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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/GeneralIdiot44 on 2024-02-05 12:34:20.
I discovered this subreddit through some posts related to V8 Supercars and the Bathurst 1000 - particularly the outstanding write up about WPS Racing by u/deepvoicednerd. While the V8s are the national racing series of Australia, they aren't the only event that occurs on Mount Panorama each year - and at risk of losing my Australian credibility, they aren't my favourite, either. This race hasn't produced the outright hate that the 1000 has between fans (and sometimes drivers), but it has produced drama of the highest order in the "heart pounding" sense.
Allow me to introduce you to the Bathurst 12 Hour.
This race is so named because... well, it's at Bathurst, and it lasts twelve hours, usually beginning at around 5:45am (the warm-up lap is included in the race time, so while the timer starts then, the actual race starts shortly after) and finishing 12 hours after at 5:45pm. That's one of the big differences; the other is the cars. While the 1000 is run as part of the V8 Supercars championship, the 12 Hour is a race intended for GT machinery such as these. In pretty much every other 12 Hour, teams have filled their lineups with a mix of V8 Supercar drivers who know the track and international guns who know the cars. Except...
Preliminary Drama - The Cold War (aka A Brief History Of The 12 Hour Pre-2015)
The Bathurst 12 Hour, which was originally an event run in the early 1990s, returned in 2007 as a production car based race. For four years it remained this way, attracting a significant entry list of cars you'd see on the street - think BMWs, Mitsubishi Lancers, and Subarus - but not a significant following.
For the 2011 running, the decision was made to allow purpose-built racing cars - specifically GT3s - into the race. This cut the entry list almost in half, as most production teams felt they had been wronged by this, but there was clearly demand, as several local teams entered their GT - as did Audi's de facto factory team, Joest. Joest promptly wiped the floor with the locals, finishing first and second, and then the next year, Audi's other de facto factory team Phoenix won again, although they did not finish 1-2 as the second of the team cars crashed in horrific conditions at around midday.
However, Audi didn't dominate this time - a Mercedes finished within 15 seconds of the winner - and by now, other teams had woken up to this race; a combination of slightly looser entry rules and this recognition saw the grid for 2013 double. This time, the Erebus Mercedes that came close in 2012 won - more on Erebus later - and the event continued to progress in 2014, where a Ferrari crewed by the likes of F1 alumni Mika Salo and V8 Supercars legend Craig Lowndes won.
However, for this race, Lowndes wouldn't be involved. Not that he didn't want to; but Supercars had other ideas.
You see, by now, Supercars management had noticed that there was this other race at Bathurst that was quickly gaining popularity and might be threatening their big event at Bathurst at the other end of the year. How did they respond? To reference the outstanding work of u/deepvoicednerd again, they uncorked their inner Ivan Stibbard and scheduled an official testing session on the same weekend as the 12 Hour. This was a compulsory session for all drivers. Thusly, they could not be at Bathurst.
For the part of the 12 Hour, and owner Yeehah Events, their strategy in response was... ignoring it. The 12 Hour proceeded as usual, with nothing being discussed about Supercars - except by TV commentators filling in the fans at home, and by Nissan executives, who pulled off a Mission Impossible-style photoshoot of their Supercar and GT3 car together.
In the long run, Supercars decided to do the next most obvious thing - they bought out Yeehah, and there was never another split between the two events' management. But for 2015, that meant that the grid was filled with either internationals or second-tier Aussies. Speaking of which, let's meet the players in this race...
A Who's Who Of The Mountain On 8 February 2015
The polesitting team was one we'd discussed before - Phoenix Racing. The 2012 winners were back with two cars for this Bathurst, and both would play roles. In the #15, entered into the AP class for combinations including one unseeded driver, were GT ace Laurens Vanthoor, GT prospect Marco Mapelli, and former F1 driver Markus Winkelhock.
(I should explain seeded and unseeded drivers. Seeded drivers are those such as Winkelhock, who have a gold or platinum racing licence granted by the FIA. Unseeded drivers are those with a silver or bronze licence. This was designed to force all cars to have at least one amateur driver in them, but some teams found loopholes; for example, Mapelli, despite being a professional, had only a silver licence and thusly was counted as the unseeded, or "amateur", driver for the #15.)
Across the garage was the #16, which had a cool crocodile livery and was driven by 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Stephane Ortelli, Audi factory driver Christopher Haase... and their unseeded driver was Felix Baumgartner. Yes, the BASE jumper. What can I say but the mountain brings out thrill seekers?
Starting alongside them was a BIG surprise. Roger Lago was, and I believe still is, a businessman from Brisbane, Queensland who ran cold stores as his day job, and then raced a Lamborghini on his weekends. Nobody fancied that Lamborghini, especially given it was an entirely local based driving squad - alongside Lago was David Russell, who drove in second-tier local series Carrera Cup, and Steve Owen, who wasn't considered good enough for a seat in Supercars; but here they were starting second out of everyone.
Then came the Nissan in third. This was also the polesitter for the AA class, which was allowed just one seeded driver, which for Nissan was Japanese ace Katsumasa Chiyo, who had starred in 2014 but also been involved in a massive crash at the top of the mountain that destroyed both his car and the Clearwater Ferrari. And then crashed again in practice this year, almost ending their chances before the race had begun. He was joined this time by two video gamers. Both Wolfgang Reip and late addition Florian Strauss (substituting for Nissan's other GT ace Alex Buncombe, whose wife had just given birth to their first child) had won competitions on Gran Turismo and then, supported by Nissan, worked their way up to be here. The Nissan was one of the fan favourites.
Starting fourth was an AF Corse Ferrari. AF Corse, for context, won the most recent 24 Hours of Le Mans and are one of the best GT teams of all time. So they would always be a threat for the win regardless of who was driving, which in this case was factory drivers Michele Rugolo and Davide Rigon, as well as mining magnate Steve Wyatt.
It'd take me ten hours to continue through the rest of the grid in such depth, so instead here is a bullet point list of key players who will play a part during this article:
- Craft-Bamboo Racing had two Aston Martins; the #99 was a poisoned chalice all weekend and will not be mentioned much, but the #97 of Alex McDowall, Stefan Mucke, and former 12 Hour-winning amateur Darryl O'Young started fifth
- The aforementioned Clearwater Racing brought back team owner Mok Weng Sun and Irishman Matt Griffin, and added GT superstar Toni Vilander. They were sixth on the grid
- Seventh was Erebus Motorsport's first Mercedes; Erebus were the official Australian Mercedes team back in 2015 as opposed to being a future r/HobbyDrama article. This car had veteran Dean Canto, who might remind you of certain famous characters, alongside youngsters Jack LeBrocq and Richard Muscat; the other car, which started 19th, had Simon Hodge (the holder of the unrestricted Bathurst lap record), Nathan Morcom and 16-year-old Austin Cindric.
- Finally, in ninth was the Bentley. There were three this year, but the one that matters is the #10. This featured Le Mans winner Guy Smith, as well as Bentley factory driver Steven Kane, and Matt Bell. Remember the name Matt Bell.
There's other characters in this race - there are four other classes, all filled with drivers deserving to be there - but I will mention them as they come up.
The Early Running (And Even Before)
Bathurst is a brutal place. So often, we see cars with so much promise not even make the start. You may have noticed that I didn't describe any of the contenders as the reigning champions. That's because, on Friday, Tony d'Alberto had a massive stack in the #88 Maranello Ferrari, eliminating t...
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