Manthey EMA Porsche Leads at Halfway

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Ayhancan Guven led the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour at the halfway mark of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener.

Guven, in the No. 912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R, held a 1.4-second advantage over the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Valentino Rossi following a restart late in the sixth hour due to another accident for the No. 56 Ginetta G55 GT4.

Christopher Haase put the No. 22 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II third, ahead of Broc Feeney in the best of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos in fourth.

The No. 13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche of Joel Eriksson completed the top-five, in what has come as a strong showing for the Chinese team, assisted by Team 75 Bernhard, in its first IGTC outing.

While having featured six safety car periods, only one GT3 car has been retired, the pole-sitting No. 32 Team WRT BMW of Charles Weerts, who walked away from a massive accident at The Cutting in the fifth hour.

Other incidents included stoppages and issues from Invitational and GT4 class machinery.

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