Bathurst Friday Notebook

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

***Kelvin van der Linde led the way following the opening day of track action for the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, with the South African’s 2:02.734 setting the benchmark in Free Practice 1. While it was nearly two seconds slower than Maro Engel’s Pole Shootout record from last year, it proved to be a fast start to the event.

***Kelvin’s brother, BMW Team WRT driver Sheldon van der Linde, however, doesn’t believe the official lap record will dip below the two-minute barrier this weekend. “I personally don’t think so,” he said. “I think we just started off faster but I think the lap time at the end will more-or-less the same as last year. I don’t think the overall grip has improved. I just think the track was less dirty to start with.”

***Unlike previous incident-filled years, there were no major accidents or red flags throughout the four timed Free Practice sessions on Friday. The only notable incident came in the fourth session with a spin and slight contact with the wall by the No. 91 MARC II V8 of Keith Kassulke.

***Several changes to the sporting regulations, such as the introduction of a Full Course Yellow procedure that will require cars to slow to 80 km/h on instruction of race control, as well as the return of minimum times for full-service pit stops, will change the outlook of the race according to three-time and defending winner Jules Gounon.

***Gounon told Sportscar365: “For me the biggest thing is that the regs have changed a lot. We cannot undercut anymore. There’s a minimum time on the pit stops so it means your fuel rig has no advantage anymore and the tire change has no more advantage anymore. There’s obviously a bit less free playing strategy for us.”

***The new FCY procedure was tested following the completion of the third Free Practice session this afternoon.

***Gounon was also behind the wheel of Mercedes-AMG’s unrestricted GT3-based machine on Friday for preliminary laps ahead of an unofficial track lap record attempt on Saturday. Gounon was joined on-track in the exhibition sessions by a pair of Repco Supercars, performing parity testing ahead of next weekend’s season opener, as well as Ford Performance’s all-electric SuperVan 4.2 driven by Romain Dumas.

***Raffaele Marciello turned his first official laps as a BMW M factory driver on Friday, following two previous test days in a BMW M4 GT3, albeit not on Pirelli tires. Marciello tested one of WRT’s Goodyear-shod FIA World Endurance Championship LMGT3 cars at Motorland Aragon before the cars were shipped to Qatar for next month’s season opener.

***Marciello said: “It’s not so different [to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo] because it’s [also] a front-engined car. You need to get used to it but also at a track like Bathurst, it’s more about the experience you have with the track rather than the car.”

***Matt Campbell has returned back to his native Australia after claiming overall victory in last month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with Porsche Penske Motorsport. “For sure momentum is on our side,” he told Sportscar365. “It’s always cool, a couple of weeks after Daytona, which is a little bit different for us this time, it’s especially cool coming off the back of the win to come back home and do one of my favorite races of the entire year.”

***Campbell is one of a dozen Bathurst 12 Hour drivers that will be traveling to Qatar for the WEC Prologue next week, followed by the season-opening Qatar 1812km the following weekend. The list includes: Kelvin van der Linde, Ian James, Alex Riberas, Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin, Raffaele Marciello, Dani Juncadella, Yasser Shahin and Laurens Vanthoor.

***On the team front, Team WRT, Manthey EMA and The Heart of Racing are also set for back-to-back events.

***Dries Vanthoor told Sportscar365: “I’m still having some [WEC] meetings, especially [Wednesday] night I had a late meeting considering it’s a different timezone in Europe. I’ve had to do a bit of back and forth. Of course now I’m here so my priority is here. I can still do some meetings and follow up what is happening at the factory. It’s some busy days for us, especially adapting to both cars the whole time, which will probably be a bit tricky but it should be fine.”

***Rossi, who is making his second consecutive Bathurst 12 Hour start, is celebrating his 45th birthday today.

***Pirelli is kicking off its 400-plus race campaign across 70 championships for GT machinery this year at Bathurst, where it is again the exclusive tire partner for the race. GT3 cars are again fitted with the second-generation P Zero DHF compound, which does not feature any significant updates compared to last year.

***A delegation of senior-level staff from SRO America are on-site this weekend getting their first impressions of the event. President and CEO Greg Gill has been joined by general manager Staci Langham and VP of marketing and business development Robbie Montinola.

***SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel is also at Bathurst to kick off the Intercontinental GT Challenge season and was spotted wearing an Australian bush hat.

***Kenny Habul confirmed to Sportscar365 plans to contest the full IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in GTD Pro although is likely to have a rotating crop of Mercedes-AMG co-drivers for the remaining four rounds. Habul was joined by Engel, Gounon and Luca Stolz at the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

***Habul said: “It’s difficult because those guys have commitments in other places all over the world, so it’s really about who’s free.”

***Saturday’s action includes a pair of 60-minute practice sessions in the morning prior to qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout, all of which will be streamed live on Bathurst 12 Hour social media channels as well as SRO’s GT World YouTube page.

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