2012 Bathurst 12 Hour

January 2021 March 2012 2012 Armor AllBathurst 12 Hour 2011 2013 thumb|250px|Layout of the Mount Panorama Circuit thumb|The race and Class A-winning Audi R8 GT3 LMS of Christer Jöns, Christopher Mies and Darryl O'Young. The 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour was an endurance race for GT3 cars, GT4 cars, Group 3E Series Production Cars and Dubai 24 Hour cars. Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour – Further Supplementary Regulations No 3 As archived at www.webcitation.org from www.bathurst12hour.com.au on 6 May 2012 The event, which was staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia on 26 February 2012, was the tenth running of the Bathurst 12 Hour, and the sixth since the race was revived in 2007. There were 25 starters in the race, the smallest field since the inaugural Bathurst 12 Hour event in 1991. Four of the six classes, B, C, E and I, each had only three starters. The race was won by 2011 Armour All Bathurst 12 Hour winners Darryl O'Young of Hong Kong and Christopher Mies of Germany with their new co-driver for 2012, German Christer Jöns. The trio drove a Phoenix Racing prepared Audi R8 LMS GT3, the same model that Mies and O'Young had driven to victory in 2011. Class structure Cars competed in the following six classes. Class A – GT3 Outright Class B – GT3 Class C – GT4 Class D – Production (High Performance) Class E – Production (Performance) Class I – Invitational Classes D & E were open to Group 3E Series Production Cars and Class I was for cars complying with the regulations for the 2012 Dubai 24 Hour race. Qualifying Two qualifying sessions were run on Saturday 25 February with New Zealand driver Craig Baird setting the fastest time of 2:07.56 in the Clearwater Racing entered Ferrari 458 GT3 and Allan Simonsen next in the Maranello Motorsports Ferrari 458 GT3. However, as grid positions were determined by aggregating the lap times of all drivers in each three-driver entry and the three slowest drivers in each four-driver car,Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying prize set, www.speedcafe.com, 20 February 2012 Retrieved on 7 May 2012 pole position was awarded to the Phoenix Racing entered Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Christer Jöns, Christopher Mies and Darryl O'Young.International Audi crew take Bathurst pole, www.speedcafe.com, 25 February 2012 Retrieved on 7 May 2012 Simonsen's Ferrari started second on the grid ahead of the Clearwater Racing Ferrari and the Lago Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 of Roger Lago, David Russell and Wayne Park. The Hunter Sports Group Porsche 997 GT3 Cup was the first of the Class B cars in eighth grid position. The Clearwater Racing Ferrari was forced to carry addition weight during the race as, in a form of parity equalisation, any car undercutting a 2:08 lap time in any pre-race session was levied with a 50 kg penalty.Baird unconcerned by weight penalty, www.speedcafe.com, 25 February 2012 Retrieved on 7 May 2012 Two cars were withdrawn before the race. The Consolidated Chemicals Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 was crashed by Ted Huglin during Qualifying and could not be repaired in time for the raceMcConville: We were a top three chance, www.speedcafe.com.au, 25 February 2012 Retrieved on 7 May 2012 and the Mark Bell Racing Ford BF Falcon XR8 did not start after only one of its three drivers had lapped during Practice or Qualifying within the mandatory 130% of the fastest time set during Qualifying. Race The Phoenix Racing Audi won by 1 minute and 13 seconds over the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG jointly run by international team Black Falcon and Australian team Erebus Racing. The Mercedes was driven by Dutch driver Jeroen Bleekemolen, American Bret Curtis and Australians Peter Hackett and Tim Slade. The