Craft Bamboo Racing will be absent from the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour after electing to withdraw its entry just days before the event.
The top Asian GT outfit originally planned to field two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs at Mount Panorama before restricting its effort to a sole entrant after both its cars sustained damage during the GT World Cup event at Macau last year.
While its Porsche has successfully arrived in Australia, the team has been forced to abandon its program this week when a driver sponsor failed to deliver the required funds for the Bathurst 12 Hour bid.
The Darryl O’Young led outfit, entered in the professional class, was one of the only teams yet to reveal its full driver line-up for the race.
The news comes as a cruel blow for the team that has previously enjoyed success at the Bathurst 12 Hour.
In 2015 the squad entered two Aston Martin Vantage GT3s which resulted in a third place finish for its lead entry featuring O’Young, Alex MacDowall and Stefan Mucke.
The operation investigated the possibility of finding a replacement driver to help foot the bill but its search was ultimately unsuccessful.
“We have made the decision to withdraw the car from the race which is unfortunate,” O’Young told Speedcafe.com.
“We had two cars destroyed in Macau which included chassis and engines which made it tough for us to air freight new chassis from Europe to Asia and then onto Australia.
“From that point we decided to only enter one car.
“We shipped the car to Australia and the team was prepared with strong drivers and engineers but last week one of the driver’s sponsors hadn’t made a payment.
“Being quite late we couldn’t find a way to recover as it was a big chunk of our budget.
“It is a real shame because our car and equipment is here in Australia and it is a race that we love to do.
“I really believe that the car would have been very competitive.
“We are pretty gutted not to be there, but we hope to be back again in the future.”
Craft Bamboo Racing’s demise sees 33 GT3 cars line up on the grid to tackle Class A.
Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Entry List
Class A – GT3 Pro
| No | Team Name | Manufacturer | Model | Drivers | |
| 7 | BMW Team SRM | BMW | M6 GT3 | Tony | Longhurst |
| Mark | Skaife | ||||
| Russell | Ingall | ||||
| Timo | Glock | ||||
| 8 | Bentley Team M-Sport | Bentley | Continential GT3 | Steven | Kane |
| Guy | Smith | ||||
| Oliver | Jarvis | ||||
| 17 | Bentley Team M-Sport | Bentley | Continential GT3 | Andy | Soucek |
| Maxime | Soulet | ||||
| Vincent | Abril | ||||
| 22 | STM / HTP Motorsport | Mercedes | AMG GT3 | Craig | Baird |
| Shane | Van Gisbergen | ||||
| Maro | Engel | ||||
| 23 | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | GT-R Nismo GT3 | Katsumasa | Chiyo |
| Alex | Buncombe | ||||
| Michael | Caruso | ||||
| 24 | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan | GT-R Nismo GT3 | Florian | Strauss |
| Todd | Kelly | ||||
| Jann | Mardenborough | ||||
| 60 | BMW Team SRM | BMW | M6 GT3 | Steve | Richards |
| Mark | Winterbottom | ||||
