Drivers, Teams React to Reduced Bathurst 12H Field

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Team principals and drivers have reacted to the reduced field of cars for this weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, which has “saddened” competitors but stressed that it continues to be a “very special” event.

A total of 22 cars are entered this year’s enduro, which opens the Intercontinental GT Challenge season, down from the 29 entries from the 2024 edition.

The car count, however, is still higher than the 20 entries that took part in the first post-pandemic edition in 2022, although pales in comparison to the 2020 race that attracted 39 cars, which featured 33 GT3 cars.

“Everyone would like to have some of the manufacturers that are not here,” said BMW M Team WRT team principal Vincent Vosse.

“It’s a special event, a very special one. It competes with the biggest events of the endurance racing world.

“It’s always an issue to select the drivers to come here because all of them want to do the race.”

Vosse’s WRT squad is one of only six international teams entered this weekend, which includes Heart of Racing Team by SPS, a joint effort from the Arizona-based, Ian James-led operation and Germany’s SPS automotive performance.

Heart of Racing is taking part in its second Bathurst 12H, after first contesting the race in the Pro-Am class last year but having moved to the Bronze class due to its driver composition.

This year’s race features a total of four GT3 classes: Pro, Pro-Am, Silver and Bronze, which mirrors SRO Motorsports Group’s global class structure.

“I’m an advocate for the more cars, the better, within reason because I think it adds an extra element to it,” James told Sportscar365.

“This is such an amazing event and to see a relatively small car count saddens me. Hopefully they can revamp things a little bit.

“To me, I think it should just be Pro and Pro-Am, two classes and get it back to what it used to be in the heyday of the GT3 race here.

“Nevertheless, 20 cars out there, there seems to be a car, all the time, that you’re being overtaken or you’re coming up against.

“It’s definitely not a clear track even though it’s such a long and marvelous track.

“This is one of the tracks that you can just drive around alone and it would be exhilarating for hours on end.

“It is what it is. It’s going to be close no matter if it’s a small car count, the competition is really strong.”

When asked by Sportscar365 if Bathurst presents any specific logistical challenges for a European team compared to other races such as the Michelin 24H Dubai or racing in the U.S., Vosse joked: “It’s further away.”

He added: “Once you are here once and you have the experience of doing the event, I think it’s like the other races.

“The problem of course, compared to Dubai or the other races, is timing [around] the calendar.

“It’s getting closer to the start of the European season, so it gets tricky to not to air freight everything back. This is one of the issues, I would say.

“Maybe the race two weeks later would have a bigger impact on the logistics.

“Of course everything which is later is getting more difficult to have everything back [in Europe] on time.”

Drivers Expecting ‘More Flat Out’ Race With Smaller Grid

With the smaller grid, particularly with only three GT4 entries and one car in the Invitational class, drivers are expecting a more flat-out race.

“That’s what it looks like, but let’s see,” three-time Bathurst 12H winner Jules Gounon told Sportscar365. “Obviously it’s a bit of a shame there’s less cars but there’s still a lot of GT3s to fight for the win.

“At the end of the day, in the past there was a bit more cars, I’m sure.

“Maybe the organizer will do something for next year to bring back some of those small cars that was also the charm of the race.

“Nevertheless, it’s still going to be an amazing race, I’m sure. Every year it delivers mega fights. I guess this year, also.”

WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde added: “I think a lot of the traffic in the past has created incidents. For us, especially last year, where we were out of the race after three hours. That wasn’t nice to see.

“But at the same time, it obviously makes the race a lot more fast paced.

“So it’s going to be more on pace and not on traffic management, which is going to mean we’re going to have to have a fast car for the race, make sure we qualify up front, and then go from there.”