two leading cars finished two laps ahead of the third placed car, the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 GT3 driven by New Zealand driver Craig Baird, Irish driver Matt Griffin and Singaporean driver Weng Sun Mok. The race was affected by inclement weather, with rain falling for over eight of the races twelve hours, exacting a high price amongst the fastest cars in the race. Of the Class A starters, only the three podium placed cars finished, with crashes eliminating the other two Audis, a second Mercedes and a Lamborghini. The only other car in the class was the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3 which retired early with mechanical problems, but not before the car's lead driver, Dane Allan Simonsen, established a new outright lap record for the Mount Panorama circuit, the first time the record had been held by a GT car. In fourth place outright, 14 laps behind the Clearwater Ferrari, was the first of the Class B cars, the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup fielded by the Tinkler Motorsports team owned by former mining magnate Nathan Tinkler. Tinkler himself was one of the drivers, joined by professional V8 Supercar drivers Steven Johnson and Steven Richards. They won Class B by ten laps over the similar Porsche of New Zealand team Motorsport Services Limited, driven by Simon McLennan, Brett Niall and Scott O'Donnell. Class C was won by the Donut King Racing Nissan R35 GT-R driven by Tony Alford, Peter Leemhuis and Adam Beechey. The Nissan finished ten laps ahead of the Lotus Exige of Rob Thomson, Sarah Harley and Austrian driver Christian Klien. Class D was won by the HSV GTS of James Atkinson, Dean Lillie and Rick Newman. It inherited the class lead after the Maximum Motorsport Subaru Impreza WRX STi of Dean Herridge, John O'Dowd and Angus Kennard suffered a turbocharger failure. The damage was repaired and the Subaru still finished second in class, 11 laps down. Class E saw the HSV VXR Turbo of Elliot Barbour, Scott Pye, New Zealand V8 Utes racer Chris Pither finishing first in class and seventh outright. The HSV finished 13 laps ahead of the second placed GWS Personnel Motorsport BMW 130i driven by Angus Chapel, Richard Gartner and Tony Prior, and nine laps ahead of the first Class D car. Class I saw only two classified finishers with the Dutch SEAT León TDI of Ivo Breukers, Henk Thijssen and Australian driver Martin Bailey winning the class and finishing in sixteenth position outright, over 100 laps behind the winning Audi. A pair of Mazda RX-7s completed the class with one retiring after 53 laps and the other still running at the finish but having completed only 82 laps. Official results Pos2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour - Mount Panorama, www.natsoft.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org Class No Team / Entrant Drivers Car Laps Time/Retired Engine 1 A 1 GER Phoenix Racing GER Christer Jöns GER Christopher Mies HK Darryl O'Young Audi R8 LMS GT3 270 12:03:31.3753 5.2 L FSI 2×DOHC Audi V10 2 A 20 AUS Erebus Racing NED Jeroen Bleekemolen USA Bret Curtis AUS Peter Hackett AUS Tim Slade Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG 270 +13.2838 6.2 L Mercedes-Benz M159 V8 3 A 33 SIN Clearwater Racing NZL Craig Baird IRE Matt Griffin SGP Weng Sun Mok Ferrari 458 GT3 268 +2 laps 4.5 L Ferrari F142 V8 4 B 3 AUS Hunter Sports Group AUS Steven Johnson NZL Steven Richards AUS Nathan Tinkler Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 254 +16 laps 3.8 L Porsche H6 5 B 65 NZL Motorsport Services Limited NZL Simon McLennan AUS Brett Niall NZL Scott O'Donnell Porsche 997 GT3 Cup 244 +26 laps 3.8 L Porsche H6 6 C 54 AUS Donut King Racing AUS Tony Alford AUS Adam BeecheyAUS Peter Leemhuis Nissan R35 GT-R 237 +33 laps 3.8 L Twin-turbo VR38DETT V6 7 E 50 AUS Racer Industries AUS Elliott BarbourNZL Chris PitherAUS Scott Pye