New team, GT3 debut near home and more importantly, a win with the home driver bringing the car home in a sensational final stint. This was the Bathurst 12 Hour for Earl Bamber Motorsports, and the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge season started with Matt Campbell getting the checkered flag along with Dennis Olsen and Dirk Werner in a 2018 spec Porsche 911 GT3R.
The start at Sunday dawn saw two Blancpain GT Series Asia sides lead the way, in form of the No. 999 GruppeM Mercedes and the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes, keeping a safe distance of each other and a safer distance from the rest of the field in this initial run.
The No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, which had its pole position revoked due to rev limiter threshold issue, was climbing up the grid, ending the first hour in ninth place. Also, the first hour of racing made its first victims, as the No. 34 Walkenhorst BMW stopped on track and had to be towed to its garage, while the No. 55 Ginetta Australia car slammed the back end in the wall and pitted for repairs.
No changes were seen between the first two cars after the first pit window, but bad luck fell over the third placed No. 12 ICE BREAK Porsche, as the back end got loose and the car met the wall, coming to a halt immediately and bringing the first Safety Car intervention. When the green came back the No. 77 conquered the lead while the No. 999 was holding both M-SPORT Bentleys that were sitting in third and fourth. The second hour ended with the No. 27 HubAuto Ferrari spinning while trying to lap the No. 96 MARC Focus, which saw the worst end of the incident as the front end got substantial damage, and this brought the Safety Car back to track.
The green flag came back only to see the No. 107 M-SPORT Bentley pass the No. 999 GruppeM Mercedes for second, as the No. 760 R-Motorsport Aston Martin hit heavily the wall after the Hell corner, bringing the Safety Car back. Some teams took the opportunity to pit, and the exit was catastrophic to M-SPORT as the No. 108 Bentley stopped and briefly held the No. 107 car.
With the pit strategies being shuffled, multiple leaders were seen during the third hour, until the No. 42 Schnitzer BMW take control of the race, with the No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin sitting in second following a massive recovery race, but it wasn’t like they were stuck on it.
The No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin had it in control on top but it didn’t take long to lose ground to some faster machinery, as the No. 107 M-SPORT Bentley took the lead and the No. 18 KCMG Nissan didn’t get second place because of another yellow flag period, with the No. 77 CRAFT Bamboo Mercedes and the No. 22 Valvoline Audi coming to a halt at different points of the track. By electing to not stop at that time, the No. 911 and 912 EBM Porsches were leading the field, with the latter offering guard to the former, though this didn’t last long as the No. 18 broke their 1-2 once the restart came, eventually taking the lead after some effort.
During the middle part of the race, despite some dominant performances, no car had total control of the lead, as the top-5 was formed by cars that rotated in the lead during the event, with the No. 62 R-Motorsport switching with the EBM Porsches, the No. 18 KCMG Nissan and the No. 42 Schnitzer BMW from time to time.
The No. 912 EBM Porsche decided to gamble in the final stop and came back to track with new tires while the rest of the contenders came for fuel only. Everything was going well for the fuel-only group, except for the No. 108 M-SPORT Bentley, which again stopped at the pit exit, losing precious positions and time, reappearing in seventh place. A brief yellow caused by the No. 50 M Motorsport KTM being stopped at Conrod Straight bunched up the field.
On the restart, Matt Campbell in the No. 912 EBM Porsche intensified the pressure, going all over Raffaele Marciello in the No. 999 GruppeM Mercedes and successfully overtaking for second place, and after a brave maneuver, the Porsche took the lead and started opening the gap. Behind them, the No. 888Triple Eight Mercedes of Shane van Gisbergen was en route to the podium, but Raffaele Marciello in the No. 999 kept it solid in third position. As for the No. 912, once the gap was good for the No. 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin, Matt Campbell just had to cross the line to celebrate the victory.
The No. 98 Aussie Driver Search Ferrari got honors in the Class A Pro-Am, while in Class B the win went to the No. 4 Grove Porsche Cup. The No. 20 Localsearch MARC II got the Class I win, while a troubled Class C saw the No. 48 M Motorsport KTM win it. 23 cars completed the race out of the 38 which started it on Sunday morning.
Crossing the Pacific, the next IGTC event will be the California 8 Hours at Laguna Seca, to be held on March 30th.
PHOTO: Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific
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