Ferrari Wins Dramatic Bathurst 12 Hour

Winning Teams

Almost a decade since scoring a hat-trick of Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 victories, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes have rekindled their partnership in perfect fashion.

In a dramatic finish to the Bathurst 12 Hour, Whincup drove the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 that he shared with Lowndes and Toni Vilander to victory.

Whincup, who made his GT Racing debut this weekend was ecstatic about the result.

“[It’s] a great day for us. It’s my debut in GT racing. Massive thank you to Maranello. Fantastic day, fantastic teamwork," Whincup said.

“I’m no lone ranger, it’s been an amazing team effort… I guess we had beginners luck today. First time, and to stand on the top step is a fantastic feeling."

The Triple Eight-assisted Ferrari team waged a race long war with the Shane van Gisbergen-led Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes, which finally ended with a crash for the Kiwi.

Whincup and Van Gisbergen had re-entered their cars two hours from the finish, with the Ferrari leading the Mercedes by 30 seconds.

A decision not to change tires on Van Gisbergen's final stop gained the car track position with just 45 minutes left on the clock, but the advantage was to be short lived.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Whincup retook the lead just five minutes later – the two cars making brief side-to-side contact as Van Gisbergen fought in vain to hold the place.

The reigning Supercars champion’s race would only get worse from there, however, as he made contact with Andrew MacPherson’s lapped Porsche 30 minutes from home, turning it into the concrete wall.

The accident triggered a Safety Car and subsequent penalty for Van Gisbergen, who then crashed on his own at The Dipper, much to the frustration of co-driver Maro Engel.

Engel was visibly angry when the #22 Mercedes hit the wall, and then admonished Van Gisbergen on the telecast.

“It’s not motorsport in my book," said Engel.

“All I’ve seen this week is a lot of mistakes from Shane. It’s a tough one."

Speaking a short time later, Van Gisbergen said he had already apologized to MacPherson and would also do so to Engel and the entire STM team.

“It was just a mistake," said Van Gisbergen.

Winning #88 Ferrari leads 2nd place #22 Mercedes

“I’m a pretty critical person on myself. I hate making mistakes and that was 100 percent myself.

“I thought I got away without a drive-through (for the McPherson incident) and thought I could run with Jamie.

“I just stuffed up and put the car in the wall. I was pushing on the limit and sometimes over it, we were just so slow on the straight."

“As I said it’s my mistake and I’ll be angry at myself until the next race and push on."

Whincup eventually took the flag a lap clear of Van Gisbergen's Pirtek Enduro Cup co-driver Matt Campbell, who combined with Patrick Long, Marc Lieb and David Calvert-Jones to win the Pro-Am Class.

The result came in Whincup's first ever GT race and follows Lowndes' previously victory with Maranello on his most recent 12 Hour start in 2014.

Record Crowd

A record crowd has attended the 2017 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour at Mount Panorama this weekend.

The three-day crowd figure of 40,364 is an increase of 8.8% on the 2016 crowd of 37,079.

Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Event Director John Casey said that Supercars Events, who manage the event in partnership with Bathurst Regional Council, was very pleased with the result.

“The event continues to grow year on year, with the 2017 running featuring the largest grid ever assembled for the race," said Casey.

“The build-up to the race gave us a good indication that this year would see a record crowd, and the fantastic support from race fans has not disappointed.

“I must thank all of the fans and our event partners, especially naming rights partner Liqui Moly, Destination NSW and Bathurst Regional Council for their continued support. In particular, I want to thank the competitors, car owners and drivers. Without them, there is no race. I also acknowledge the tremendous support from the many manufacturers in attendance this weekend, which makes the race a real spectacle both on and off the track," Casey said.

“This event is now one of the marquee endurance races on the international motorsport calendar, enticing the best drivers, teams and cars on the planet in an attempt to master this iconic race track."

The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour is the inaugural race of the 2017 Intercontinental GT Challenge which also includes the Spa 24 Hour, Sepang 12 Hour and an eight-hour race at Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca.

