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Sun Energy 1 Racing pulls off stunning 12 Hour win

By Thomas Miles

Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz have pushed Sun Energy 1 Racing to back-to-back Bathurst 12 Hour glories in an epic race.

After 2006km and 323 laps around Mount Panorama, just 1.4s separated the top three as Gounon led home Matt Campbell’s Manthey EMA Porsche and Maro Engel’s GruppeM Racing Mercedes.

It was also a day of records as the biggest ever crowd of 53,446 watched the fastest 12 Hour race ever, which also included the longest green-flag period of almost five hours.

But it was the racing that will be remembered as Gounon overcame a tyre disadvantage and controversial clash with Engel when fighting for the lead to win.

Gounon became the first driver to claim a 12 Hour hat-trick and was spent, but overjoyed after getting out of the car. It was Habul’s second Bathurst win in a row and he struggled to believe it after the team pitted more times (13) than any other car.

“It is unbelievable,” he said.

“Luca and Jules drove the balls off this car and I am so proud of them.

“Thanks to Mercedes AMG and Bathurst, this is the greatest.”

The top Pro-Am car was Chaz Mostert/Liam Talbot/Fraser Ross in seventh overall. Silver was secured by Dylan O’Keeffe, Daniel Gaunt and Andrew Fawcett, while Invitational honours went to Darren Currie, Grant Donaldson and Geoff Taunton.

Valentino Rossi had to settle for P6 after he, Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin had to a brief trip to the garage to fix the tail lights.

The big flashpoint occurred at the 47-minute mark when Engel’s third attempt at passing Gounon for the lead at The Chase ended in tears.

Jules Gounon and Maro Engel collide in the fight for the Bathurst 12 Hour lead. Image: Fox Sports/Kayo

After spinning the Sun Energy 1 Racing car off, the #999 car was penalised with a drive through penalty.

Despite the clash the pair, who won the Daytona 24 just one week earlier embraced in parc ferme.

Even after Engel served his penalty, Gounon had to fend off Campbell, who closed in to within a second on fresher tyres, but could not get close enough to make a move.

Jules Gounon’s Sun Energy 1 Racing Merceds was sent spinning into the infield. Image: Fox Sports/Kayo

With less than two hours to go, Raffaele Marciello led Matt Campbell by 30 seconds over Luca Stolz in the Sun Energy 1 Mercedes.

But GruppeM Racing’s plans were thrown into disarray when animated discussions commenced in the garage between the team and race officials.

The hot topic was the modem of the data logging device on car #999 had stopped working and needed to be replaced.

Although Marciello pressed on and the transmission from the modem miraculously reappeared, the team decided to repair the transponder when it made its final stop with an hour and nine minutes to go.

Despite spending a minute and 15 seconds being serviced in the lane, Engel emerged ahead of Campbell.

However, the move to take a short splash and dash without tyres paid off for Sun Energy 1 Racing, with Marciello rejoining in the lead.

But before too long he had Engel in the mirrors as history repeated itself with the pair finding themselves in the same roles as last year.

Chasing his maiden Bathurst 12 Hour win, Engel was hungry and made a lunge at The Chase before backing out.

The GruppeM Racing Mercedes shadowed the Sun Energy 1 Racing car for another 10 minutes before having another look on the same piece of tarmac.

On the second occasion Engel went even deeper, but backed out prior to the apex to avoid contact.

After two close calls, Engel went for it a lap later and did not back this time. The German took it deep, climbed the kerb, but could not avoid contact with Gounon at the left-hander at the end of Conrod Straight.

The clash between the two Mercedes sent the Sun Energy 1 Racing car spinning into the infield and Engel to P1.

Although Engel extended his advantage to eight seconds, but his lead was destined not to last as the officials deemed him responsible for the race-deciding accident.

Car #999 was handed a drive-through penalty and served it with 36 minutes left on the clock.

With 23 minutes left an unexpected late Safety Car threatened when Daniel Juncadella came unstuck at The Chase in the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing car.

Despite the Mercedes meeting the concrete, the race continued without interruption. 

Although Gounon returned to the lead, he was not out of the woods with Campbell armed with fresh tyres in the Manthey EMA Porsche closing in.

A thrilling and fluctuating two-car sprint to the flag across the final half an hour occurred with Campbell coming to within a second on lap 311.

But Gounon was able to muster a response with older rubber, bringing the advantage back to beyond the one second buffer.

As the pair were shadow boxing, an angry Engel also brought himself back into the fold, cutting a 16s deficit down to less than five seconds with five minutes to go.

But as Campbell clipped the wall at “The Tree” and Engel closed in, Gounon remained cool to score a Bathurst 12 Hour win for the ages.

2023 Bathurst 12 Hour results

1 K.Habul/J.Gounon/ L.Stolz (1st PRO) 323 laps 12:00:40.1193

2 M.Campbell/M.Jaminet/ T.Preining 323 laps 12:00:41.0460

3 M.Engel/M.Grenier/ R.Marciello 323 laps 12:00:41.5370

4 S.van der Linde/ D.Vanthoor/C.Weerts 323 laps 12:01:24.865

5 S.van Gisbergen/ B.Feeney/M.Goetz 322 laps 12:00:57.4136

6 A.Farfus/M.Martin/ V.Rossi 322 laps 12:01:16.8255

7 C.Mostert/F.Ross/ L.Talbot (1st PRO-AM) 321 laps 12:02:26.3657

8 D.Juncadella/P.Ellis/ N.Catsburg 321 laps 12:02:47.9356

9 C.Mies/R.Feller/ Y.Shahin 320 laps 12:01:18.0783

10 J.Whincup/R.Stanaway/ J.Ibrahim 319 laps 12:01:56.7039

11 T.Bates/J.Love/ D.Reynolds 316 laps 12:00:47.6937

12 D.Gaunt/A.Fawcet/ D.O’Keeffe 316 laps 12:01:32.7278

13 L.Holdsworth/D.Fiore/ M.Cini 316 laps 12:01:47.0932

14 R.Poulakis/J.Hunt/J.Hui/ K.Tse 310 laps 12:01:31.2560

15 T.Harrison/J.Ojeda/ G.Wood/D.Crampton 309 laps 12:02:27.0017

16 D.Russell/J.Webb/ T.Koundouris/ J.Koundouris 301 laps 12:02:27.8902

17 G.Taunton/D.Currie/ G.Donaldson 283 laps 12:01:01.0992

NC B.Schumacher/J.Golding/ F.Vervisch 243 laps 09:17:34.6530

NC C.Pancione/F.Schiller/ M.Griffith 210 laps 09:52:25.1669

NC C.Lowndes/A.Davison/ G.Emery/S.Taylor 177 laps 06:53:14.6129

NC M.Zalloua/D.Padayachee/ S.Pires/A.Cameron 89 laps 03:23:29.2526

NC T.D’Alberto/D.Wall/ G.Denyer/A.Deitz 70 laps 03:12:14.8533

NC A.De Pasquale/B.Grove/ S.Grove 56 laps 02:06:05.0762

NC C.Haase/P.Niederhauser/ M.Drudi 13 laps 33:59.0971

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