It’s been a rapid start to the 2024 Repco Bathurst 12 Hour as Matt Campbell in the Manthey EMA Porsche Type-992 GT3R leads after the first quarter of the race is complete.
It was a rigorous start as pole sitter Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde led the way from the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Mikael Grenier, with the two making a slight gap during the early stages.
It wasn’t until the pit stops when much of the action occurred as the over cut worked perfectly as the lead Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 was demoted to fifth with Charles Weerts taking over from van der Linde.
Manthey EMA played the strategy perfectly to have both of its Porsches leading, so too Mercedes-AMG GruppeM Racing and SunEnergy1.
Valentino Rossi also emerged ahead of his teammate leading to a spirited dice between the two BMWs, which also included Will Brown after swapping with Grenier.
Turkish rising star Ayhancan Guven led the way in the Manthey EMA ‘Grello’ as he held off David Reynolds for GruppeM and Jules Gounon, who is gunning for four Bathurst 12 Hour titles on the trot.
Following the second round of stops on lap 63, the Porsche continued to lead, as the GruppeM entry was delayed by a penalty due to a pit lane infraction.
The two BMWs swapped positions behind as Brown continued to put the pressure on in the middle of his double-stint as Kenny Habul, Liam Talbot and Yasser Shahin all clocked up time behind the wheel.
A safety car was deployed on lap 73 when an Invitational Class entry was beached in the gravel trap at McPhillamy Park, while another followed soon after when a MARC II spun at Griffins Bend.
This wasn’t the last visit from the safety car as a tangle between Shahin in the previous generation Manthey EMA Porsche and the M Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, led to the dual Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS series winner in the gravel at McPhillamy Park.
As the four hour mark ticked over, Campbell led the pair of Team WRT BMWs as Jason Evans in the Phantom Group Racing Porsche and Wash It/Jamec Racing’s Kelvin van der Linde in the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 completed the top five.
The Phantom Group Racing Porsche has climbed from outside the top 15 to be in contention courtesy of superb stints from Joel Eriksson and Bastian Buus.
A further update will be provided at the eight hour mark.