QUOTES

#88 Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 – outright and Liqui-Moly GT3 Pro-Pro class winners
Jamie Whincup
"It was a great day for us and my debut into GT racing. For a lot of my teammates at 888 it was their first time as well. A massive thank you goes to Maranello Motorsport and of course to Peter Edwards – the owner of our million dollar Ferrari 488. It was a fantastic day with fantastic team work and we pitted at the right times. The blokes beside me did an amazing job and it was just up to me to bring it home at the end. It was quite ironic that my teammate ‘Gizzy’ and I were fighting for the win right at the end there. He was driving like he usually does, all over the place which is good," he laughed, "he’s hard and fair. I certainly enjoyed the battle, there is always a bit of grass action when we’re rubbing panels!"
"(The final pit stop) was strategic. We had to make a call as to whether we wanted to put tires on and loose track position or whether we wanted to keep track position on older tires. So, I made a call at the end there to put some new bags on and it was the right call. The car had great pace. It was very good down the straight, it wasn’t the quickest down the straight (gesturing to the #12 drivers) these boys beside me were absolute rockets and the Nissan wound it up again at the last five laps. All in all it was a massively enjoyable week for us. They are great cars. I couldn’t believe the traffic, I’m not used to so much traffic! It was also very nice that the Skippies kept to the other paddock and didn’t go on the track. It was a long, long day, but I’ll certainly be back."
Toni Vilander
"Sometimes you have those days, you have a clear track and just feel really comfortable in the car. Even all the traffic seemed like it was dropping in the right places with the right timing. I had clear air with the car and it felt like it was working perfectly. Sometimes when you’re fast it feels like it’s easier so today was definitely one of those days," Vilander said.
"I was fed up with all the stories from Mika Salo that he is the only Finn who can win here so now we are even at least! It is a big thing (to have the success with Ferrari), there are still races for me to win and this was one of them and now it is done. I am really, really happy and really, really proud – this is a great team. Sometimes when you start the day you have a feeling something good might happen and here we are – winners."
Craig Lowndes
"My day was actually quite easy. I did a lot of the morning shift and looked out for the traffic and brought the car home clean until the restart of my final stint. For me, as Toni said, we rolled the car out and didn’t do much with it over the course of the couple of days. It was a much nicer car than the Ferrari 458 over the top of the mountain for both Jamie and I as far as becoming familiar with the car. We did have a good lead into this weekend and we did have some issues but we rectified that. With Toni putting it on pole yesterday we knew that we had a strong car, we just didn’t know who else was going to be strong for the day," Lowndes said.
"The main objective for me was to stay out of trouble and keep it on the lead lap which I was lucky to do – getting out of the gravel trap. So that for me was the most important – to stay on the lead lap. We knew we had good car pace to come back. It was an enjoyable day to be part of the crew. As Jamie said, there are a lot of 888 guys who have come across from ‘Supercarland’ and it’s really opened their eyes to see what the GT world is all about and also about 12-hour racing. Normally we race in October and it is only six and a half hours, so we’ll come back in October and think it’s a sprint race!"

#12 Competition Motorsport powered by Ice Break Porsche 911 GT3 R – second outright and BRM Watches GT3 Pro-AM class winners
Marc Lieb
"It was quite an interesting race. The car has been fantastic throughout the whole weekend from day one on. We were up to the pace from the start and it was a good job by the team. We cycled through the race, we had some small incidents but of course were always fighting back. Sometimes we were lucky with the safety cars but at the end there weren’t enough yellows to catch it back and we were missing a bit of speed, but I think we are very happy with the second overall and the win in the class. It has been a fantastic weekend," said Lieb.
Patrick Long
"We came here with two objectives. One was to do as well as we could and the second, which was a close second, was to have fun. CJ (David Calvert-Jones) has been a great friend, we are both based in Los Angeles and this has been something Marc and I have been talking about for quite a few months to get back over here and try and go for an overall. Matt was a great late addition, we took a look at the rules and thought that four drivers would be the best way and he became available, so it all just worked out great. Like Marc said, it was an adventurous day – you have to race hard and you have to fight because you know there are going to be yellows and track position means a lot. At the end there might have been an incident or two I could have taken back and done a little different, but I have no regrets. Looking forward, we had a strong GT3 – R and it held up."
Matt Campbell
"(Towards the end of the race) I had two final stints to go and we were running third at the time. We had good pace and I just made a massive mistake there in my final stint (regarding the contact with the #32). I slipped off the brake pedal and it was totally my fault. It cost us a bit of time but thankfully we were able to get it turned around and continue on without too much damage. I am very thankful it wasn’t too much worse, it was an up and down day but thankfully it ended on an up."
David Calvert-Jones
"I am feeling pretty good right now! It has been a great adventure. This is our fourth time here and thanks has to go to Patrick for being my mentor and helping me put these programs together, along with Ice Break and Virgin who have stepped up to get us here. It has been amazing. I can’t thank Patrick enough for coming out and also Marc, an amazing addition to the team. It was just going to be the three of us and then Matt became available last week, we asked him if he wanted to come for a drive and the two older boys threw him in the fire and made him work. Thanks goes to all those guys and all the organisers, and especially McElrea Racing for all they did for us," Calvert-Jones said.

#17 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 – third outright, second in Liqui-Moly GT3 Pro-Pro class
Steven Kane
"We came here with a brand new car on Friday and we hadn’t even run it, so we lost a bit of time during qualifying and we just didn’t have the pace so we ended up 24th. To finish on the podium again is just amazing and the team did a really good job with strategy. Oliver was learning the car this weekend as it was his first time in the car in the dry and he did an amazing job and so did Guy – he is getting old but he still has the speed," laughed Kane. "This is a really good result for the start of our season. We wanted to come here and go a bit better and finish first but it didn’t happen, but we are pleased with third."
Oliver Jarvis
"I am pretty happy I have to say, this is an incredible place and I don’t think I have ever been in a race as brutal as that! I have been involved in a lot of endurance racing but I have never seen so much carnage within the first three or four hours of a race," Jarvis said. "We had a game plan and that was simply to stay on the lead lap. We didn’t have a great run up to the race due a lot of issues with the brand new car but the team did a fantastic job. It didn’t stay issue free throughout the race, but coming out third is a great result and a credit to my team mates. We didn’t quite have the pace of the Ferrari boys next to me and congratulations goes to them – we will take the third and celebrate tonight."
Guy Smith
"We didn’t really have the pace so we were just trying to make sure we stayed on the track and the lead lap. We had a couple of issues throughout the race and ultimately we didn’t have the pace but if you had told us last night after qualifying 24th that we would be on the podium today we would have taken it all day long. We are very happy – the team did a fantastic job and congrats to all the guys here for a great race."

Results