Nissan Wins 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour
 |
| Victory for the Nissan GT-R |
NISSAN has won the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for 2015, stealing the show thanks to a remarkable finish that saw Japanese driver Katsumasa Chiyo charge from third to first in the last two laps to deliver the brand their first Bathurst win since 1992.
The historic victory came in a day that saw a record-breaking 20 safety car interruptions and tales of drama and disappointment mixed with the usual heroic Bathurst performances every race at the famous track.
The winning Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of Chiyo-san, Wolfgang Reip and Florian Strauss completed 269 laps and 1,671km today to deliver a famous victory to the Nissan brand the week they announced their return to LeMans.
Seven different brands finished in the top seven with Nissan leading home Audi, Aston-Martin, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Lamborghini finishing in that order.
Yet another Bathurst thriller went down to the wire following a late-race Safety Car that set up a 15-minute sprint to the flag.
Late race leader Matt Bell (Bentley Continental GT3) had fended off attack after attack from Audi R8 driver Laurens Vanthoor in the closing sprint and looked set to deliver the British brand a Bathurst victory on their first start at the Mountain since a race in 1948.
However they didn't count on the flying Nissan who picked off lapped car after car following the penultimate restart to close the gap between their third place and the two dueling leaders.
The final Safety Car interruption was called with less than 10-minutes left for a stranded car in the Meguiar's Murray's corner sand trap – taking just one lap to recover.
With the three leaders line-astern for the subsequent restart and two-lap dash to the flag, a breathtaking restart saw Chiyo-san pass Vanthoor's Audi into turn one.
He then disposed of the leading Bentley by using the Nissan GT-R's stunning straight-line performance to draft past the Bentley and take the lead before turn two.
Chiyo then sprinted away in the closing laps to win by 2.4 seconds after another record-setting day on the Mountain.
The battle for second wasn't over until the final flag, a charging Stefan Mucke the star of the show in the Craft-Bamboo Racing Aston Martin as he and Vanthoor's Audi attacked the
Bentley on the final lap, both ultimately slipping past in a remarkable three-way final corner tussle.
The results saw three different brands represented on the Bathurst podium, the Vanthoor / Marco Mapelli / Markus Winkelhock Audi R8 followed narrowly home by the Craft-Bamboo Aston Martin driven by Mucke, Alex MacDowell and two-time race winner Darryl O'Young.
Bell's Bentley was shuffled to fourth place following the frantic finish, after a remarkable performance that saw their car work their way into contention throughout the day.
The cars raced at the back of the top-10 in the early stages before slowly creeping into contention in the second half of the race.
Bell and co-drivers Steven Kane and Guy Smith found themselves leading within the final hour of the race however just came up short in what remained a remarkable result on the brand's Bathurst 12-hour debut.
A starring performance from Erebus' Motorsport's young-guns in the No. 36 Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 saw them finish fifth – though enjoy a substantial share of the race lead throughout the day.
Richard Muscat, Jack LeBrocq and Dean Canto each led the race throughout the bruising day but didn't quite have the pace to compete in the frantic race to the finish.
The Vicious Rumor Racing Ferrari 458 of Benny Simonsen, Andrea Montermini and Renato Loberto finished an outstanding sixth, the first car not on the lead lap at the end of the race.
After contending early before striking dramas, the front-row starting JBS Racing Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 of Roger Lago, David Russell and Steve Owen came from two laps behind to finish a solid 7th outright – the first finish for the team after four years of trying and plenty of bad luck.
Malaysian team Clearwater Racing (Mok Weng Sun, Toni Vilander and Matt Griffin) finished eighth with the second Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra 9th.
The Aussie-entered Audi R8 LMS Ultra driven by Christoper Mies, Marc Cini and Mark Eddy completed the top-10.
Canberra team Koundouris Racing scored a stunning victory in Century Batteries Class B – for Porsche GT3 Cup Cars.
Driven by Brothers James and Theo Koundouris, Marcus Marshall and Sam Power, the Cup S entry finished 16th outright following a race-long battle with rivals, Grove Racing.
The Grove Porsche – driven by owner Stephen Grove, Ben Barker and Luke Youlden – ended the day second in class despite bringing out the final safety car when they speared off into the sand in the final corner 10 minutes.
