One of the things I like about races like the LiquiMoly Bathurst 12 hours is that the focus of the event is the GT3 entry. Although the race still consists of cars from other classes, and the ability of drivers to deal with the traffic is still of paramount importance, the speed differentials that are seen at Mount Panorama are not as great as at Daytona, nor, it has to be said, as at Dubai.

As a result, Bathurst more than any other endurance race, really is a 12-hour sprint. Thankfully this year saw fewer Safety Car Periods than we had last year, enabling the distance record to be broken by the leading four cars, all four from different manufacturers. For a long time, it looked as if we might break the magic 300 laps, but methinks that will have to wait for another year.

Bearing in mind that the current era of GT3 cars competing at the Bathurst 12 hours only began in 2011, the following table puts things into context.

Year Starters SC Periods SC Laps Laps Completed 2016 36 13 40 297 2015 50 20 73 269 2014 40 9 31 296 2013 53 15 43 268 2012 25 9 22 270 2011 26 6 20 292 2010 41 8 42 292 2009 47 11 31 239 2008 34 7 22 253 2007 32 6 10 257

For teams, much more than for drivers, it is not necessarily as straightforward as you might think, making the transition from Dubai, to Daytona, to Bathurst. Certainly they’re all top-class, international endurance events, but the regulations to which they run are substantially different. Not just from the technical point of view, and I am not going to make this article a discussion on the differences between Creventic class A6-Pro, Bathurst (Intercontinental GT Challenge) class AP and IMSA class GTD – but from the sporting point of view: the regulations around race neutralisations and driving time in particular.

Knowing what to do when the Safety Car comes out is crucial: the trouble is that the rules are different. In Dubai there is Code-60, in Daytona a procedure that allows wave-by and separates the classes, and at Bathurst, well, it’s quite simple… the safety car comes out, and goes in again, with no wave-by under normal circumstances, so track position and staying on the lead lap is all-important as the field is always bunched up before being released.

It’s fair to say that the result of last year’s Bathurst 12 hours was determined by this bunching-up process: the winning Nissan would not have been in a position to get ahead of the Phoenix Audi, which had been comfortably quicker over the course of the race, had not the Safety Car closed all the gaps in the final few minutes of the race.

This year, the winning McLaren of the Tekno Autosports team was clearly the fastest car out there, as evidenced by its fastest lap, which was not only a new lap record, but also nearly a second quicker than any other car managed. But to answer the question of whether that was down to ‘quick Kiwi’ Shane van Gisbergen or to the car, let’s take a look at the individual drivers.

No. Car Driver Laps

Completed Best Lap Average Lap

(Best 20%) 59 McLaren 650S Shane van Gisbergen 120 2m 01.567s 2m 02.798s 59 McLaren 650S Alvaro Parente 107 2m 01.674s 2m 03.283s 59 McLaren 650S Jonathon Webb 70 2m 04.063s 2m 04.445s 1 Nissan GT-R Nismo Katsumasa Chiyo 120 2m 02.467s 2m 03.545s 1 Nissan GT-R Nismo Rick Kelly 109 2m 03.198s 2m 04.039s 1 Nissan GT-R Nismo Florian Strauss 68 2m 03.639s 2m 04.294s 10 Bentley Continental Guy Smith 116 2m 03.235s 2m 04.077s 10 Bentley Continental Steven Kane 111 2m 03.250s 2m 04.156s 10 Bentley Continental Matthew Bell 70 2m 04.131s 2m 04.502s 2 Audi R8 LMS Laurens Vanthoor 128 2m 03.385s 2m 04.022s 2 Audi R8 LMS Markus Winkelhock 106 2m 03.659s 2m 04.439s 2 Audi R8 LMS Alex Davison 63 2m 04.323s 2m 05.501s

The table reveals a number of interesting points:

1) Van Gisbergen and Parente were closely matched in terms of best lap times, but SVG was more consistently quick.

2) The three Bentley drivers were very evenly matched.

3) The Nissan, although it wasn’t as quick as the McLaren, was certainly quicker than either the Bentley or the Audi

4) Webb, in the McLaren, did as much driving as any non-seeded driver (although the he did a greater percentage of his time during the Safety Car periods)

5) Davison, perhaps the most experienced of the non-seeded drivers, did the least driving.

Perhaps now is as good a time as any at which to look at the actual stints. To keep matters simple, the tables below only show the driving stints for the winning Tekno McLaren and the NISMO Nissan, which finished just 1.276s behind.

Interestingly, even though the McLaren made 13 stops, compared to the 11 of the Nissan, each team did the entire race with only five driver changes each. Hence, the tables below show the length and average lap time for each stint, excluding in and out laps and periods behind the Safety Car. I have also excluded the lap (lap 100) on which Parente stopped on the track and lost around 45s.

No. 59 Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S

Stint Driver Stint Time Laps Average

Lap Time 1 van Gisbergen 2h 31m 29s 65 2m 04.231s 2 Parente 1h 48m 51s 48 2m 04.311s 3 Webb 1h 56m 32s 50 2m 05.577s 4 Parente 2h 33m 03s 59 2m 05.077s 5 Webb 1h 04m 01s 20 2m 06.334s 6 van Gisbergen 2h 02m 28s 55 2m 04.250s

No. 1 NISMO Athlete Global Team Nissan GT-R

Stint Driver Stint Time Laps Average

Lap Time 1 Kelly 1h 55m 37s 51 2m 05.625s 2 Strauss 1h 59m 21s 53 2m 05.833s 3 Chiyo 2h 21m 43s 59 2m 05.050s 4 Kelly 2h 30m 09s 58 2m 05.224s 5 Strauss 0h 50m 31s 15 2m 06.888s 6 Chiyo 2h 19m 00s 61 2m 04.443s

I will leave it to you, dear reader, to draw your own conclusions, but it seems to me that the Woking-built car was a deserving winner, each of its stints being at a quicker pace than the equivalent one of the Japanese ‘Godzilla’, with the single exception of Webb against Chiyo: not surprisingly, Katsu-san was quicker than the Tekno team owner.

Now, there may be some out there who have noticed that, according to this table, the total driving time for Katsumasa Chiyo comes to 4h 40m 43s, and the driving time limit for cars with three drivers is 4h 40m. However, this is where it is important to know how the regulations work.

In the tables above I have calculated the driving time based on the total of the lap times that were completed by each driver. Now, at Bathurst, the stint does not start at the moment you get into the car. Nor does it start as you exit the pits (as in most forms of endurance racing). No, at Bathurst, the driving time starts when you cross the start/finish line at the end of your out lap from the pits. Hence Chiyo’s official total driving time was only 4h 32m 27s.

These things are important (ask Wayne Taylor), so when you watch and enjoy, the thrilling races that we’ve seen in the first few weeks of this endurance racing season, spare a thought for the strategists on the pit wall while you applaud the skills demonstrated by the drivers behind the wheel.

Paul Truswell