Sims Leads for Corvette After Three Hours at Bathurst

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Alexander Sims led the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour at the three-hour mark following a pass around Valentino Rossi to put the race-debuting Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R out front for the first time.

Sims, in the No. 2 JMR Johor Racing Corvette, held a narrow 0.481-second lead over the pole-sitting No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Chaz Mostert in second.

Rossi, who led for most of the third hour, dropped to third in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

The pair of factory BMWs, along with the No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alessio Picariello, received a break in the second hour when Mark Rosser crashed his No. 268 Team BRM Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II at Brock’s Skyline, resulting in a timely safety car period that essentially gave the top three cars a free pit stop.

Rossi took the restart in the lead, ahead of teammate Charles Weerts, who was nursing right-front damage sustained from co-driver Kelvin van der Linde’s opening stint where he collided with the No. 44 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG at the start before later collecting the same kangaroo that ended Chris Mies’ race.

A third yellow came out when the Invitational class IRC GT suffered a rear wing failure at The Chase with Daniel Stutterd at the wheel.

The damage on Weerts’ No. 32 BMW deteriorated, enough so for the car to receive a mechanical black flag following the subsequent restart, which forced the car into the garage for a new nose.

Weerts rejoined the race one lap behind and outside of the top-20.

Daniel Serra, in the No. 26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3, ran fourth at the three-hour mark, with Bastian Buus having made it five different GT3 manufacturers in the top-five in the Absolute Porsche.

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