A thrilling Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour on Sunday 7 February 2015 has ended with McLaren drivers Shane van Gisbergen, Alvaro Parente and Jonathan Webb spectacularly taking victory in another tense finish at Mount Panorama from a fast-finishing Katsumasa Chiyo in the Nissan GT-R just 1.2 seconds. The victory was the first win for McLaren at Mount Panorama, after a day of high drama that claimed several leading contenders early in the race. The McLaren victory came despite 13 visits to pit lane, a drive-through penalty and even a brief moment when the car stopped on track exiting the final corner with Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente forced to re-set the car on the track before resuming.
The team’s chances took a blow when van Gisbergen was issued a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding when he began his final stint, however well-timed Safety Cars and savvy strategy from the TEKNO team returned the No. 59 car to the front.
Van Gisbergen also recorded a new outright lap record of the Bathurst circuit at 2m01.567s – the fastest ever recorded in a race at the famous circuit.
The result at Bathurst was the first notable success for the McLaren brand at Mount Panorama since Neil Allen set a longstanding Bathurst lap record (2m09.7) in a McLaren M10 F5000 open-wheeler 46 years ago, one that would stand until the early 2000s.
Nissan drivers and defending winners Chiyo, Rick Kelly and Florian Strauss finished second ahead of Bentley Team M-Sport’s Matt Bell, Steven Kane and Guy Smith who finished third.
The Bentley team’s result was especially satisfying given they were knocked out of a potential podium result in the last corner of the 2015 race.
For the second year running, five brands finished in the top five with the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 finishing fourth and the Erebus Motorsport SLS AMG GT3 fifth in it’s Bathurst swansong.
A highly competitive race was contested over a race-record 297 laps (1,845km) and featured a race-record 29 lead changes across its duration.
13 Safety Car interruptions for a total of 40 laps broke up the race however lengthy periods of green-flag running allowed for teams to experiment with race strategy, setting up the thrilling finish between the competing brands.
The race was in the balance through to the closing stages with a round of pit stops at the top of the final hour setting up the closing sprint to the flag.
Mount Panorama claimed several leading contenders early with Nick Percat (Lamborghini) and Mika Salo (Ferrari) clashing on the opening lap at turn two. The Lamborghini was out instantly while the 2014-winning Ferrari was later parked after 63 laps with unrepairable damage.
20 cars finished the race with key contenders from Jamec-Pem Racing and Objective Racing out of the race early after striking dramas – the Jamec Audi with a tyre failure and the Objective Racing McLaren after contact with the wall at the dipper after just two hours.
A dominant performance from the Grove Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car saw the Melbourne-based team win the Rydges Class B battle in dominant fashion.
The Grove Porsche, shared by reigning LeMans winner Earl Bamber, V8 ace Scott McLaughlin and car owner Stephen Grove, started slowly but surged to the class lead early in the morning and was never headed – ultimately winning their class by a mammoth 15 laps.
Second in class was the Safe-T-Stop Porsche driven by Richard Gartner, Aaron Zerefos and Indiran Padayachee.
All-Aussie team MARC Cars Australia completed a 1-2-3 sweep of the BM Pro Invitational class with Aaron Seton – son of Glenn Seton – teaming with Jake Camilleri and Morgan Haber to win the class by nine laps.
Tony Alford, Mark Griffith and Beric Lynton finished second and Mick Benton, Hadrian Morall and Angus Kennard third.
A record three-day crowd of 37,079 attended the 2016 event, up approximately 15% on 2016.
QUOTEBOARD: OUTRIGHT PODIUM-GETTERS – 2016 LIQUI-MOLY BATHURST 12 HOUR
Shane van Gisbergen – Race Winner - #59 Tekno Autosport McLaren, also set lap record and was the pole-sitter
“It was a pretty long day. The first stint was really awesome, I really enjoyed myself out there. It was pretty tough, I had never driven around here in the dark and we didn’t have our big lights on so couldn’t see much. I had a good agreement with Garth and Luffy in the morning, that we would just cruise along and then after three laps we would start pushing once it was all up to temperature and we will get moving, and it was really cool, and then some Euro kid came along flashing his headlights and oh man I have to get going here, so it was cool, started pushing but there were kangaroos coming out and there were warnings every lap so, I am a Kiwi and I am not used to that either, but it was cool. (In his break) then everything was pretty rosy, I went back to the hotel to chill out and watching Alvaro going well, and then just saw the car stop going to the last corner so I was heart in mouth there, but thankfully it re-fired and gave us no more issues for the rest of the day, so, yeah, a pretty cool way to finish as well.”
Alvaro Parente – Race Winner - #59 Tekno Autosport McLaren
“That was fantastic, I don’t know what to say – thanks to my two team mates, Shane and Jon have been fantastic all week. Learning the track quickly you know, what a fantastic track you guys have here. I really enjoyed it and learnt it quickly and was on the pace quickly and that is important always. You know we had a few issues today, but at the end we went with the right strategy options and everything went smoothly, and I couldn’t be happier. (When the car stopped) that wasn’t good, I knew what I had to do with the car, it wasn’t letting me do it straight away so we lost a little more seconds than I predicated but thankfully it got restarted and it all went to plan.”
