. LOL

Jamie Whincup was given a Drive Through Penalty for passing the AMG Safety Car. Somehow  Roland Dane (triple 8 Owner) flexed his muscles of influence because he got the stewards and officials to negate the penalty.

The last time Jamie Whincup got a Drive Through Penalty was 2015 in the Bathurst 1000 but never in the Bathurst 12 hours.

Towards the end of the of the race Matt Campbell was leading with 2nd and 3rd chasing him down for the win, while  Shane Van Gisbergen was on an almighty charge to try to get on the Bathurst 12-hour podium but the top three were not giving up their positions.

38 cars started the race. By the end of the 12 hours of true endurance racing 15 cars had received DNFs. It’s a damned tough race.

 

Results for the 2019 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hours

1st Matt Campbell – Car 912, Porsche 911 GT3-R for Earl Bamber Motorsport
2nd Jake Dennis –  Car 62, Aston Martin Vantage  for R Motorsport
3rd Raffaele Marcello – Car 999, Mercedes AMG for Mercedes AMG Team GruppeM Racing
4th Shane Van Gisbergen – Car 888, Mercedes AMG Team Vodafone.

The next event is the first race of the V8 Supercars Season, The Superloop Adelaide 500 from the 28th of February to the 3rd of March 2019.

Bathurst 12 hour

Bathurst 12 hour 2018

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HI to all you v8 Supercars Fans around the world on the weekend of the 2nd to the 4th of February 2018 was Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 hour. This is a preseason race before the V8 Supercars championship gets underway The Coverage started at 530AM but the race didn’t start until 545AM on 7mate channel 188. The Commentators were Richard Crail Johnny Palmer and john Hindhaugh the pit reporters were Chad Neylon Shae Adam and Alex Hart from channel 7.   At Mount Panorama Bathurst New South Wales.

Chaz Mostert started on pole position in the BMW car 43 alongside him was Kelvin Van Der Linde in the Audi Car 37

As soon as the cars took off on the Formation lap that’s when the 12-hour started.

On the opening lap there was a safety car to clear an incident that happened just before the Liqui Moly Bridge on lap 1 Chaz Mostert was leading the opening stages while it was still Dark which is when the Cars and Drivers are Faster while it is cooler but once it starts to warm up through the day that’s when some cars struggle to keep up

When the restart took place, Chaz Mostert was flying and no one else could catch him.  Craig Lowndes Shane Van Gisbergen and Come Ledorgar started in 8th on the grid.

Interesting to note Steven Richards was sent to back of the grid as a result of a Technical infringement which meant they didn’t take their place in the Pirelli top 10 shootout as a result they had to start from position number 49 on the grid, and that is the 75 Mercedes of Jamie Whincup Kenny   Habul Tristan Vauiter and Robert Marciello that’s why they started 15th.

When the cars stop near the Garage the engine Has to be Switched off while the work is going on. GT Racing has Different rules to V8 Supercars.  The crews must push and pull the Bathurst 12-hour cars in and out of the Garages, and the Crews must have all the pit Gear over the red line before the cars can leave the pits.

In the practice sessions Max Twigg in car 8 and Kent Baygent in car 15 had contact Approaching the chase at high speed forcing car number 15 to withdraw from the race. In Qualifying car number 94 of the marc cars Australia hit the BP Ultimate approaching the top of the mountain.

I couldn’t believe how quick Chaz Mostert was in the Early stages. Everyone when the started knew not to take unnecessary Risks otherwise they would have been out of the race really early on. Which wouldn’t have a good sight. Shane Van Gisbergen started the Mclrean 650 S because he knows how to drive a Mclrean Shortly after Craig Lowndes got into the 58 Mclrean he had to bring in to the Garage to Workout why the car was over heating so much.

There were a lot of drive thru Penilaty’s a lot tyre Punches a lot of Damage and also a lot of Safety Cars.

With 2 and a half hours left on the race  clock Chaz  Mostert in the 43 BMW M6 GT3 was involved in a big crash Involving the Bentley of Steven Kane also along with the Class B Porsche Craft Bamboo Porsche driver was Kevin Estre forcing Kean Booker forcing Chaz  Mostert’s rapid BMW out of the 2018 Bathurst 12 hour.

Paul Morris had to Pull over on to the near a fire Marshalls post due to there being a fire under the bonnet of car 54. The crash at the top of mountain early in the race was on lap 44 and because its hard for me to see the lap counter it’s hard to Tell.

But I was surprised to how many Safety cars’ DNF’S Crashes and Accidents there were the cars that stayed out were rewarded with either a podium finish or a race win at the end of the day. 

Chaz Mostert co drivers in the 43 BMW Were

Augusto Farfus Marco Wittman.

Will Davison was driving the 39 Audi.  Getting some race lap before he steps into his ride for 2018.

Which is going A Ford instead of a holden. For lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.

Results for the 2018 Liqui moly Bathurst 12 hour

1st Robin Frijns – WRT Audi Car 37
2nd Kenny Habul Jamie Whincup Tristan Vautier and Robert Marciello.
Car 75
3rd J Bleekemolen and T Pappas. Car 540.