Donut King racing triumphed in the Ryges GT4 class, Tony Alford, Peter Leemhuis and Mark O'Connor completing 249 laps in their Lotus Exige GT4 and finishing 24th overall.
The Queensland BMW team headed by Beric Lynton topped GWS Personell Class D, Lynton, John Modystach and Robert Thomson finishing 27th overall in their BMW 1M.
The Australian designed and built MARC Focus driven by Adam Gowans, Ben Gersekowski and Gary Jacobsen won the Recaro Invitational Non Production class, finishing a remarkable 15th outright and in front of all bar a majority of the class A cars running at the finish.
34 of the 50 race starters finished the race, with high profile non-finishers including the Flying B Racing Bentley Continental driven by David Brabham, John Bowe and Peter Edwards.
The car was running inside the top-10 in the closing stages before contact with the No. 97 Aston Martin in the closing stages saw the car pushed into the wall at the Cutting in a hefty impact.
Brabham, behind the wheel at the time, was extricated from the car and taken to a nearby hospital for precautionary checks following the accident.
Event organizers announced a record three-day attendance of 32,297 people for this weekend's event, up more than 6,600 people on 2014.
Video showing pass for the race win
QUOTES
 |
| Winning drivers, from left, Strauss, Chiyo and Reip |
Katsumasa Chiyo:
"It is just unbelievable because I couldn't imagine that end of the race, with a strong Audi and Bentley and we are still in the amateur class," said Chiyo.
"The car is very good, it is very strong on the straight. I tried to imagine, it was just amazing, we couldn't know what would happen in this race, but we just tried our best in the moment and then I had a chance in the final restart. It was just awesome. The car was amazing, and so was the team."
Wolfgang Reip:
"Yes it was very stressful (watching the final laps), I couldn't keep calm," said Reip.
"It is incredible, our first win for the last two years we have been racing, so really a lot of emotions. I took the start this morning, at the beginning of the stint I was following the Audi and then I started to save the car because we knew we had to do it to reach (the window). It was pretty long, a two hour forty minute stint and then Chiyo did a three hour stint, so it was quite long, but very exciting.
"My second stint went pretty well, there were a lot of safety cars but I could reach the pit in time. It was very stressful as we had a strategy and then with the Safety Cars we did not know what would happen – we didn't really expect any more to win, but the last ten minutes was incredible. The car was very good here, it is definitely a track that suits us. It was a good race."
Florian Strauss:
"It is just awesome, still unbelievable," said Strauss.
"I am very lucky that we have won, no one can say what would you have achieved with Alex, we couldn't have achieved a better result. The team did an amazing job all weekend, Chiyo put the car in first place, the team put all the effort in to get the car ready in the morning.
"The car gave me a lot of confidence, I got up to speed quite well I guess, not too far away from my team mates. My stint was amazing, a bit long and a lot of Safety Cars. Disappointingly, half way from the end of the race we were in third place, but Chiyo put the hammer down at the end and we achieved a good result, and it's awesome for Nissan."
Darren Cox – Global Head of Marketing, Sales and Brand, NISMO:
"This is a truly historic result for Nissan," said Cox.
"It is another great chapter in the history of NISMO and the legendary GT-R. I am proud of the teamwork from a global group of committed Nissan and NISMO racers in the car, garage and behind the scenes keeping the fans up to date. The news will reverberate from Australia to Japan and into Europe especially Belgium, Germany and the UK."
Richard Emery – Managing Director and CEO, Nissan Motor Co Australia:
"It was a crazy day, it was an amazing outcome," said Emery.
"The team worked hard to get the car right for today, and they've got the fruits of their hard work.
"This race is part of Nissan's global program, and it is important for Australia to be part of that. You've got unique and innovative programs with the way the drivers come through the GT Academy system, and GT-R has always been known for its innovation, and in a few months time, we'll be going to Le Mans with an innovative car.
"It's really great that our program is part of the global effort."
