Bathurst Saturday Notebook

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

***Lucas Auer completed the second-quickest lap in Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying history, giving the Austrian and Craft-Bamboo Racing their first event pole positions, and coming in Auer’s debut at Mount Panorama.

***Auer was due to make his first run at Bathurst, also with Craft-Bamboo, in 2023 before he sustained back injuries in a practice accident for the Rolex 24 at Daytona that put him out of action for nearly six months. He did not take part in last year’s race.

***He said: “I think I found a new favorite track. It’s really incredible, this Sector 2 [mountain], I’ve never seen something like this. The car is just wonderful to drive around here.”

***Mercedes-AMG overtook Audi to become the GT3 manufacturer with the most poles in the event’s history, with five. Maro Engel was the last Mercedes-AMG pole-sitter in 2023, and still holds the qualifying track record of 2:00.8819.

***Matt Campbell was the first driver to miss out on the Pirelli Pole Battle, taking his No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R to the 11th quickest time in qualifying. The defending race winner told Sportscar365 they’ve been battling handling issues since the start of the weekend although made some gains in qualifying.

***Campbell told Sportscar365: “In qualifying, across the top of the mountain, I was just fighting the car a lot. There was a lot of oversteer and very edgy, which made it very difficult to push and you just can’t carry the minimum corner speed you want across the top. Obviously the other Porsche is going well but we’ve been struggling with medium to high speed balance. At least we’ve made a step… but quali was a bit of a handful at times.”

***The Absolute Porsche underwent a gearbox change overnight.

***The No. 46 Team WRT BMW, which also missed out on the Pole Battle, suffered overheating issues in qualifying according to a BMW spokesperson. Raffaele Marciello qualified the car in 12th.

***The No. 25 Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, which crashed in Saturday’s first practice session, returned to action after missing final practice as it underwent repairs to the right-front of the car. Tom Hayman qualified the car second in class, ahead of its sister No. 24 entry.

***Kelvin van der Linde said his first race back with Team WRT has felt like returning home, with the South African making his first start with the team since the Belgian squad’s switch from Audi to BMW machinery in 2023.

***Van der Linde said: “I think it was one of the motivating factors for me to come to BMW as well. It’s a familiar environment so I don’t have to completely start from zero coming here. I’m very happy to be back. It was a very successful first stint with the Audi days, driving with Charles [Weerts] and Dries [Vanthoor]. I have no doubt we’re going to have a very successful chapter this time around with BMW.”

***Manthey EMA’s Porsche of Yasser and Sam Shahin, as well as Bathurst rookies Morris Schuring and Laurin Heinrich is sporting a throwback livery reminiscent to the Shell Porsche 962. Yasser Shahin has returned to the wheel of a Porsche this weekend after winning Creventic’s 6H Abu Dhabi in a Team WRT-run BMW M4 GT3 EVO last month.

***Shahin will switch from Manthey to WRT for this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship campaign in the LMGT3 class, teaming up with Augusto Farfus and Timur Boguslavskiy in a BMW.

***The Vincent Vosse-led team enters Sunday’s race with an undefeated record in 2025 competition, having also claimed victory in last month’s Michelin 24H Dubai.

***Reigning Intercontinental GT Challenge drivers’ champion Charles Weerts is taking a wait-and-see approach on whether he will defend his title, having only been confirmed for the first three rounds of the globe-trotting GT3 championship.

***Weerts said: “Let’s focus on this race. I don’t think it’s really sure what we will after. The main goal, at least until Spa is to do the best we can do until then. My focus right now is not on the championship.”

***The Bathurst 12 Hour will remain part of SRO Motorsports Group’s global GT World Challenge ranking this year despite no longer counting towards a round of GTWC Australia. It was announced on Friday that Chevrolet, which is not present this weekend, has become the tenth GT3 brand to sign up to the global ranking, which has a new points system similar to IGTC.

***SRO is understood to still be in discussions with a potential new title sponsor for GT World Challenge, following Fanatec’s departure. The sim racing company, which declared bankruptcy in 2024, was purchased by U.S. computer peripheral and gaming firm Corsair and elected not to continue in its same sponsorship capacity this year.

***While not on this year’s Bathurst 12H grid, a total of four IRC GT cars (formerly known as MARC Cars) took part in the Combined Sedans support races, including MARC Cars Australia boss Geoff Taunton, who claimed victory in Race 3 on Saturday afternoon.

***Saturday saw the global on-track debut of the Genesis X Gran Berlinetta, a concept supercar from its Magma sub-brand. Six-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx, a Genesis brand ambassador, was behind the wheel for demonstration laps. The Genesis GV60 Magma EV was also seen lapping Mount Panorama.

***Coverage of the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour gets underway on Sunday at 5:30 a.m. local time (Saturday, 1:30 p.m. ET) on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel featuring the commentary team of John Hindhaugh, Garth Tander and Richard Craill in the booth, with Chad Neylon and Shea Adam on pit lane.