The 16th running of the Bathurst 12 Hour, the greatest Australian endurance race for GT cars, will take part at the famous Mount Panorama Circuit on February 3-5. As the non-championship race which is on the calendar when most of the sportscar competitions are still hibernating, the Bathurst 12 Hour attracts drivers from all over the world with only one wish – to tame one of the most exciting racetracks in the world.[show_more more=” Read More ” less=” Show Less “]

Last year, the Australian team Tekno Autosports scored a victory with an international crew in the #59 McLaren 650S GT3. This year, Tekno Autosports is returning with two McLaren but the drivers’ line-up would be significantly different. Of last year’s winners (Alvaro Parente, Jonathon Webb, Shane van Gisbergen), only Parente will drive this year for McLaren, together with Rob Bell and Come Ledogar in the #1 car. The #59 McLaren will be piloted by Will Davison, Jonny Kane and Ben Barnicoat.

The 2016 V8 Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will defend his last year’s Bathurst triumph with a new team, joining Maro Engel and Craig Baird in the STM’s #22 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Nissan Motorsport’s Katsumasa Chiyo and Florian Strauss, who finished second last year and won the race in 2015, will be back at Mount Panorama this year but separated in two cars. Chiyo will share the #23 Nissan GT-R Nismo with Alex Buncombe and Michael Caruso, Strauss will share the #24 Nissan with Todd Kelly and Jann Mardenborough.

Other strong entries with two cars are Bentley Team M-Sport, BMW Team SRM or Jamec Pem Racing. In total, 56 crews are on the entry list. Thirty-four top-class GT3 cars are divided into 16 Pro entries and 18 Pro-Am/Am entries. On the rest of the grid, we will see five GT3 cup cars (Class B), eight GT4 cars (Class C) and nine cars in Class I (Invitational).

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Class A – GT3 Pro

No Team Car Drivers 1 Tekno Autosports / McLaren GT McLaren 650S GT3 Alvaro Parente, Rob Bell, Come Ledogar 7 Team Castrol Vodafone/BMW Team SRM BMW M6 GT3 Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall, Timo Glock, Tony Longhurst 8 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 Steven Kane, Guy Smith, Oliver Jarvis 17 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley Continental GT3 Andy Soucek, Maxime Soulet, Vincent Abril 22 Mercedes-AMG Team STM/HTP Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 Craig Baird, Shane Van Gisbergen, Maro Engel 23 Nissan Motorsport Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 Katsumasa Chiyo, Alex Buncombe, Michael Caruso 24 Nissan Motorsport Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 Florian Strauss, Todd Kelly, Jann Mardenborough 25 BMW Team SRM BMW M6 GT3 Steve Richards, Mark Winterbottom, Marco Wittmann 59 Tekno Autosports / McLaren GT McLaren 650S GT3 Will Davison, Jonny Kane, Ben Barnicoat 74 Jamec Pem Racing Audi R8 LMS Garth Tander, Christopher Mies, Christopher Haase 75 Jamec Pem Racing Audi R8 LMS Markus Winkelhock, Robin Frijns, Frank Stippler 88 Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 Toni Vilander, Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup 99 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 Jorg Muller, Ricky Collard, Nico Menzel 911 Walkinshaw GT3 Porsche 911 GT3 R Earl Bamber, Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor

Class A – GT3 Pro-Am

No Team Car Drivers 11 Objective Racing McLaren 650S GT3 Tony Walls, Warren Luff, Tim Slade, Alex Davison 12 Competition Motorsports by Ice Break Porsche 991 GT3 R David Calvert-Jones, Patrick Long, Marc Lieb, Matt Campbell 83 HTP Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda 3 Team ASR Audi R8 LMS Ash Samadi, Daniel Gaunt, Matt Halliday 9 Hallmarc Audi R8 LMS Marc Cini, Lee Holdsworth, Dean Fiore 61 Hogs Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 Mark Griffith, Dominic Storey, David Reynolds