| Marco | Wittmann | ||||
| 58 | Tekno Autosports / McLaren GT | McLaren | 650s GT3 | Alvaro | Parente |
| Rob | Bell | ||||
| Côme | Ledogar | ||||
| 59 | Tekno Autosports / McLaren GT | McLaren | 650s GT3 | Ben | Barnicoat |
| Jonny | Kane | ||||
| Will | Davison | ||||
| 74 | Jamec Pem Racing | Audi | R8 LMS | Garth | Tander |
| Christopher | Mies | ||||
| Christopher | Haase | ||||
| 75 | Jamec Pem Racing | Audi | R8 LMS | Markus | Winkelhock |
| Robin | Frijns | ||||
| Frank | Stippler | ||||
| 88 | Maranello Motorsport | Ferrari | 488 GT3 | Toni | Vilander |
| Craig | Lowndes | ||||
| Jamie | Whincup | ||||
| 99 | Walkenhorst | BMW | M6 GT3 | Jörg | Müller |
| Nico | Menzel | ||||
| Ricky | Collard | ||||
| 911 | Walkinshaw GT3 | Porsche | 911 GT3 R (Type 991) | Earl | Bamber |
| Kevin | Estre | ||||
| Laurens | Vanthoor | ||||
Class A – GT3 Pro/Am
| No | Team Name | Manufacturer | Model | Drivers | |
| 3 | Team ASR Pty Ltd | Audi | R8 LMS | Ash | Samadi |
| Daniel | Gaunt | ||||
| Matt | Halliday | ||||
| 9 | Hallmarc | Audi | R8 LMS | Marc | Cini |
| Lee | Holdsworth | ||||
| Dean | Fiore | ||||
| 11 | Objective Racing | McLaren | 650s | Tony | Walls |
| Warren | Luff | ||||
| Tim | Slade | ||||
| Alex | Davison | ||||
| 12 | Competition Motorsports powered by Ice Break | Porsche | 991 GT3 R | David | Calvert-Jones |
| Patrick | Long | ||||
| Marc | Lieb | ||||
| Matt | Campbell | ||||
| 61 | Hogs | Mercedes | AMG | Mark | Griffith |
| Dominic | Storey | ||||
| David | Reynolds | ||||
| 83 | HTP Motorsport | Mercedes | AMG GT GT3 | Paul | Dalla Lana |
| Pedro | Lamy | ||||
| Mathias | Lauda | ||||
| Bernd | Schneider | ||||
Class A – GT3 Am
| No | Team Name | Manufacturer | Model | Drivers | |
| 2 | DJS Racing | Audi | LMS R8 | Daniel | Stuttard |
| James | Bergmuller | ||||
| Samuel | Fillmore | ||||
| 5 | GT Motorsport Pty Ltd | Audi | R8 LMS | Greg | Taylor |
| Nathan | Antunes | ||||
| Elliot | Barbour | ||||
| 29 | Trofeo Motorsport | Lamborghini | Huracan GT3 | Jim | Manolis |
| Ryan | Millier | ||||
| Ivan | Capelli | ||||
| Dean | Canto | ||||
| 32 | Lago Racing | Lamborghini | R-EX | Roger | Lago |
| Steve | Owen | ||||
| David | Russell | ||||
| 35 | Miedecke Stone Motorsport | Aston Martin | V12 Vantage | George | Miedecke |
| Ashley | Walsh | ||||
| Tony | Bates | ||||
| 37 | Keltic Racing | McLaren | 650s | Anthony | Quinn |
| Klark | Quinn | ||||
| Grant | Denyer | ||||
| Andrew | Waite | ||||
| 38 | Wall Racing | Nissan | GT-R | Daniel | Bilski |
| Adrian | Flack | ||||
| Chris | Pither | ||||
| 44 | Supabarn | Audi | R8 LMS | James (Dimitri) | Koundouris |
| Theo | Koundouris | ||||
| Markus | Marshall | ||||
| Simon | Evans | ||||
| 47 | Kiwi Racing | Lamborghini | Reiter R-EX | Glenn | Smith |
| Kevin | Bell | ||||
| Nicholas | Chester | ||||
| John | De Veth | ||||
| 51 | AMAC Motorsport | Porsche | GT3 R | Andrew | MacPherson |
| Neale | Muston | ||||
| Tim | Miles | ||||
| 66 | Wall Racing | Nissan | GT-R | Brett | Hodges |
| Erik | Davis | ||||
| Fred | Poordad | ||||
| 90 | MARC Cars Australia | BMW | M6 GT3 | Chaz | Mostert |
| Max | Twigg | ||||
