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Geoffrey Harris31 Oct 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: More than 50 cars for Bathurst 12-Hour

V8 Supercar drivers are banned from racing at Mt Panorama again next February, but there’s a stampede of entries with 27 GT3s already

Nine exotic brands in Class A for the ‘Other Great Race’
Entries are booming for the Bathurst 12-Hour. The event is not until February 8, and the entry deadline is still six weeks away, but organisers already have more than 50 cars on the list. And more than half of them are in Class A - the GT3 cars that will vie for outright honours.

Nine brands are represented on that Class A entry list. In alphabetical order, they are Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Porsche.

Organisers say they expect another four GT3 cars yet.

The 55-car cap on the field has been scrapped.

Organisers say that was in place “due to the limited overtaking opportunities across the top of Mt Panorama when the field comprised a large number of slower vehicles”.

“With the field now comprising a majority of GT vehicles the requirement for the cap no longer exists,” they said.

While the organisers boasted of a then-capacity field before last February’s event it dwindled to 40 starters by race day. However, with the even stronger this time it will be a bumper field even if there are some no-shows again.

The 27 cars already entered in Class A comprise seven Ferarri F458s, five Mercedes SLS AMGs and five Audi R8-LMS Ultras, three Bentley Continentals, two Aston Martin Vantages and two Lamborghini Gallardos, a McLaren MP4-12C, a Nissan GT-R and a Porsche 911.

The Aston Martins announced this week are from Hong Kong’s Craft Bamboo Racing, whose lead driver is Canadian-born Darryl O’Young, who won the 12-Hour as part of the works Audi squad that dominated the race in 2011 and 2012.

Two of the twin-turbocharged Bentleys are works entries, with the other from Melbourne-based Maranello Motorsport, which won this year’s race with a Ferrari F458 which it will be fielding again - although without one of its victorious drivers, V8 Supercar superstar Craig Lowndes.

V8 Supercars has organised its official pre-season test at Sydney Motorsport Park the same weekend as the Bathurst 12-Hour and has banned its regular drivers from participating in the enduro.

Lowndes, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen (who set a GT3 lap record in the Quinn family’s McLaren at Mt Panorama on the way to a close fourth place last February) and other V8 Supercar drivers are unhappy at being unable to participate next February.

In part they are caught in tangle between the new V8 Supercar telecaster, pay service Fox, and the network it will replace, Seven, which will screen the last three hours of the 12-Hour live.

Mark Webber, now an elder statesman of Australian motorsport (despite not yet being 40 and still racing overseas, this weekend in a World Endurance Championship round in Shanghai for Porsche), has said the clash of the two events is regrettable, even confrontational on the part of V8 Supercars.

“It wasn't very wise to have the top drivers [from V8 Supercars] not being able to do Bathurst,” Webber - who has been touted as a possible 12-Hour driver in future - told radio station SYN 90.7FM.

“The 12-Hour can be a very strong event in itself and V8s have got their area

“The 12-Hour is a very attractive event, for sure,” he said.

The Class B entry list for GT3 Cup cars has nine Porsches - eight of them 997s, the other a 911.

Class C for GT4 cars has four entries - another Aston Martin Vantage, a Lotus Exige and a Lotus Evora, and a Ginetta G50.

Another 12 cars are entered in the two invitational classes. Class D for the core “production car” competitors, has seven - four BMWs, an Audi, a Daytona Sportscar and a Subaru BRZ - while Class I has the three MARC Race Cars including a new Mazda3-bodied version and two Mazda RX-8s.

The Giz and Lowndes across the Tasman
Shane Van Gisbergen, the man who would drive virtually everything and race every weekend if he could, will be at New Zealand’s Waikato 400 at Hampton Downs this weekend in a Holden and at Tony Quinn’s Highlands circuit on the South Island the following weekend in the McLaren MP4-12C.

Craig Lowndes also will race that weekend at the 4.1km Highlands - his debut there - in a brand new 7.9-litre Camaro GT3.

One of the races there will have an old-fashioned Le Mans start, with drivers running across the track to their cars at the start.

The new NZ circuit is hosting the final round of the Australian GT Championship, in which Richard Muscat in an Erebus Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG has a 32-point lead over Tony Quinn in an Aston Martin Vantage.

Meanwhile, Van Gisbergen is partnering his fellow Aucklander Simon Evans in the Holden this weekend at the second round of the NZ SuperTourers Championship. After winning the opening round at Taupo in September they lead the Kiwis who drove together at Bathurst in the fifth Ford Performance Racing Falcon, Ant Pedersen and Andre Heimgartner.