Class A – GT3 Am

No Team Car Drivers 2 DJS Racing Audi R8 LMS Daniel Stuttard, James Bergmuller, Samuel Fillmore 5 GT Motorsport Audi R8 LMS Greg Taylor, Nathan Antunes, Elliot Barbour 29 Trofeo Motorsport Lamborghini Hurracan GT3 Jim Manolis, Ryan Millier, Ivan Capelli, Dean Canto 32 Lago Racing Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX Roger Lago, Steve Owen, David Russell 35 Miedecke Stone Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage George Miedecke, Ash Walsh, Tony Bates 37 Keltic Racing McLaren 650S GT3 Anthony Quinn, Klark Quinn 44 Supabarn Audi R8 LMS James (Dimitri) Koundouris, Theo Koundouris, Marcus Marshall 47 Kiwi Racing Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX Glenn Smith, Kevin Bell, Nicholas Chester, John De Veth 51 AMAC Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R Andrew McPherson, Neale Muston, Tim Miles 66 Hobson Motorsport/Wall Racing Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 Brett Hobson, Fred Poordad, Erik Davis 80 Heretic Motorsport Bentley Continental GT3 John Bowe 96 MARC Cars Australia BMW M6 GT3 Chaz Mostert, Max Twigg, Morgan Haber 912 Walkinshaw GT3 Porsche 911 GT3 R Liam Talbot, John Martin, Duvashen Padayachee

Class B – GT3 (Cup Cars)

No Team Car Drivers 4 Grove Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Stephen Grove, Ben Barker, Alexandre Imperatori 6 Wall Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Richard Gartner, Aaron Zerefos, Indiran Padayachee, Ric Shaw 14 IKAD Racing Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Peter Major, Jordan Love, Nicholas McBride 21 Steve Richards Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Dean Grant, Dylan OKeeffe, Xavier West 50 Synep Racing Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Adam Cranston, Josh Cranston, Aaron Steer, James Winslow

Class C – GT4

No Team Car Drivers 18 PROsport Performance Porsche Cayman PRO 4 Charles Putman, Charles Espenlaub, Joe Foster 19 PROsport Performance Porsche Cayman PRO 4 Andrew Pilgrim, Max Braams, Jorg Viebahn, Nicolaj Moller-Madsen 40 Brookspeed Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport Aaron Mason, David Drinkwater 41 Brookspeed Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport Coleby Cowham, Lindsay Kearns, Ashley Jarvis 48 M Motorsport KTM X-Bow GT4 Justin McMillan, Glen Wood, Tomaš Enge, Reinhard Kofler 56 RA Motorsports Ginetta G55 GT4 Mike Simpson, Peter Paddon, Tim Berryman 62 R-Motorsport Aston Martin V8 Vantage Andreas Baenziger, Peter Leemhuis, Jan Struve 69 AER - RA Motorsports Ginetta G55 GT4 Zen Low, Jack Parsons, Shinyo Sano

Class I – Invitational

No Team Car Drivers 28 On Track Motorsport BMW 335i Garry Mennell, Bernard Verryt, Steve Vanbellingen 54 MARC Cars Australia MARC Focus V8 Tony Alford, Beric Lynton, Jeffrey Smith 65 Daytona Sportscars Dodge Viper Jamie Augustine, Benjamin Schoots, Dean Lillie 76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT8 FlorianKamelger, Darren Turner, Markus Lungstrass 91 MARC Cars Australia MARC Focus V8 Keith Kassulke, William Brown, Rod Salmon 92 MARC Cars Australia MARC Focus V8 Michael Benton, Hadrian Morrall, Aaron Seton 93 MARC Cars Australia MARC Mazda 3 V8 Jake Camilleri, Jack Smith, Rob Thomson 94 MARC Cars Australia MARC Mazda 3 V8 Leanne Tander, Nicholas Rowe, Gerard McLeod, Tim Leahey 95 MARC Cars Australia MARC Focus V8 Geoffrey Peter Taunton, Jason Andrew Busk, Bryce Ford

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Photos: bathurst12hour.com.au,