A challenging Bathurst 12 Hour

It was a tough day at the office at this year’s Bathurst 12 hour race for a great many teams including Audi, with action and incidents from the start of the race right down to the last laps. With no less than 18 safety car periods and a massive list of entries retired for largely accident related incidents, Bathurst demonstrated with absolute clarity why it is one of the great motor racing challenges for drivers and teams from around the world.

After 290 laps of the famed 6.2km circuit, it was the #88 Ferrari of Lowndes, Vilander and Whincup that was first across the line, with #12 Porsche and #17 Bentley rounding out the podium. The result making Ferrari the only other manufacturer to win two Bathurst 12 Hours since Audi in 2011/2012.

The Audi campaigners produced some inspired performances, but in the fickle world of motorsport, fate plays a significant role and 2017 proved to be a particularly challenging race.

Before the sun was even up over the country’s most famed race circuit, Frank Stipler behind the wheel of the #74 Jamec Pem car, spun in traffic over the top of the mountain – the first of what was to be a day of accidents for the brand.

Then on Lap 70, two-time race winner for Audi, Christopher Mies, was hit coming out of Hell Corner causing significant damage and dropping the #75 Jamec Pem car to the back of the field after major repairs were made.

The carnage continued with the #5 car of Nathan Antunes, Elliott Barbour and Greg Taylor  shunted off the track after they had been as high as third outright earlier in the race.

The #2 car of James Bergmuller, Sam Fillmore and Daniel Stutterd collided with a barrier with only a matter of laps to go ending what had been a solid performance from them all day.

Audi finished with two cars in the top 10 – the #3 Team ASR of Daniel Gaunt, Matt Halliday and Ash Samadicar in seventh and #9 Hallmark car of Marc Cini, Dean Fiore and Lee Holdsworth in 9th. The #44 car of James Koundouris, Theo Koundouris, Simon Evans, and Marcus Marshall advanced steadily throughout the day, climbing from midfield to finish 11th in the end, going some way to banishing memories of a disappointing end last year when a blown tyre at race end left them with a ‘did not finish’.

Congratulations to winning teams and to all of the Audi teams for providing an exciting race from the start, and demonstrating why endurance racing continues to grow and capture the imagination of motorsport enthusiasts around the world.