2023 Bathurst 12 Hour Wrap-Up

This past weekend, Mount Panorama hosted the Bathurst 12 Hour - one of the year’s most hotly anticipated motorsport events. The Bathurst 12 Hour is an endurance race for GT and touring cars held annually at the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales. First held in 1991, the event has grown in popularity over the years and attracts a strong field of local and international drivers, as well as a large number of car manufacturers. The race is run over 12 hours, with teams of drivers taking turns to complete as many laps as possible within the time limit. The winner is the team with the most laps completed at the end of the 12 hours.

This year, Bendix had the privilege of sponsoring the Pro-Class #888 Supercheap Auto/Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT. Behind the wheel, we had Supercars’ drivers, Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney, as well as German DTM driver, Maximilian Gotz.

The action kicked off on the Friday with four practice sessions scheduled throughout the day to prepare the drivers for Sunday’s big race. After plenty of back and forth between the teams on the lap timer, the day was cut short during the final session after a dramatic crash from the #52 MARC V8 at The Chase.

Saturday started off with two more practice sessions before getting into Qualifying later in the day. Qualifying saw the #888 AMG GT go 3^rd fastest, lapping the mountain twice in 4m03.483s, earning the team a spot in the Top Ten Shootout. The team would later earn a P2 start on the grid for Sunday’s racing, coming 2^nd in the Top Ten Shootout with a 2m01.0983s lap.

The Bathurst 12 Hour race kicked away in the early hours of Sunday morning. The team fought a hard battle, with the #888 AMG GT taking lead three hours into the race. The team looked prime for victory before a difficult stint for Shane Van Gisbergen saw the team deal with a drive-through penalty following a pit infringement. Sunday’s efforts ended with Broc Feeney crossing the chequered flag in 5^th place. Shane Van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney and the following to say to cap off the gruelling event.

Broc Feeney: "Today we just struggled for race pace quite a lot.

"Maxi was really strong off the start this morning and during the first couple of stints, but then we faded a lot during the day.

“The change made the car much better so we were a lot more comfortable after that.

"At the end, our pace was pretty similar to the guys on the podium, but we took too long to get there. Next year, we’ll hopefully be more competitive.”

Shane Van Gisbergen: "I never really got comfortable in the car, so today I tried my best but I didn’t have any speed on my side.

"Fifth is hard to be happy about but it’s still an okay result. It was a long day, it’s hard to put into words.

"My teammates put in the hard yards and did a solid job, so I have to thank them.”