Bathurst 12 Hour 2014.

Bathurst 12hr wrote:FLASH SET FOR BATHURST DEBUT

THE 2012 BRITISH Touring Car Champion, Gordon Shedden, will join the Motionsport Lotus squad for the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour next weekend.

Shedden will partner regular endurance racers Pete Storey and Ben Gower as they take on the mountain in a Lotus Exige for the second year running.

“I’m excited to be joining Motionsport for my first visit to Bathurst. It’s an iconic circuit, an iconic race and I think the Lotus Exige will be a strong contender for class honours.” Shedden said.

Nicknamed ‘Flash’, the 34-year-old Scottish driver from Edinburgh is a veteran of more than 200 starts in the BTCC and claimed a the title win in 2012, edging out team mate Matt Neal and Jason Plato in the final standings. He finished second in 2013, falling just seven points shy of defending his championship in the season finale’ at Brands Hatch.

He has won more than 30 BTCC races and will rejoin the works Honda team in the championship this year, racing a unique Honda Civic estate alongside Neal at the Team Dynamics-run squad.

As a former BTCC Champion, Shedden will join former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff and V8 Supercars / Australian Touring Car Champions Craig Lowndes, Rick Kelly and John Bowe on the Bathurst 12-hour grid this year.    

The Compare Insurance Motionsport Lotus Exige Shedden will drive at Bathurst will compete in Class C (GT4), where the squad hope to bring back the silverware after coming so close to victory last year.

“Last year was a stark reminder not to count your chickens until they’ve hatched” said Motionsport Team Principal, Simon Phillips.

“We managed to build a comfortable lead, some 10 laps, over the works Peugeots for class honours, then in the penultimate hour we got collected by a Mercedes SLS as their driver miscued an overtake putting us in the fence and out of the race. We were gutted.”

“We’re delighted to have Gordon on the team and look forward to the challenge.”

Speedcafe wrote:

Two of the three MARC Focus V8s racing in Sunday’s Bathurst 12 Hour will compete in the familiar green, black and white colours of Wilson Security.

The #50 entry of Chris Pither, Keith Kassulke and Jake Camilleri carries major signage from the firm, while the #60 car of Michael Benton, Dylan Thomas and Hadrian Morall sports backing from mining firm Lovton.

Powered by Ford’s 5.0 litre Coyote V8, the purpose-built endurance racing cars have been among the biggest talking points ahead of the Bathurst race.

The Ryan McLeod-owned team completed two tests with its cars last week, taking to Queensland Raceway on Wednesday and Norwell on Sunday.

The cars are being stickered today ahead of the race, which will mark their first competitive outing before being shipped overseas to complete a full schedule of endurance events.

Although its commercial package and driver line-up are yet to be finalised, McLeod confirmed that his team will also run the third car it has entered.

Television personality Grant Denyer is expected to lead a crew of four drivers in the third entry.

“We’re excited to be taking three cars to Bathurst,” McLeod told Speedcafe.com.

“It’s a big achievement from our guys to have built the three cars and completed the testing that we have.

“From our running last week, we’re only a couple of seconds off the new Carrera Cup cars, so we shouldn’t be too far away from the Class B guys at Bathurst.”

Pither is the only one of the six confirmed drivers that has yet to sample the cars, with the pre-event testing having also involved former Australian Touring Car Champions Glenn Seton and Russell Ingall.

Renowned V8 Supercars engineer Paul Forgie has overseen the testing program, which included an uninterrupted 180 lap endurance run at Ipswich.

sempeR wrote:This whole return of the Godzilla thing is bs. Who else remembers the donut king pink r35 that used to get around? That was awd and ran around the mountain in about 09 I believe.

crimson eagle73 wrote:Its on SBS from 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Or its livestreamed on the site. Machines look beautiful. It would be ultra cool if you guys could organize a one off F5 challange featuring all the cars in livery. Just for sunday.

Speedcafe wrote:AF Corse Ferrari joins Bathurst casualties

Ferrari driver Marco Cioci has vowed to return to the Bathurst 12 Hour next year following AF Corse’s early exit from the 2014 event.

The Italian outfit has endured a nightmare weekend on the Mountain, with its 458 involved in two major accidents.

The team missed the majority of Friday practice after a crash in the first session that saw its Australian driver Steve Wyatt make contact with both the Equity-One Audi and Vicious Rumour Racing Ferrari.

Another crash for Wyatt in second qualifying today, this time a single-car accident at The Cutting, has subsequently caused enough damage to the rear of the Ferrari’s chassis to rule it out of the weekend.

The Cioci/Wyatt/Michele Rugulo Ferrari is the fourth GT entry to be withdrawn due to crash damage following the demise of the #49 Vicious Rumour Racing Ferrari, #68 Motorsport Services Porsche and #5 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi.

“I completely love this race and this track, even though we are going home,” Cioci told Speedcafe.com as the team prepared to head back to Italy.

“If you make a mistake it makes you pay a lot here and often you see teams going home before the race.

“We had a very unlucky weekend because everything was ready but unfortunately yesterday there was a misunderstanding with other cars and a crash and then today when you are qualifying anything can happen.

“I am sorry for Steve because he is one of the best gentleman in these GT3 cars.

“Last year he did a good job and this year with more miles was sure to be one of the quickest Am drivers.”

“For sure, this is one reason more to be back next year,” he added.

“Maybe we are so unlucky in this addition we can be more lucky in the next one.”

Cioci competes full-time in the World Endurance Championship and part-time in the United Sportscar Championship for Ferrari.

He hopes that the remaining two 458s, the #33 of Clearwater Racing and #88 of Maranello Motorsport, can contend for the win tomorrow but concedes that the Erebus Mercedes entries will be hard to beat.

“Both cars for sure can win because they have good teams and good drivers,” he said of the Matt Griffin/Craig Baird/Mok Weng Sun and Mika Salo/Craig Lowndes/John Bowe/Peter Edwards entries.

“I’m impressed about Mercedes, as was last year, but also the Nissan. They have a good chance to make a good result.

“The race is so hard that any of the three can win, and also Audi, but checking the race pace the Mercedes is a little in front.”

Envy The Best wrote:That...was....Frig....AWESOME