Bathurst Friday Notebook

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

***The six drivers present this weekend that are taking part in this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Independent Cup assembled for a group photo ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour. Five-time and defending champion Kenny Habul will face increased competition from the likes of Prince Jefri Ibrahim, Kerong Li and Johannes Zelger, who join the returning Ralf Bohn and Jonathan Hui in a record level of participation.

***Adrian D’Silva is set to become the seventh Independent Cup driver this season and will join the action starting at the Nürburgring 24. Rules will again permit each driver to take a drop score, enabling the FIA Bronze-rated drivers to skip a race.

***Four drivers are racing under derogated driver ratings this weekend, including Li, who is Bronze* and therefore eligible to be in the Independent Cup. Li raced as a derogated driver for the full GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS season last year.

***Other derogated drivers for Bathurst 12 Hour are newly minted McLaren GT3 junior driver Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer (Silver*), Andreas Pato (Bronze*) and Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim (Bronze*).

***The No. 15 Volante Rosso Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo missed the opening practice session for this weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour due to gearbox issues and only completed two laps in Practice 3, in its next eligible session, with Rylan Gray at the wheel. The team recently took delivery of the car and completed a shakedown at Queensland Raceway prior to arriving at Mount Panorama.

***While the first three practice sessions ran without any red flags or major incidents, a heavy accident for the No. 7 Team NZ Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Graeme Dowsett, who slammed into the wall at Reid Park after contact with the No. 21 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, in what could be an end-of-weekend crash for one of only two GT4 cars participating this weekend.

***The Pirelli P Zero DHG tire is making its Australian race debut this weekend. The new-for-2025 compound was introduced in most SRO Motorsports Group-run series last year except for GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS, but will be utilized this year beginning with next month’s season opener at Phillip Island.

***In total, Pirelli’s calendar comprises of more than 400 races over 70 non-Formula 1 championships staged in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania.

***Maxime Martin expressed confidence that Mercedes-AMG “should be able to fight” for a first Bathurst 12 Hour victory since 2023, helped by the reset in fuel allocation for every GT3 car. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo sees a 3-liter reduction, dropping to 106 liters, while last year’s winning manufacturer BMW has dropped from 108 liters to 100.

***Martin told Sportscar365: “Fuel consumption was a bit of a weakness for us last year, we couldn’t do as much fuel saving as other brands, so if we can make this step and be equal on this side, it will help us. We have to see how the general pace is because last year BMW was managing the fuel and was still fastest, so I hope we can come back and be closer.”

***Two-time Bathurst 12 Hour winner Chris Mies, who makes his first race start since 2023, said it’s been a “dream come true” to race a Ford at Mount Panorama, having teamed up with fellow former event winner Dennis Olsen and Repco Supercars star Broc Feeney, who his making his Mustang GT3 debut.

***Mies told Sportscar365: “A big dream of mine is to do the Bathurst 1000 in a Ford. The race is fantastic, as we know. When I signed with Ford Racing the first year, my hope was for us to one day go to Bathurst. Now the dream has finally come true.”

***Ford would have “welcomed” a second or additional Mustang GT3 entries this weekend according to its global sports car manager Alex Allmandinger, who said HRT’s single-car factory-supported effort was by design for the car’s first trip to Mount Panorama.

***He told Sportscar365: “We would have fully welcomed customers but it’s kind of nice to have that laser-focus on the one car, one lineup, and we know where all the focus and resources are going to go to make sure we maximize the result for Ford Racing.”

***Sportscar365 understands that the first Mustang GT3 to enter Australia is a car owned by Tony Quinn and was initially due to be run by Triple Eight Race Engineering this weekend before the legendary squad, which has switched to the ‘Blue Oval’ for this year in Supercars, opted out due to the amount of pre-season prep needed for its new effort.