HSV VXR Turbo 231 +39 laps 2.2 L Ecotec I4 8 B 66 NZL Motorsport Services Limited NZL Allan Dippie NZL Mark Maddren NZL Bruce Tomlinson Porsche 996 GT3 Cup 228 +42 laps 3.8 L Porsche H6 9 C 62 AUS Rob Thomson Racing AUS Sarah Harley AUT Christian Klien AUS Rob Thomson Lotus Exige S 227 +43 laps 1.8 L Supercharged Toyota I4 10 D 53 AUS James Atkinson Racing AUS James Atkinson AUS Dean LillieAUS Rick Newman HSV GTS 222 +48 laps 6.2 L LS3 V8 11 E 26 AUS GWS Personnel Motorsport AUS Angus Chapel AUS Richard Gartner AUS Tony Prior BMW 130i 218 +52 laps 3.0 L BMW N52 I6 12 D 7 AUS Maximum Motorsport AUS Dean Herridge AUS Angus Kennard AUS John O'Dowd Subaru Impreza WRX STi 211 +59 laps 2.5 L Subaru H4 13 D 28 AUS GWS Personnel Motorsport AUS Christian D'Agostin AUS Garth DuffyAUS Peter O'Donnell BMW 335i 205 +65 laps 3.0 L BMW N54 Twin-turbo I6 14 E 27 AUS GWS Personnel Motorsport AUS Kean Booker AUS Carl Oberhauser AUS Allan Shephard BMW 130i 200 +70 laps 3.0 L BMW N52 I6 15 D 67 NZL Motorsport Services Limited NZL John de Veth AUS Tony HeadNZL Todd MurphyNZL Lewis Scott BMW 135i 198 +72 laps 3.0 L BMW N55 Twin-turbo I6 16 I 14 NED Red Camels Jordans AUS Martin Bailey NED Ivo Breukers NED Henk Thijssen SEAT León TDI 166 +104 laps 2.0 L SEAT Turbodiesel I4 17 D 68 NZL Motorsport Services Limited NZL David Glasson NZL Aaron HarrisNZL Dennis Roderick BMW 135i 162 +108 laps 3.0 L BMW N55 Twin-turbo I6 18 I 32 AUS Massel Racing AUS Michael Caine AUS Gerry Murphy AUS Jim Pollicina Mazda RX-7 82 +188 laps 1.3 L Mazda 13B-REW Twin-turbo Two-Rotor DNF A 2 GER Phoenix Racing AUS Mark Eddy AUS Craig Lowndes AUS Warren Luff Audi R8 LMS GT3 156 Crash 5.2 L FSI 2×DOHC Audi V10 DNF A 17 AUS Maranello Motorsport AUS John BoweAUS Peter Edwards GER Dominik Farnbacher DEN Allan Simonsen Ferrari 458 GT3 114 Electrical issues 4.5 L Ferrari F142 V8 DNF A 23 AUS Lago Racing AUS Roger LagoAUS Wayne Park AUS David Russell Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 103 Crash 5.2 L Lamborghini V10 DNF C 10 AUS Simply Sports Cars AUS Adam Gowans GBR Chris Lillingston-Price GBR Richard Meins Lotus Exige S 69 Engine 1.8 L Supercharged Toyota I4 DNF A 22 USA United Autosports FRA Alain Li USA Mark Patterson HK Frank Yu Siu Fung Audi R8 LMS GT3 59 Crash 5.2 L Audi V10 DNF I 35 AUS Ric Shaw Racing AUS Phil Alexander AUS Andrew Bollom AUS Duvashen Padayachee AUS James Parish Mazda RX-7 53 Crash 1.3 L Mazda 13B-REW Twin-turbo Two-Rotor DNF A 21 GER Black Falcon IRE Sean Patrick Breslin IRE Sean Paul Breslin TAN Vimal Mehta NZL Rob Wilson Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG 52 Crash 6.2 L Mercedes-Benz M159 V8 DNS A 4 AUS Consolidated Chemicals Racing AUS Ted Huglin NED Peter Kox AUS Cameron McConville AUS Luke Searle Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 0 Crash in Qualifying 5.2 L Lamborghini V10 DNQ E 91 AUS Mark Bell Racing AUS Mark Bell AUS Adam Dodd AUS Aaron Zerefos Ford BF Falcon XR8 0 Did not qualify 5.4 L Boss 315 V8 Note: Class winners are shown in Bold Race time of winning car: 12:03:31.3753 Fastest race lap: 2:06.3311 – Car 17 – New outright lap record References External links Official website Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour - 24th to 26th February 2012 - 12 Hour Event Supplementary Regulations, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, as archived at www.webcitation.org 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour Entry List as at 24/01/12, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, as archived at www.webcitation.org 2012 Results, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org Reflections on the 2012 Bathurst 12 Hour, www.ausmotive.com, as archived at web.archive.org Category:Motorsport in Bathurst, New South Wales Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour Category:February 2012 sports events in Australia Category:Bathurst 12 Hour