The upcoming weekend (February 3 to February 5, 2023) the motorsport world is upside down. In contrast to the previous year, the race takes place during the Australian summer.
In 2022, the race was postponed due to COVID in May 2022. This year’s date is almost the same like in the years before and we are once more active on the racetrack with our Scuderia Autoart and next to the “Mount Panorama” racetrack with our banners. Moreover, the organizers revised the regulations with a new qualifying format.
Within the 2023 qualifying, the contestants aren’t on the racetrack at the same time. Moreover, in the first 25-minute qualifying 1 (Q1), only semi-professionals in category silver and amateurs in category bronze drive on the “Australian Nordschleife”.
Afterward, the 40-minute session (Q2) starts where the professionals drive as well. What makes the Bathurst 12h race special is that professional teams have to set up their teams with two drivers.
At the end of the qualifying, the average lap times of the professional drivers are determined. The fastest ten drivers go to the legendary shootout where they compete for the pole position in two groups.
Starting places from position eleven will be determined as usual after the qualifying. In total, 26 vehicles start in Australia. Once more, the 12h Bathurst race is the debut of the International GT Challenge (IGTC).
Five of our motorsport customers will take part in the race the upcoming weekend. For example, Team Manthey EMA drives the Porsche 911 GT3 R (991.2) in class A PRO with the starting number #912 – the new 992-GT3-R isn’t eligible to enter in Australia yet.
The drivers of the Manthey-EMA-911 are Porsche factory drivers Thomas Preining, Mathieu Jaminet, and Matt Campbell. In 2019, the Australian Matt Campbell won the 12h race of Bathurst in his Porsche 911 GT3 R.
In the Porsche 911 GT3 R (#4) by Grove Racing (Class A PRO-AM) Stephen Grove, Brenton Grove, and Andon De Pasquale will be driving.
The winner of the 24h race in Dubai – the Belgian BMW motorsport customer Team WRT – starts with two BMW M4 GT3s at the 12 hours of Bathurst. The M4 (#32) pilots are Sheldon Van Der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, and Charles Weerts in class A PRO.
The second WRT-BMW (#46) drives in the A PRO class as well and shares the cockpit with the former motorcycle professional and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi and the BMW professionals Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin.
This is how you stream the 12h race at home
Unfortunately, Australia is at the other end of the world. Therefore, it isn’t possible to visit Mount Panorama in New South Wales spontaneously. Thank god live streams exist so at least we can watch the race on our screens.
Saturday, February 4, 2023
02:45 – 03:10 a.m.*: Qualifying 1
03:55 – 04:35 a.m.* : Qualifying 2
06:10 – 06:50 a.m.* : Top-10-Shootout
07:45 p.m.* : 12h-Bathurst Starting grid Race Start (08:30 p.m.*)
* = CET (Central European Time)
Photos Porsche Motorsport, BMW Motorsport, Archiv, Edge Photographics, Mark Horsburgh
