A new season is about to get underway on the fifth continent. On the weekend of 31st January – 3rd February, R-Motorsport will be contesting the prestigious Bathurst 12 Hour race in Australia. The team based at Niederwil near St Gallen in Switzerland will be fielding two Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3s at the Mount Panorama Circuit.

Competing in the Pro category will be Jake Dennis, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Matthieu Vaxiviere, who also drove for the team in last year’s Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.

In the ProAm category, the two team owners, Andreas Baenziger and Florian Kamelger, will be sharing the cockpit of an Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 with Australia’s Peter Leemhuis and new signing Brit Matt Parry.

Like Florian Kamelger and Andreas Baenziger, local favourite Leemhuis already has experience of the Mount Panorama Circuit. The Australian partnered Baenziger and Kamelger as recently as November in the 24-hour race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Team newcomer Matt Parry began his career in karting and single seater racing, including two years in the GP3 racing. In 2016, the Welshman came to prominence by winning a GP3 supporting race on the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. Since the 2017 season, Parry has been competing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.

“In Jake Dennis, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Matthieu Vaxiviere, we have put together a highly competitive driver combination of proven merit,” says team principal Dr Florian Kamelger. “In the ProAm car, Matt Parry’s experience and record of success will be an asset to our squad. We are delighted to be returning ‘Down Under’ for the GT3 season opener with this driver line-up. The last time we competed at Bathurst was in the GT4 category in 2017. The 12-hour race in Australia is one of the most important GT3 endurance races in the world, and achieving a top result in the classic at Mount Panorama is sure to be a big challenge.”

The Bathurst 12 Hours was first staged in 1991. After a temporary switch of venue to the Eastern Creek Raceway in 1995, the event was revived in 2007 at the Mount Panorama Circuit. Since the 2011 season, GT racing cars have been regularly entered for the 12-hour race on this 6.21km track.

R-Motorsport first competed in the Pro class of the Blancpain Endurance Cup in 2018. In its debut season, the Swiss outfit owned by Florian Kamelger and Andreas Baenziger fielded two Aston Martin V12 GT3 cars and notched up a maiden victory in the 3-hour race at Silverstone. In the same season, R-Motorsport set a new record in the Blancpain Endurance Series with three pole positions in successive races. Alongside the work being done on its continuing commitment to GT3 racing, the team is currently preparing for its first year in the DTM when it will be fielding Aston Martin Vantage cars.

Source. R-Motorsport/Photo. Petr Fryba