| Morgan | Haber | ||||
| 912 | Walkinshaw GT3 | Porsche | 911 GT3 R (Type 991) | Liam | Talbot |
| John | Martin | ||||
| Duvashen | Padayachee | ||||
Class B – GT3 (Cup Cars)
| No | Team Name | Manufacturer | Model | Drivers | |
| 4 | Grove Motorsport | Porsche | 911 Cup Car | Stephen | Grove |
| Benjamin | Barker | ||||
| Alexandre | Imperatori | ||||
| 6 | Wall Racing | Porsche | 997 GT3 Cup | Richard | Gartner |
| Aaron | Zerefos | ||||
| Indiran | Padayachee | ||||
| Ric | Shaw | ||||
| 14 | IKAD Racing | Porsche | 997 Cup Car | Peter | Major |
| Jordan | Love | ||||
| Nick | McBride | ||||
| 21 | Steve Richards Motorsport | Porsche | GT3 Cup | Dean | Grant |
| Dylan | O’Keeffe | ||||
| Xavier | West | ||||
| 50 | Synep Racing | Porsche | 991 Cup Car | Adam | Cranston |
| Josh | Cranston | ||||
| Aaron | Steer | ||||
| Jamie | Winslow | ||||
Class C – GT4
| No | Team Name | Manufacturer | Model | Drivers | |
| 18 | PROsport Performance | Porsche | Cayman PRO 4 | Charles | Putman |
| Charles | Espenlaub | ||||
| Joe | Foster | ||||
| 19 | PROsport Performance | Porsche | Cayman PRO 4 | Andrew | Pilgrim |
| Max | Braams | ||||
| Jörg | Viebahn | ||||
| Nicolaij | Moller- Madsen | ||||
| 40 | Brookspeed | Porsche | Cayman GT4 Clubsport | Aaron | Mason |
| David | Drinkwater | ||||
| TBA | |||||
| 41 | Brookspeed | Porsche | Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR | TBA | |
| TBA | |||||
| TBA | |||||
| 48 | M Motorsport | KTM | X-Bow GT4 | Justin | McMillan |
| Glen | Wood | ||||
| Tomas | Enge | ||||
| Reinhard | Kofler | ||||
| 55 | RA Motorsports – Ginetta | Ginetta | G55 | Mike | Simpson |
| Peter | Paddon | ||||
| Tim | Berryman | ||||
| 62 | R-Motorsport | Aston Martin | V8 Vantage | Andreas | Baenziger |
| Peter | Leemhuis | ||||
| Jan | Struve | ||||
| 69 | RA Motorsports – Ginetta | Ginetta | G55 | Zen | Low |
| Shinyo | Sano | ||||
| Jake | Parsons | ||||
Class D – Invitational
| No | Team Name | Manufacturer | Model | Drivers | |
| 28 | On Track Motorsport | BMW | 335i | Garry | Mennell |
| Bernard | Verryt | ||||
| Steve | Vanbellingen | ||||
| 54 | MARC Cars Australia | MARC | Focus V8 | Tony | Alford |
| Beric | Lynton | ||||
| Jeffrey | Smith | ||||
| 65 | Daytona Sportscars | Dodge | Viper Coupe | Jamie | Augustine |
| Benjamin | Schoots | ||||
| Dean | Lillie | ||||
| 76 | R-Motorsport | Aston Martin | Vantage GT8 | Florian | Kamelger |
| Darren | Turner | ||||
| Markus | Lungstrass | ||||
| 91 | MARC Cars Australia | MARC | Focus V8 | Keith | Kassulke |
| William | Brown | ||||
| Rod | Salmon | ||||
| 92 | MARC Cars Australia | MARC | Focus V8 | Michael | Benton |
| Hadrian | Morrall | ||||
| Aaron | Seton | ||||
| 93 | MARC Cars Australia | MARC | Mazda 3 V8 | Jake | Camilleri |
| Jack | Smith | ||||
| Rob | Thomson | ||||
| 94 | MARC Cars Australia | MARC | Mazda 3 V8 | Leanne | Tander |
| Nicholas | Rowe | ||||
| Gerard | McLeod | ||||
| Tim | Leahey | ||||
| 95 | MARC Cars Australia | MARC | Focus V8 | Geoffrey Peter | Taunton |
| Jason Andrew | Busk | ||||
| Bryce | Fullwood | ||||
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