One of the most broadly accomplished collections of racing talent from around the world ever to be assembled at Mount Panorama will contest the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour next week.
A cross section of champion drivers from Australia and New Zealand will be joined by World Champions, ex-Formula 1 drivers, Blancpain GT Series and Intercontinental GT Challenge champions and some of the best young rising stars in a fiercely competitive field that will produce a spectacular race.
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17 different nationalities are represented amongst the more than 175 drivers who are set to tackle the race.
The Bathurst enduro doubles as the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, a four-round series that also includes the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Suzuka 10 Hours and California 8 Hours enduros. A host of major global brands compete to win the prestigious title, taken by Audi the last two years.
Factory supported or assisted teams from Bentley, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, McLaren, Porsche, KTM, Ginetta and Lamborghini will compete for outright or class victory at Bathurst, as will the Aussie designed and built MARC Cars Australia entries.
International teams include current Blancpain Sprint champions Audi Sport team WRT, Bentley Team M-Sport and the iconic BMW Schnitzer outfit. A host of privateer runners in each class will uphold the Bathurst tradition of smaller teams punching above their weights to achieve a result.
The field includes defending Bathurst 12 Hour winners Jamie Whincup (also current Supercars champion) and Craig Lowndes, Supercars runner-up Scott McLaughlin and defending Bathurst 1000 winners David Reynolds and Luke Youlden.
Nine Bathurst 12 Hour winners are entered in the race which is now regarded by brands and drivers as one of the four major endurance races primarily for GT cars in the world. 2017 winners of the Total 24 Hours of Spa (Jules Gounon, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock) are all on the grid, as is one of Winkelhock’s co-winners of the inaugural edition of the California 8 Hours, Kelvin van der Linde.
Drivers with a combined 220 Formula 1 Grands Prix starts are also represented, as are young rising stars like international Aussie Matt Campbell, Will Brown and third-generation drivers Aaron Seton and Matt Brabham also feature.
The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour commences at 5:45am on Sunday 4 February local time, with the entire race to be streamed live on www.intercontinentalgtchallenge.com and the Intercontinental GT Challenge Facebook-page.