The world comes to Bathurst

The world has returned to Mount Panorama for the annual Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend with BMW holding the early high ground.

A 22-car field featuring Australia’s best and global stars will be flying rapid GT3 machinery around the mountain.

One day is done and two to go with BMW Team WRT racing out of the blocks being fastest on Friday.

The #32 of Augusto Farfus, Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde was the only car in the 2m2s window.

The 2:02.9000 of van der Linde was well clear of the rest of the pack, being three tenths ahead of the next best.

The nearest rival was Kenny Habul’s Mercedes also featuring Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz, which set a 2:03.2140.

The #888 of Maro Engel, Maximime Martin and Mikael Grenier completed the top three being just over half a second away.

Valentino Rossi’s #46 BMW edged out Jayden Ojeda’s Mercedes to complete the top five.

The fastest five times were all set in the early morning practice with the Broc Feeney’s Audi the first entry to set a faster time in Practice 3.

However, the #183 R8 still did not end that session on top, having been edged out by Engel and Grenier by 0.0260s.

The Matt Campbell led Porsche eased into proceedings ending the day 11th fastest on combined times.

It was mainly a clean day despite the visit of a kangaroo. The weekend resumes with Practice 5 at 8.35-9.35 AEDT.

The 2025 event will be the 23rd edition of the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour and again some of the most talented international drivers on the planet will do battle with plenty of Supercars stars.

This year will be especially exciting with the Ferrari 296 GT3 on show for the first time, renewing the iconic Italian brand’s rivalry with German heavyweights Porsche, Audi and Mercedes, which have won five of the last six 12 Hours.

Spearheading one of the Pro Am Ferrari will be Supercars Kiwi Jaxon Evans, alongside GT World Challenge teammate Elliott Schutte, plus local Brad Schumacher and Ferrari factory driver Alessio Rovera.

Evans has raced at the biggest GT races all over the world and believes the 12 Hour has grown to become a destination event across the globe.

In terms of the key to victory, the Pro Am driver believes it is all about survival before the cut throat final two hours.

“It continues to find its own feet and when you see teams from all over the world making the effort and spending a lot of money to get here,” Evans told Auto Action.

“It is not for any reason other than to win. It is one of those races where winning is an extra special feeling.

“I have a lot of European mates that love coming here because it is a great event and one of the best race tracks in the world.

“Bathurst always throws a few things at you so if we can play the strategy right and maintain a consistent pace we would be in with a shot overall.

“It all comes down to those last two hours.”

The team that won last year, Manthey/EMA will not be returning to defend its crown.

However, the home hero who guided the Day-Glo Porsche to a 2.6s victory, Matt Campbell is.

This time Campbell will be back racing in familiar colours, returning to Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific customer team, Absolute Racing, which has not been at Mount Panorama for five years.

Its last visit was in 2020 where Campbell took pole position and just missed out on a podium finishing fourth.

He will also have Turkish driver Ayhancan Güven by his side, who also stood on the top step last year.

Completing the line up is Belgian Alessio Picariello, who took Pro-Am honours in 2024.

After winning the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour, Campbell spent the rest of the year steering the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 hypercar in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA.

He is looking forward to returning to familiar surroundings in more ways than one.

“It’s great to be reuniting with Absolute Racing as we secured Porsche’s first ever Bathurst pole position when we last worked together in 2020,” Campbell said. 

“After the success in 2024, when I won the race, we’ll be aiming to replicate this alongside Ayhancan and Alessio. 

“It’s my home event at my favourite track in the world, so I can’t wait to start the year off in Australia.”

The most successful team of the GT3 era of the race, SunEnergy1 Racing is back and determined to return to the top step.

After going back to back in 2022 and 2023, the Mercedes team fell agonisingly short of a hat-trick.

The race’s only three-time winner, Jules Gounon put the foot down, but was unable to reel in Campbell in the closing stages of another tense 12 Hour.

The familiar trio of Habul, Gounon and Lica Stolz are back together, keen to get their hands back on the trophy.

Team WRT will be bringing its BMWs back to the mountain and hope it will be a case of third time lucky.

Whilst all the attention and fanfare has been on the special sight of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi taking on Bathurst, the M4s have been very fast.

Whilst Team WRT won in 2018, it is desperate to do so with BMW having been the factory team of the German manufacturer since 2023.

Whilst its best Bathurst result is fourth on debut, the team took a step forward last year with Sheldon van der Linde taking pole position and being in podium contention before dropping to fifth in the closing stages.

Team WRT’s driver line ups are yet to be announced, but it is expected Rossi will be back for a third attempt. Having finished fifth last year.

“I’ll be at the start of the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hours,” Rossi confirmed to Endurance-Info.com back in July.

“I hope it will be with these two guys (Maxime Martin and Raffaele Marciello).”

One of the leading international squads, Mercedes-AMG Team GMR will return, as will fellow “Silver Arrow” outfit Craft-Bamboo Racing.

A wildcard to the traditional contenders will be Arise Racing, especially its Pro combination featuring some of the biggest names in Supercars.

Supercars champion Will Brown is jumping from Audi to Ferrari, where he will team up with title rival Chaz Mostert.

Whilst this will be Brown’s Ferrari debut, Mostert is extremely familiar with the 296 having raced it to the GT World Challenge Australia title last year and took Bathurst pole with a 2:00.9861 –  a time only one pole position in the history of the 12 Hour can surpass.

Rounding out a formidable combination is Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra, who is an IMSA winner.

The last confirmed Pro entry is the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes featuring three home heroes.

Craig Lowndes is not only a Great Race legend, but he has also enjoyed lots of 12 Hour success with two wins in 2014 and 2017.

Just like last year he will team up with Tickford teammates Thomas Randle and Cameron Waters.

Once again the STM #222 will carry familiar green and black colours, but this time with a revamped livery, all in support of Prostate Cancer Australia.

Only three Pro Am entries are confirmed so far with a Tigani Motorsport Audi joining the Arise Racing Ferrari.

The Audi will be led by Aussie international Scott Andrews, who has not been at Mount Panorama since 2016.

Since then he has competed in Asian Le Mans, IMSA, European Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship and Intercontinental GT Challenge.

A winner in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 34-year-old is also an IMSA Endurance Cup Champion and has enjoyed success at the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hoping to let the good times roll will be the Shahin brothers in a Bend backed Porsche 911 GT3R 992.

Yasser Shahin is on a high after a class victory in the 2024 Le Mans 24 Hours and he will be joined by brother Sam.

Currently there are only two Silver cars with David Russell and Luke Youlden leading Tigani Motorsport’s Mercedes.

There will also be Volante Rosso Motorsport, which will not only bring Aston Martin back to the grid, but do so with a young line up featuring Jaylyn Robotham, plus Jamie Day and Mateo Villagomez. None of them are aged over 22.

Bronze should be competitive with Grove Racing returning after a year away, but this time in a Mercedes rather than a Porsche.

Joining Brenton and Stephen Grove is Mercedes AMG Performance Driver Fabian Schiller.

Former Grove Racing driver Lee Holdsworth will be driving an Audi, yet again with Marc Cini and Dean Fiore.

The trio have been an unbroken partnership for eight years which is a record.

A Wall Racing Lamborghini featuring Tony D’Alberto and Kiwi Brendon Leitch will be one to watch.

The two Method Motorsport McLaren Arturas are the only GT4 entries so far, while the Vantage Team KTM is on its own in Invitational at the time of print.

Combined Friday Bathurst 12 Hour practice times

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