***Quinn, who owns a majority stake of Triple Eight, is racing this weekend in a Melbourne Performance Centre-run Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in a car that features a historic three-generation family lineup in sons Klark and Kent and grandson Ryder. Quinn’s Mustang GT3, which was delivered to him last summer, is on display in the paddock.

***Ford Racing’s Allmandinger said HRT is receiving a “very similar” level of support compared to the German squad’s other programs in marquee GT3 events such as the Nürburgring 24 and CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. “Maybe a bit more because our Ford Racing team in Australia, who primarily supports the Supercars series and the Mustang GT4s that we have racing,” he said. “They’re really excited to help support this event.”

***Ford, which has won the Bathurst 1000 a total of 22 times including last year, has one official previous start in the Bathurst 12 Hour, when Kent and Brett Youlden and Ken Douglas teamed up in a Ford Laser KF TSX 4WD Turbo to finish second overall in the 1991 edition, which was back then a touring car race.

***The Australian-built MARC Cars (now known as IRC), have often run with Ford-derived engines, such as the 5.2-liter Coyote or Modular V8, in the Invitational class in more recent years.

***Ford made headlines during the ‘Bathurst SuperFest’ in 2024 when the Ford SuperVan 4.2 EV demonstrator officially became the fastest closed-wheel vehicle around the circuit, which saw Romain Dumas reel off a best time of 1:56.324 during the Thrifty Bathurst 500 weekend that followed the 12 Hour event.

***Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific has more than doubled its presence this weekend at Bathurst to reflect its expanded five-car effort, up from two cars from 2025. “This year we have more than ten people, including technical support, performance support, doctor and physio,” PMAP managing director Alexandre Gibot told Sportscar365. “Very happy with the package we have here and we are happy to have [Pro] teams from the region, Absolute Racing and EBM, which matches Porsche’s philosophy for the IGTC.”

***PMAP also has a single spare chassis on-site ready if needed, as well as two gearboxes and two engines. Tsunami RT is the only team of the five Porsche entries that has access to an entire spare car of its own, which is fully assembled and on display in the paddock.

***Gibot explained that Porsche is still working to have a car full-time in GTWC Australia this season after its previous effort with EMA ended after only a single race weekend last year. “We are still looking, but time is running out,” said Gibot. “Last year we were completely ready with support for the season, and with [PMAP selected driver] Dorian Boccolacci, but for reasons outside of our control, we couldn’t continue.”

***He added that part of the push to re-enter GTWC Australia stems from a desire to boost Porsche’s prospects for the worldwide GT World Challenge powered by AWS manufacturers’ ranking that was won last year by Mercedes-AMG. Porsche finished third in that contest behind BMW, which also lacked representation in the Australian series last year.

***In addition to his planned Nürburgring 24 debut, 75 Express team owner/driver Habul is plotting a GTWC Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup program this year where his team would take part in all rounds except the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. The effort is understood to be subject to an entry by SRO, with the Endurance Cup field facing an oversubscribed grid.

***Heart of Racing team principal Ian James admitted that Bathurst is likely to be the team’s only outing with its operational partner SPS automotive performance this year due to an increasing number of date clashes. “We’ve got the IMSA/Spa 24 clash, which is disappointing,” James told Sportscar365.”We did Suzuka last year but it gets really busy that time of year for us. Never say never, but Bathurst is definitely the highlight of the calendar, so I’m glad to be back.”

***James, Ross Gunn and Zach Robichon won the Bronze class last year in their Mercedes-AMG, with James teamed up with Roman De Angelis and Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello this time, with the latter driver making his Bathurst debut. “We had a really good run last year,” said James. “We were just off the lead lap after 12 hours, which was pretty good for a Bronze car. I’m excited to go up against some really strong lineups here. It will make for a fun race.”

***Saturday’s track action continues with two 60-minute practice sessions, followed by qualifying ad the 15-minute Pirelli Pole Battle, which is set to get underway at 4:15 p.m. local time (12:15 a.m. ET) with live coverage of all sessions on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.

Jamie Klein contributed to this report

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