Australian Porsche ace Matt Campbell continues to lead the 2024 Repco Bathurst 12 Hour despite the Mountain providing more than its fair share of challenges during the second third.
Rain continues to fall heading into the final third of the race as Campbell overcame a pit lane infraction penalty and subsequent mistake by the Manthey EMA squad when he attempted to serve the drive through under safety car conditions to hold a 5s advantage to Craft Bamboo Racing’s Max Goetz.
Campbell led at the start of the stint as the Audis, BMWs and Phantom Group Racing Porsche pursued, but traffic proved troublesome no more than when the pole sitting Team WRT M4 GT3 tangled with a GT4 Ginetta at The Cutting.
Charles Weerts made contact with the Ginetta at the kink just prior to The Cutting resulting in a spectacular wall ride by the M4 GT3 ending before landing backwards and rolling up around the corner.
A round of pit stops followed as Laurens Vanthoor took over from Campbell and had Valentino Rossi for company in the sole remaining BMW M4 GT3 until the tyres returned to temperature upon the restart.
Mercedes-AMG GruppeM Racing also encountered trouble courtesy of a pit lane penalty and an engine problem, which appeared to be remedied by adjustments made on the steering wheel.
The Ginetta was repaired and returned to the track only to cause the next safety car when it stopped on Conrod Straight leading to the top contenders pitting.
However, this is when the rain first appeared and it became a constant as the race entered its eighth hour.
This led to another race interruption as John Holinger in Matt Stone Racing’s IRC GT entry was contacted by the KFC/Jamec Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 of Ricardo Feller, which was penalised for the incident with a two minute penalty.
Rain continued to cause chaos as it briefly stopped allowing teams to fit slicks, but this proved only momentarily as a heavy downpour including hail hit the circuit. Action between Mercedes-AMG factory drivers Maro Engel and Jules Gounon closed out the second third.
Martin also had a moment at Murray’s Corner after being forced wide and driving through the outside gravel trap.
Action continues at the 2024 Repco Bathurst 12 Hour on 7+, 7, Fox Sports, Kayo and GT World for international viewers.