Results
| Pos | Car | Competitor/Team | Drivers | Vehicle | CL | Laps | Fastest Lap Time |
| 1 | 35 | NISMO Athlete Global Team | F.Strauss/K.Chiyo/W.Reip | Nissan GT-R NISMO GT | AA | 269 | 2:03.9769 |
| 2 | 15 | Phoenix Racing | M.Mapelli/L.Vanthoor/M.Winkelhock | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AP | 269 | 2:03.3091R |
| 3 | 97 | Craft Bamboo Racing | D.O'Young/A.MacDowall/S.Mucke | Aston Martin Vantage | AP | 269 | 2:04.4514 |
| 4 | 10 | Bentley Team M-Sport | G.Smith/S.Kane/M.Bell | Bentley Continental | AP | 269 | 2:05.1808 |
| 5 | 36 | Erebus Motorsport | J.LeBrocq/R.Muscat/D.Canto | Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 | AP | 269 | 2:04.5607 |
| 6 | 49 | Vicious Rumor Racing | B.Simonsen/A.Montermini/R.Loberto | Ferrari F458 Italia | AA | 268 | 2:05.5603 |
| 7 | 32 | JBS Australia | R.Lago/D.Russell/S.Owen | Lamborghini Gallardo | AP | 268 | 2:04.8101 |
| 8 | 33 | Clearwater Racing | W S Mok/T.Vilander/M.Griffin | Ferrari F458 Italia | AP | 268 | 2:04.8706 |
| 9 | 16 | Phoenix Racing | F.Baumgartner/C.Haase/S.Ortelli | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AP | 268 | 2:05.0164 |
| 10 | 9 | Hallmarc / Network Clothing | M.Cini/M.Eddy/C.Mies | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AA | 267 | 2:05.0948 |
| 11 | 12 | ICE Break | D.Calvert-Jones/P.Long/C.Pither | Porsche 911 GT3 R 20 | AP | 267 | 2:06.2932 |
| 12 | 75 | Jamec Pem | S.McLaughlin/J.Winslow/D.Koutsoumidis | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AA | 265 | 2:06.3906 |
| 13 | 74 | Jamec Pem | A.Latif/W.Luff/G.Crick | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AA | 265 | 2:06.1262 |
| 14 | 2 | Fitzgerald Racing / Evolve Tec | P.Fitzgerald/M.Almond/M.Halliday | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AA | 264 | 2:05.6939 |
| 15 | 93 | MARC Cars Australia | G.Jacobson/B.Gersekowski/A.Gowans | MARC Focus V8 | I | 262 | 2:12.8567 |
| 16 | 47 | Supabarn Supermarkets | J.Koundouris/T.Koundouris/M.Marshall/S.Power | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | B | 261 | 2:09.2957 |
| 17 | 4 | Grove Group | S.Grove/B.Barker/L.Youlden | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | B | 261 | 2:09.2957 |
| 18 | 64 | Motorsport Services | T.Macrow/P.Rullo/D.Modell | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 257 | 2:14.7743 |
| 19 | 21 | Motorsport Services / Team Fre | S.Fillmore/D.Stutterd/R.Lilley | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 256 | 2:15.4890 |
| 20 | 68 | Motorsport Services | A.Chapel/M.Whyman/X.West | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 252 | 2:17.3964 |
| 21 | 63 | Erebus Motorsport | N.Morcom/A.Cindric/S.Hodge | Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 | AA | 251 | 2:04.9120 |
| 22 | 50 | Team LHI | N.Cresswell/T.Knight/J.Goodacre/J.Bobik | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 251 | 2:17.4629 |
| 23 | 52 | compareinsurance.com.au | P.Storey/B.Gower/G.Shedden | Aston Martin Vantage | AA | 250 | 2:07.9390 |
