The Story: 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour
- Dylan Draper
- Aug 10, 2020
- 4 min read
The 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour was one of the greatest races in the history of GT3 and endurance racing, with a race of attrition ending in a brilliant scrap for the lead. This is how it went down.
The race began under darkness, with the #15 Phoenix Racing Audi of Laurens Vanthoor taking pole with a qualifying record lap. David Russell's Lamborghini took second, the #35 Nissan third, #77 AF Corse Ferrari fourth, Craft Bamboo Aston fifth and Clearwater Racing sixth in a second Ferrari. The #15 was quick early on, with Markus Winkelhock taking the race record lap on lap 29. This was already after the first yellow, when the #42 BMW in Class D hit a kangaroo on Conrod Straight on lap five.
The race quite quickly became a race of attrition- overall, 20 safety cars occurred throughout the race. Harold Primat, one of the #11 Bentley drivers, wasn't so keen on that- he suffered not one, but two safety car infringements that gave drive through penalties. The next notable incident occurred just before the two hour mark when contact with the #66 car put the #51 AMAC Porsche Cup car in the fence in a large way. The car was out on the spot. At the four hour mark, a wild incident occurred at the bottom of Conrod, with two of the Bentleys getting in each others way, causing Peter FitzGerald in the #2 Audi to go skating through the gravel after contact from the Flying B car. The third of those Bentleys, the #10 driven by Matt Bell at the time, pitted on the restart lap, an unusual strategy brought about by said Bell suffering severe heatstroke and causing some rather uncomfortable viewing.
Several more accidents occurred throughout the race, with notable ones including an accident for the #92 MARC Mazda at the Cutting. At the halfway point, Laurens Vanthoor was still the effective leader, however having pitted on an off sequence, the #36 Erebus Merc of Jack le Brocq led the #77, the #10 and the #35, with Vanthoor's #15 fifth. A notable out at this point was the #59 McLaren, Estre/Quinn/Quinn was a strong A-AM lineup but was forced to retire with mechanical troubles. They were already 10 laps down due to a loose diffuser, though, so they weren't a chance of a win.
The first safety car after the half point was a blow for Erebus as their second car found the wall at the Cutting. Fortunately, they were able to continue, but many laps down and out of the contention. One of the Class I Mazdas brought out safety car #11 after crashing at the Dipper, while #12 was altogether more significant- the remaining Erebus car, driven by Dean Canto, spun Michele Rugolo in the 77 into the wall. This ended the race of a key contender in the AF Corse Ferrari. Gordon Shedden ended up in the Murrays gravel to bring out number 13, then a scary incident happened at the Chase for #14.
Just like the other big Chase incident of the day, it involved contact from a Bentley, this time the #10 with the rehydrated Matt Bell at the wheel. This time, the Bentley hit the #7 Mercedes of Ash Samadi, which sent the car backwards into the outside wall, then into the gravel. The Merc was an instant retirement, while the Bentley, critically, stayed on the lead lap after taking a drive through penalty. The safety car was brought out for a record equalling 16th time for a mechanical failure for a Class B Ginetta.
Coming into the last 2 hours, an even bigger crash than the Mercedes incident occurred on top of the mountain. Austrian crazy man Felix Baumgartner driving the #16 Audi, once noted for jumping off what technially was a space ship, took a big bit of the #91 MARC Mazda and put it into the McPhillamy wall at a large speed. Fortunately, Ivo Breukers, the MARC driver, was uninjured. This meant with two hours to go, there were six contenders on the lead lap- #36 Erebus Merc, #35 NISMO Nissan, #10 Bentley, #15 Phoenix Audi, #97 Craft Bamboo Aston and second Phoenix Audi, although that dropped fairly quickly.
With just under an hour to go, calamity started to happen for the Bentleys. The 18th safety car was brought out by Maxi Buhk in the #11 stopping on Mountain Straight with mechanical trouble. The race restarted with 38 minutes left, then instantly went yellow again after a big lick of the wall from David Brabham in the Flying B Bentley. After about ten minutes of green flag running, the #4 Porsche found the Murrays gravel, bringing out the 20th and final Safety Car. The commentators went into a blind panic at this point, but it wasn't over yet. The race restarted with just four minutes to go, and four contenders: #10 Bentley (Matt Bell [yes, that Matt Bell]) led the #15 Audi (Laurens Vanthoor), the #35 Nissan (Katsumasa Chiyo), and behind two lapped cars, the #97 Aston (Stefan Mucke).
Immediately off the restart, Chiyo pulled off a brilliant move to take Vanthoor down into turn 1. Meanwhile, Mucke was busy clearing the two lapped cars. He compounded this by clearing Bell on the outside line into Turn 2. While Chiyo cleared out at the front in a truly remarkable feat of racing, Mucke closed in on the other two. Vanthoor nearly turned Bell around through the Elbow but there were no further changes that lap, although crucially Mucke cleared the second lapped car into the Chase and 1-2-3-4 now ran in order.
On the final lap, while the commentators waxed on about the Nissan's impending victory, the top 3 closed over Skyline. That was all the impetus that Vanthoor needed to try an... unconventional outside line at Forrest Elbow. He couldn't get it done there, giving Mucke a chance. That was capitalised on with Mucke's better run through the corner sending him by down the straight. Vanthoor, clearly not having learned a lesson, tried the outside on Mucke at the chase, and again couldn't get it done. However, he was given a free kick when Bell ran wide through the final corner, allowing him to also grab Mucke and take second while Mucke finished third and Bell unluckily missed the podium. While all this action was taking place behind, Katsumasa Chiyo broguht home the GT Academy NISMO Nissan for a remarkable victory.
Other media:
That finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54fS8XRUP2I
Race highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL6gwbZSeV0
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