Jonathon Webb - Race Winner - #59 Tekno Autosport McLaren
“Yeah it probably is (the biggest win of his career). To go out there on the podium at Bathurst , obviously the 1000km race is well known as the Great Race here in Australia but the 12 Hour is catching up closely. For me this is massive – a huge thanks to these guys and all the crew. For Tekno to debut with McLaren GT and come away with is a huge things for me. (On 2014) it was tough for Shane and I. The relationship has been and gone and we were very close then, it is fantastic to come back here with him and we have our third man here this weekend who has done an awesome job here this weekend, he certainly picked up quick, I think his first flying lap was a 2.07.1 – he didn’t mess around and both the guys did an awesome job.”
Katsumasa Chiyo – Second placed - #1 NISMO Athlete Global Team Nissan GT-R
“We were not the quickest car yesterday but we could show a very strong race today. The team was working very good and the car was just fantastic, such a great team and great team mates. We were doing really good until the last few minutes I think, but the McLaren was so fast and I tried to catch up then but I had some stupid moving other cars so I had to (avoid), it was so scary. We really wanted to win again this year and come back with it, but winning at Bathurst is not so easy. The race was very much like a sprint this year, with not many safety cars and not many traffic this year, which made it quite tough. I just want to say thank you to every team and to my team mates and for such a very great car, and I want to come back again next year.”
Rick Kelly – Second placed - #1 NISMO Athlete Global Team Nissan GT-R
“Absolutely it was an exciting day for us and we led a lot of laps which was good fun. We had a lot of straight line speed which for me was quite exciting, we could check people up the hill and then pull off. It was really good. First thing, congratulations to the Tekno guys, they had an impressive car all weekend so we had that to try and catch and unfortunately today we just couldn’t match the pace that those guys had. But for me, I was coming into the weekend I guess with eyes wide open, just trying to learn as much as I could and support these guys who won it last year in such nice style. We weren’t able to do it today but nethertheless I learnt a lot, especially from this little fella, he can drive that car I can give you the tip. I have been looking at his data all weekend and learned a lot from him, and Florian as well, so for me it was a great opportunity.
“I think (Chiyo’s driving at the end) was really impressive. The pace at the start of the race when the track was nice and cool was very strong and I think everyone was just sort of getting settled in. and then during the mid-part of the day as always the track got quite greasy, and at the end there his pace was quicker than what I got out of the car during qualifying which shows the cars capability and Chiyo’s capability. I don’t’ think there would have been another hundredth in the car to what he got out of it. I think we need to check the mirrors for some paint he was that close in some places which is really impressive. The high risk places around here he has nailed and same for the low risk, he definitely has the track under control, and I think that goes for a lot of the field. You look at how strong a lot of the really great teams are from overseas and drivers from overseas - they come here get the track nailed pretty quickly, and same with the cars, and a few years ago in our V8 Supercars it wasn’t really the case. So I think it really opens up our eyes to drivers overseas for the 1000 here in October because the quality of driver internationally is outstanding and now they have experience at our home track so they could certainly be assets for us in the future.”
Florian Strauss – Second placed - #1 NISMO Athlete Global Team Nissan GT-R
“Yeah I think (the day) was just incredible. I think everyone at the team was a little bit disappointed yesterday but we were pretty sure our race pace should be much more in front than our qualifying lap showed. But of course it is always difficult to win here, a lot of green running this year. As Rick said it was impossible to catch the fast guy next to me, but Chiyo tried everything single thing, but I am sure next year we will have another attempt and try to win again.”
Matthew Bell – Third placed - #10 Mobil 1/Naim Audio/Breitling Bentley Continental
“It is (great to take third after being bumped off the podium at the last minute in 2015) for sure. We had a pretty good race, the three of us had good pace throughout the race. When we were in the lead with about four hours to go things were looking quite good - we thought we had the strategy covered and the legs to go the distance, but we just couldn’t quite match these guys in the last few hours. After the way it ended last year we were all just a little bit down and deflated after that, so it is great to stand up here and represent Bentley on the podium at Bathurst and to share it with these two guys who have done a great job. It is a big step up from last year and next year we will come back and try and catch these guys.”
Guy Smith - – Third placed - #10 Mobil 1/Naim Audio/Breitling Bentley Continental
(On whether they struggled for pace later in the day) “We definitely found that as the track rubbered in and got a little warmer we struggled a little bit more, we had a bit of understeer in the car and it just got worse and worse and our pace definitely suffered. Really at the end there we didn’t really have the pace to challenge these guys, they were in a different league. So at that point it was a case of trying to consolidate third place, Steven was taking some pressure from Laurens Vanthoor and did a great job to hold him off and get the podium position. So we are happy with that, and as Matt said, we will come back next year and try again.”
Steven Kane - – Third placed - #10 Mobil 1/Naim Audio/Breitling Bentley Continental
“(The final stint) was quite trick – (Vanthoor) had a lot of speed over the top of the hill, and you know the Audi was very, very fast, and we had a bit of a straight line speed advantage, so it was just a matter of using that and trying to get through traffic, keeping our positon and trying to bump in the lap times that we could achieve. Congratulations to these guys, they have been really fast all weekend and we are going to come back next year and try and go two better.”
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