An ideal qualifying for the Porsche customer team Absolute Racing at the opening round of this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge: Porsche works driver Matt Campbell (Australia, No. 911) turned the fastest lap of the day (2:03.554 minutes) in qualifying for the Bathurst 12 Hour, thus handing Porsche its first pole position at the Mount Panorama Circuit.
“Pole is of course a fantastic result,” commented Campbell. “Luckily, I clocked a similar time in the first qualifying session. In the pole shootout I had a pretty good idea what I had to do. Still, I got nervous when everyone else went out to turn their lap and I was the last to be allowed on the track. But it worked out well.”
In the identical, 500+hp Porsche 911 GT3 R, Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium, No. 1) secured the fifth grid spot for Earl Bamber Motorsport (EBM) on Saturday.
On the 6.213-kilometre racetrack in the state of New South Wales, both Porsche drivers made it into the decisive pole shootout. Last year’s winner Campbell kept his cool in temperatures of 39 degrees Celsius and underlined his intentions of claiming another home victory. The 24-year-old shares the vehicle with his two French works driver teammates Mathieu Jaminet and Patrick Pilet.
The two IMSA champions Vanthoor and Porsche works driver Earl Bamber (New Zealand) share driving duties with the Australian motor racing star Craig Lowndes.
Matteo Cairoli narrowly missed out on taking part in the top 10 pole shootout by a mere 0.238 seconds. The driver from Como in Italy planted the Porsche 911 GT3 R, which is based on the high-performance Porsche 911 GT3 RS road-legal sports car, on twelfth. He shares the cockpit of the No. 912 vehicle with Porsche works driver Dirk Werner (Germany) and Porsche Young Professional Thomas Preining (Austria).
The Grove Racing squad claimed the second grid spot in the Pro-Am class (16th overall) on the circuit about 200 kilometres west of Sydney. In the No. 4 car, Ben Barker (Great Britain) was only 0.088-seconds shy of the class leader. Stephen Grove (Australia) and his son Brenton Grove round off the driver trio.
The qualifying for the NED Racing Team (No. 12) and Porsche works driver Romain Dumas (France) did not turn out quite as well. During his flying lap, the seasoned specialist encountered a red flag and was forced to stop. In the end, Dumas finished on fifth in the Pro-Am class (25th overall). For the race, Porsche Junior Jaxon Evans (New Zealand) and David Calvert-Jones (Australia) join the Frenchman at the wheel of NED Racing’s 911.
A total of 38 vehicles from eleven manufacturers take up the 12-hour event at Bathurst. The first round of the most important championship for GT3 sports cars gets underway on Sunday at 5:45am local time (7:45pm CET). Fans can follow the event Down Under live on https://www.bathurst12hour.com.au.
Qualifying result (Top 5)
1. Jaminet/Pilet/Campbell (F/F/AUS), Porsche 911 GT3 R
2. Parente/Barnicoat/Blomqvist (P/GB/GB), McLaren 720S GT3
3. Fraga/Buhk/Marciello (BR/D/CH), Mercedes AMG GT3
4. De Oliveira/Liberati/Imperatori (BR/I/CH), Nissan GTR Nismo GT3
5. Bamber/Vanthoor/Lowndes (NZ/B/AUS), Porsche 911 GT3 R
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