| 24 | 54 | Donut King | T.Alford/M.O'Connor/P.Leemhuis | Lotus Exige Cup R | C | 249 | 2:19.6884 |
| 25 | 99 | Craft Bamboo Racing | F.Yu/J.Venter/J.Merlin | Aston Martin Vantage | AA | 248 | 2:05.2330 |
| 26 | 76 | Aston Martin Saint Gallen | A.Baenziger/F.Kamelger/C.Porritt | Aston Martin Vantage | C | 245 | 2:19.2175 |
| 27 | 23 | Bruce Lynton BMW | B.Lynton/J.Modystach/R.Thomson | BMW M Coupe (1 Serie | D | 242 | 2:25.5232 |
| 28 | 28 | GWS Personnel | R.Shaw/J.Williams/M.Chahda/S.Devjak | BMW 335i E90 | D | 239 | 2:26.2171 |
| 29 | 43 | Stawell CARTage | M.Robinson/P.Crompton/S.Woodman/S.Bradford | Mazda RX8 GT | I | 234 | 2:18.8169 |
| 30 | 6 | SAFE-T-STOP | R.Gartner/M.Hector/G.Duffy/A.Zerefos | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 206 | 2:15.4182 |
| 31 | 18 | Sherrin Rentals | M.Sherrin/G.Sherrin/I.Sherrin | BMW 135i E82 | D | 203 | 2:28.9784 |
| 32 | 66 | GT3 Endurance / Mobil 1 | C.van der Drift/F.Lyons/M.Lyons | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 192 | 2:10.9735 |
| 33 | 65 | Daytona Sports Cars | J.Augustine/B.Schoots/R.Hislop | Daytona Sportscar Co | D | 173 | 2:14.7352 |
| 34 | 41 | Stawell CARTage | B.Henley/M.King/J.Walsh/I.Cowley | Mazda RX8 GT | I | 149 | 2:18.3067 |
| DNF | 8 | Flying B Motorsport | P.Edwards/J.Bowe/D.Brabham | Bentley Continental | AA | 254 | 2:05.2959 |
| DNF | 11 | Bentley Team M-Sport | A.Soucek/M.Buhk/H.Primat | Bentley Continental | AP | 245 | 2:05.1746 |
| DNF | 27 | T F M – Ferrari Motorsport NZ | J.Lester/J.McIntyre/G.Smyth | Ferrari F458 Italia | AA | 221 | 2:04.6412 |
| DNF | 91 | MARC Cars Australia | K.Kassulke/J.Camilleri/I.Breukers | MARC Mazda 3 V8 | I | 203 | 2:13.4518 |
| DNF | 7 | VodkaO | D.Grant/A.Samadi/M.Twigg | Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 | AA | 171 | 2:10.3860 |
| DNF | 77 | AF Corse SRL | S.Wyatt/M.Rugolo/D.Rigon | Ferrari F458 Italia | AA | 163 | 2:03.3813r |
| DNF | 48 | Interlloy / M Motorsport | S.Richards/C.Baird/J.McMillan | Lamborghini Gallardo | AP | 129 | 2:06.8937 |
| DNF | 29 | PIRELLI | J.Manolios/R.Miller/I.Capelli | Ferrari F458 GT3 201 | AA | 114 | 2:07.4608 |
| DNF | 73 | Triffid Bar.Venue | T.Martin/M.Hovey/G.Bromley/R.Hackwood | Ginetta G50 GT4 2012 | C | 112 | 2:27.2137 |
| DNF | 92 | MARC Cars Australia | M.Benton/H.Morrall/T.Miles | MARC Focus V8 | I | 106 | 2:16.7593 |
| DNF | 5 | Skwirk | R.Salmon/N.Antunes/O.Gavin | Audi R8-LMS Ultra 20 | AA | 103 | 2:04.9216 |
| DNF | 55 | Kintyre Racing | G.Crimp/S.Kostera/M.Cherry | Audi TT RS 2.5 Turbo | D | 85 | 2:23.0696 |
| DNF | 59 | VIP Petfoods | T.Quinn/K.Quinn/K.Estre | McLaren MP4-12C 2012 | AA | 80 | 2:04.2346 |
| DNF | 51 | IMAK – KWIKMIT | A.Macpherson/M.Campbell | Porsche 911 GT3 R 20 | AA | 41 | 2:06.2494 |
| DNF | 14 | Peter Conroy Motorsport | P.Conroy/T.Bates/G.Denyer | Porsche 997 GT3 Cup | B | 36 | 2:16.6753 |
| DNF | 42 | Hallmark Homes | A.Gilbertson/J.Clements/K.Begg | BMW E46 GTR | D | 5 | 2:18.4137 |