Two class victories for Audi Sport customer teams at the Bathurst 12 Hour
- Double victory for Audi R8 LMS in Pro-Am class thanks to Melbourne Performance Centre and The Bend Motorsport Park
- Myland Team IMS wins Silver Cup, third place for M-Motorsport/Vantage Racing
- Lap record with an all-electric road vehicle by Christopher Mies in the supporting program
As many as four Audi Sport customer teams were on the podium at the Bathurst 12 Hour 2023: After a strong recovery, the three Australians Chaz Mostert, Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot won the Pro-Am class in the Audi R8 LMS. Close behind, Audi Sport drivers Christopher Mies and Ricardo Feller with privateer driver Yasser Shahin for The Bend Motorsport Park finished second. In the Silver Cup standings, Daniel Gaunt, Dylan O’Keeffe and Andrew Fawcet prevailed, with third place going to David Crampton/Trent Harrison/Glen Wood. The three Audi Sport drivers Mattia Drudi/Christopher Haase/Patric Niederhauser lost any chance of a good overall result as early as on lap 13 when an opponent hit their Audi R8 LMS hard, causing it to crash into the barrier.
The impact of the number 74 Audi into the tire barrier after only 33 minutes of racing, which was caused by a competitor, meant retirement for starting driver Christopher Haase and his teammates. The damage proved to be too severe to continue the race. “It’s more than disappointing when our Pro car retires through no fault of its own shortly after the start,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “After this setback, it was even nicer to see how our customer teams prevailed in their classes in this international competition. Our congratulations go to the four driver line-ups who deservedly return from Bathurst with trophies.”
The best result was achieved by the number 65 Audi R8 LMS of the Melbourne Performance Centre despite multiple time losses. Chaz Mostert, Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot won the Pro-Am class and clinched seventh place overall. Mostert drove the fastest race lap in 2m 02.168s. The team lost valuable time due to a penalty and a repair, but the Australian driver trio never gave up and was in second place in its class for a long time until their brand colleagues Ricardo Feller/Christopher Mies/Yasser Shahin with the number 777 had to change the brake pads towards the end. As a result, they finished ninth overall and second in the Pro-Am class. Another Audi squad saw the finish in fifth place in this class: long-time Audi customers Marc Cini/Lee Holdsworth/Dean Fiore clinched this result for Team Hallmarc.
In the Silver classification, Audi Sport customer racing was able to celebrate another class victory. Myland Team IMS from New Zealand, which won three titles in its home country with the R8 LMS last year, relied on Australian Dylan O’Keeffe and the two New Zealanders Daniel Gaunt and Andrew Fawcet. In the Audi R8 LMS, they lapped their nearest rival, a Mercedes-AMG, a total of six times on their way to class victory. Team M-Motorsport/Vantage Racing also relied on Audi at short notice: After their KTM X-Bow was not operational, David Crampton/Trent Harrison/Glen Wood switched to an Audi R8 LMS from the Melbourne Performance Centre on the race weekend. A swap that paid off: They finished third in the Silver classification and thus made it onto the podium at the first attempt.
Team Supabarn, last year’s Am class winner at Bathurst, was left without a chance this year after a collision with an opponent. James Koundouris, Theo Koundouris, David Russell and Jonathan Webb finished fourth in the Silver Cup class after repairs. James Golding, Brad Schumacher and Audi Sport driver Frédéric Vervisch did not finish the race.
In addition to Chaz Mostert’s fastest race lap, Audi achieved another best performance at Bathurst. Two-time Bathurst winner Christopher Mies set the first lap record for an electrically powered model on the legendary track. The 33-year-old professional lapped Mount Panorama on Saturday in a time of 2m 28.15s in an Audi RS e-tron GT (power consumption combined in kWh/100 km*: 22.1-19.8 (WLTP), CO2 emissions combined in g/km*: 0).