The Australian GT Championship will hold its own separate competition during next year’s Challenge Bathurst meeting, as well as an all-out time attack similar to Christopher Mies’ recent record-breaker.
The ‘Pirelli AGT SuperSprint’ will be open to GT3, GT4 and Trofeo Challenge cars that have competed during the 2019 Australian GT Championship.
It will see the fleet compete in four separate sessions as per their respective homologation requirements, with the fastest competitor declared the winner of the title.
There will then be an additional session in which cars may run without Balance of Performance restrictions in a bid to beat Mies’ recently set 1:59.2910s in an unshackled Audi R8 LMS GT3.
While the lap time was recorded without the normal competition restrictions which would apply to the car, it stands as the official outright lap record due to being set in sprint conditions in a CAMS speed event
To add to the lure, those going after the record will be issued softer compound tyres by Pirelli to do so.
“Bathurst has always been the jewel in the crown for any competitor, and we wanted to make that opportunity even sweeter,” said Australian GT owner Jim Manolios.
“As a regular competitor at Challenge Bathurst, I understand that track time is a premium and that the GT cars need to be on track with other categories, so we spoke to the promoter about providing an opportunity for a dedicated slot that was available just to Australian GT teams, and they were open to the concept.”
The AGT SuperSprint is open to any team which competes in next year’s Australian GT Championship regardless of class, with a total of 3 hours and 40 minutes of track time available during those sessions.
Teams are also allowed to race in the ‘open’ Challenge Bathurst sessions as is currently the case.
Australian GT organisers are offering 50 percent ‘early bird’ discounts for the Mount Panorama weekend for those that sign up for the 2019 season by February 15.
While Bathurst is not part of the Australian GT calendar, a number of local teams take part in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, which will be held next year from January 31-February 3.
The seven-round Australian GT Championship begins at the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix on March 14-17 at Albert Park, with Challenge Bathurst on November 28-December 1.
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