GruppeM Mercedes-AMG Wins Wild, Red-Flagged Bathurst 12H

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

GruppeM Racing survived to claim victory in a wild Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour that was marred by several serious accidents, a nearly one-hour red flag stoppage and a late-race collision between the top two cars while battling for the lead.

Maxime Martin took the No. 888 Mercedes-AMG to a narrow 1.037-second victory over the Bronze class-winning No. 86 High Class Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Dorian Boccolacci in the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener.

It came after the then-leading No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Kelvin van der Linde and Jules Gounon’s 75 Express Mercedes-AMG had contact on the race’s final restart with 40 minutes to go.

Defending race winner van der Linde inherited the top spot by staying out of the pits during the race’s ninth full-course caution for a crash between Repco Supercars stars Jayden Ojeda and Chaz Mostert while battling for 13th, which came as a lifeline to the majority of the front runners.

Van der Linde took the restart in the lead but immediately had rear-end contact entering Turn 1 by Gounon, whose 75 Express Mercedes-AMG held command for much of the second half of the race. The incident handed the lead to GruppeM’s Martin, who was third at the time.

The South African, who faded to eighth with rear end damage, was later given a mechanical black flag and was forced to pit ten minutes later and ended up finishing 12th.

Gounon, meanwhile, dropped to seventh in his damaged Mercedes-AMG that he shared with Luca Stolz and Kenny Habul.

Race control did not issue any penalties for the incident.

It gave clear sailing for the Hong Kong-flagged team to take the win, but most notably, Maro Engel’s long-awaited first Bathurst 12 Hour victory in the Mercedes-AMG factory driver’s tenth attempt at the Mount Panorama enduro.

Martin and Engel shared the winning entry with Mikael Grenier, giving Mercedes-AMG a record-extending fourth Bathurst 12 Hour win in the race’s GT3 era.

The German manufacturer, meanwhile, scored its first IGTC victory since the 2023 season-ending Gulf 12 Hours, which also had Engel and Grenier on the driver roster.

Former Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific Selected Driver Boccolacci and co-drivers Anders Fjordbach and Kerong Li scored a shock second place overall finish, with the No. 46 WRT BMW of Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Valentino Rossi completing the overall podium in third.

The No. 55 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of 2024 Supercars champion Will Brown came home fourth, with BMW factory driver Max Hesse, in his Bathurst debut, completed the overall top-five and a runner-up result in the Bronze class for the Chinese Team KRC squad.

Bastian Buus, who was installed in the Pro class No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche for the run to the checkered flag, finished sixth after Ricardo Feller’s No. 61 EBM Porsche was forced off track by the Dane in the final 30 minutes.

Feller came home eighth, with the No. 26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3, anchored by factory driver Daniel Serra finishing ninth ahead of the sister Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT Ferrari in tenth, which finished third in Bronze.

A record 13 cars finished on the lead lap.

Pro-Am class honors went to the No. 45 RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia Mercedes-AMG of Dylan O’Keeffe, Brett Hobson and Garth Walden, which finished one lap ahead of the No. 99 JMR Johor Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The lone-starting GT4 entrant, the No. 42 Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4 of Kevin Madsen, Adrian Kunzle and Steven Aghakhani was 26th overall after a largely trouble-free run.

The same could not be said for the two Invitational class entries, which saw the No. 50 Vantage Racing KTM X-Bow GT2 of David Crampton, who had a suspected mechanical issue with the car while under the first yellow, resulting in the race’s second retirement.

The 111 Racing IRC GT, the only other car in the class, brought out the third safety car period late in the second hour when the car had a rear wing failure at The Chase with Daniel Stutterd at the wheel.

It returned to action to finish 25th overall.

The only Silver class entry, the No. 15 Volante Rosso Motorsport McLaren, meanwhile, crashed on the way to the Dipper in the hands of Rylan Gray, bringing out the fourth yellow.

Race Marred By Kangaroo Hit, Red Flag for Massive Accident

The first retirement came just three laps into the race when the Bathurst-debuting HRT Ford Mustang GT3 of Chris Mies struck a kangaroo in pitch darkness, resulting in considerable damage the Multimatic-built machine, although Mies escaped injury.

The kangaroo also collected two other cars, including the No. 32 WRT BMW which eventually needed a new nose and initially dropped it one lap down, as well as the No. 6 Tigani Mercedes-AMG of Ojeda, which required two trips to the garage for grille repairs.

While the race featured a three-plus hour green flag period through the middle stages, a massive accident when the then-race leading No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG of Ralf Aron clobbered Johannes Zelger’s spun Tsunami RT Porsche at Forrest’s Elbow, resulting in a field of debris and halted action with three hours and 40 minutes to go.

Aron, who got out of the car under his own power but later laid down on his back in the grass, was transported to a hospital in the town of Orange, reported to be in stable condition.

The race restarted with less than two hours and 30 minutes to go with Stolz in the lead ahead of Engel, with a hard-charging No. 2 JMR Corvette of Nicky Catsburg, which previously led the race in the hands of reigning IMSA GTD Pro champion Alexander Sims.

However, an accident by co-driver Earl Bamber, who claimed he had left-rear suspension failure at Skyline, resulted in retirement for the second American-built GT3 car debuting at Bathurst.

Bamber had been the fastest car on track just moments prior to the race-ending mechanical failure with one hour and 37 minutes to go.

RESULTS: Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John