In its debut showing with the Chevrolet Corvette, Johor Motorsports Racing has claimed a memorable class podium at the Meguair’s Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race. Racing the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the team inside the No. 99 car successfully navigated an incident-riddled day to clinch a hard-earned runner-up in the Pro-Am class.
It was a bittersweet result for the team after Pro car of Earl Bamber, Alexander Sims, Nicky Catsburg suffered a late mechanical DNF while fighting for outright honours.
After qualifying near the middle of the pack, both Corvettes came firing out of the blocks when the race began early on Sunday morning.
The No. 2 Corvette proved its race-winning pace by scything its way to the front and leading the pack most of the morning, but a poorly-timed safety car just before the halfway mark cost them dearly.
Catsburg muscled his way back to P3 after a red-flag restart, then handed the car to Bamber at the 10-hour mark. However, the decorated endurance racer’s late stint was shortlived – a mechanical failure saw him spin into a wall on his way back down the mountain and the car was forced to retire.
“It was a really good weekend,” said Bamber. “I’m really proud we could lead so many laps with the Corvette coming here for the first time. We learned so much and I’m so proud of it. It’s a shame we had the ending we did, but that’s racing and that’s the mountain for you. We’ll come back again. We found a really good window with the car, and I had no complaints with it. It was great to be back in the Corvette. We just chipped away at it – a great job by the team.”
JMR is taking plenty of encouragement from clearly having the fastest car of the entire field; they’ll take that progress into the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge at Nürburgring, Germany on 14-17 May.
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