Pedersen shares his Ford in these NZ enduros with Jonny Reid, while Heimgartner’s partner is Queensland veteran Paul Morris - winner of this year’s Bathurst 1000 with Chaz Mostert for FPR.

Greg Murphy and Jack Perkins are another top combination, while other Australians participating are Steve Owen, Cameron Waters, Tony D’Alberto and Dale Wood.

The Waikato 400 comprises a 40-minute race on Saturday and two 75-minute races on Sunday, with the 13 SuperTourer field supplemented with 12 NZV8 touring cars - including the debut of a Nissan Altima, as well as the Toyota Camry driven by Jason Bargwanna.


A mega program for Adelaide’s Clipsal 500

Eight categories have been announced for Adelaide’s V8 Supercar Championship-opening Clipsal 500 next February 26 to March 1.

Apart from the V8 Supercars (which again will have two 125km races on the Saturday and a 250km final leg on the Sunday), there will be the V8 Supercar development series cars, American Robby Gordon’s stadium super truck show, the Ferrari Asia-Pacific Challenge including 30 Ferrari F458s, the Australian GT Championship, the Touring Car Masters, Porsche Carrera Cup and the V8 utes.

A mega program for the Adelaide event, as always, and it also will have a Ferrari Supercar Display with a Ferrari F50, the Enzo and the La Ferrari.

Ricciardo declares: ‘I’m not at my peak yet’
It’s been a huge year for Daniel Ricciardo, winning three Formula One races in his first year with Red Bull Racing... But Australia’s new superstar has warned the world that he hasn’t peaked yet!

Ricciardo was asked at the official press conference ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, about becoming the Red Bull team leader when four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel departs for Ferrari at the end of the year (Russian Daniil Kyvat will step up from Scuderia Toro Rosso as the Australian’s new teammate).

“I feel a bit still young to the team but, yeah, I guess I will be the old guy next year,” 25-year-old Ricciardo said.

“But I know Dani.... I definitely won’t take him lightly. I know he’s very quick and, just because he’s still inexperienced in F1, I’m sure he’s going to bring a lot to the team and a lot to the table.

“I’ll keep working on myself, try to keep improving.

“I feel I’m not at my peak yet, so I’ll try and get there personally first and then see where Dani fits in.

“I’m sure we’ll have a good working relationship. We joke around a bit already now, so I think that light sort of humour will remain in the team,” Ricciardo said.

A very different feel to America’s Grand Prix
While F1 is in a new crisis with the Marussia and Caterham teams in administration and absent from the American and following Brazilian GPs, the Texas event at the Circuit of the Americas has been one of the success stories of the sport in recent years.

It has become a favourite of the drivers and huge benefits for Austin and Texas have been claimed in recent days. However, there will be some differences to the event this time with only 18 cars in the field - and perhaps only 17 taking part in qualifying.

The qualifying format will be revised, with only four cars dropping out in each of the first two stints to retain 10 for the third and final session.

Sebastian Vettel is unlikely to participate in qualifying as Red Bull will install a sixth Renault power unit for the season in his RB10. Having gone over the limit of five power units, Vettel is expected to start the race from the pitlane.

McLaren’s Jenson Button will take a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Lotus will try a new wedge-shaped nose on its cars, dropping its two-pronged walrus shape.

Lewis Hamilton, leading the world champion for Mercedes, is aiming for his 10th win of the season and to equal Nigel Mansell and the late Jim Clark as the only Britons to win five races in a row. Another win also would take his career tally to 32 - one more than the record he shares with Mansell.

It also would be another blow to his teammate and only genuine title rival Nico Rosberg, who is 17 points behind him with 100 still to be won from the last three races - including double points at the last race in Abu Dhabi.

While Daniel Ricciardo is 92 points behind Hamilton so still mathematically still a chance to be world champion, he would almost need both the Mercedes pair not to finish another race this season.

Mercedes clinched the constructors’ championship at the recent new Russian GP at Sochi.

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which has failed in its attempts to introduce a cap on spending by F1 teams, has repeated that it favours any initiatives that will help reduce costs to avoid any more teams collapsing and even attract new participants.

Apart from the American team of industrial tools tycoon Gene Haas due in 2016, a Romanian team, Forza Rossa (with Colin Kolles involved again) has been given the nod to enter F1 as early as next year, although there is no indication it could start that soon.

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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