Ryan McLeod plans to field an expanded five-car fleet of MARC V8s in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hours next February.
McLeod has confirmed to Speedcafe.com that his team has entered four of its own cars for the race’s Invitational category, with a fifth to come from customer Tony Alford.
Four of the MARC V8s will run with Focus bodywork, with the other sporting the Mazda 3 shape debuted at Bathurst this year.
The MARC cars are among as many as 30 entries understood to have already been received for next year’s race, which are all awaiting confirmation from new event owners V8 Supercars.
Alford had entered his Lotus Exige Cup R for the enduro, but will change tack after the British sportscar was heavily damaged in a testing accident at Sydney Motorsport Park last week.
The crash has left Alford scrambling to prepare another spare car – a Nissan GT-R R35 – for this weekend’s Sydney round of the Australian GT Championship, where he leads the Challenge Class.
MARC has meanwhile run three cars in each of the last two Bathurst 12 Hours, continuing McLeod’s previous efforts in the race with production-based Holden Astra entries.
First racing in the event as a driver in 1994, McLeod says he’s looking forward to being part of the race’s new era from 2016.
“Without the support of James (O’Brien, outgoing Bathurst promoter) I don’t think we could have gone ahead with the MARC project,” McLeod told Speedcafe.com.
“Over the last couple of years I think our cars have cemented their place in the race as an affordable, Australian-built alternative to the GT3 machinery.
“I’m really looking forward to returning next year with five cars, which adds to the 14 entries that our team has already fielded across the last seven years.”
Under a revised class structure announced in June, all Invitational entries will next year be put into a single class.
The minimum benchmark time allocated to the Invitational runners has been reduced from 2:12 to 2:10; a move welcomed by McLeod.
“We did a 12 flat last year and by the time we get there next year we will have had another season of development,” he said.
“It’s dependent on tyre choice, but I’m confident that a 2:10 is about the limit of the cars in their current form.”
MARC’s international endurance racing campaign continues with the 24 Hours of Barcelona on September 4-6.
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