Mostert to race Audi at Bathurst 12 Hour

Chaz Mostert has been named on the official Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour entry list ahead of next month’s opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Mostert will join forces with Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot aboard the #65 Audi R8 LMS Evo 2 which is officially listed in the Silver class.

However, as Mostert is a Gold-rated driver, the car must compete in either Pro or Pro-Am class, with Silver mandating that “All drivers to be categorised Silver or Bronze.”

The trio are not strangers and drove together in last May’s edition of the one-around-the-clock encounter.

In that event, Mostert qualified the car on pole, holding the spot by 0.08s in the Top 10 shootout, only for the car to strike trouble in Sunday’s race.

The Walkinshaw Andretti United Supercars driver is part of a 26-car entry list, two fewer than was announced earlier this month.

Announced in December, motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi will make his debut at Mount Panorama in the February 3-5 event alongside Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus with Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts, and DTM champion Sheldon van der Linde to share WRT’s other BMW M4 GT3.

They form part of an eight-strong Pro class, while there are seven Pro-Am entries, six in Silver, with the balance made up of Invitational entries though that has reduced by two from what was announced earlier this month.

Absent from the latest entry list is one of the two Pro-Am EBM Giga Racing Porsches, while an invitational Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car has also fallen by the wayside.

The remaining EBM Gige Racing entry is that of Grove Racing and will be driven by Supercars team owners Stephen and Brenton Grove, along with Dick Johnson Racing’s Anton de Pasquale.

Mercedes’ charge will be spearheaded locally by Shane van Gisbergen who, as announced late last year, will drive the Triple Eight-run Supercheap Auto Racing #888 with Broc Feeney and Maximilian Gotz.

Also in Pro class is the SunEnergy1 machine of last year’s winners Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon, and Luca Stolz.

Gounon was part of the Kyalami 9 Hour winning team last year, together with Raffaele Marciello, who will race for GruppeM in the #999 Mercedes.

Class winner at Le Mans, and a Daytona 24 Hour victor, Matt Campbell will drive the Manthey EMA Porsche in the Pro class – one of just two 911s in the race.

A number of other Supercars drivers, be they full-time or co-drivers, feature on the list including Lee Holdsworth, Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes, Tony D’Alberto, Richie Stanaway, and David Reynolds.

Whincup and Stanaway are set to partner Prince Jefri Ibrahim in the second Triple Eight run Mercedes-AMG, the #99 car set to run in Pro-Am class.

Lowndes too will race in Pro-Am, at the wheel of the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes.

He’ll race with multi-Australian GT champion Geoff Emery, Alex Davison, and Scott Taylor himself in the #222.

Mount Panorama lap record holder, Christopher Mies, is also in the Pro-Am class, driving The Bend Audi alongside Yasser Shahin and Ricardo Feller.

This year’s Bathurst 12 Hour sees a return of the Pro class after the race reverted to a Pro-Am competition last year off the back of COVID.

A 26-car field represents growth for the event, which saw just 21 entries in last May’s race.

That edition of the Bathurst 12 Hour also boasted few internationals on the entry list, though they have returned in number this year with 15 nationalities set to be represented as teams from six different countries will compete.

Track action in Bathurst begins with Practice 1 at 09:45 next Friday, a day after the now traditional Town to Track event.

There are a total of six practice sessions prior to Qualifying, which is a three-part format.

Television coverage begins on the Saturday of the event at 12:30 local time/AEDT on both Fox and Seven, in time for Bathurst 12 Hour Qualifying – Part 1 and Qualifying – Part 2, followed by support categories and the Top 10 Shootout (which will again in fact be a pair of 15-minute sessions for the 10 fastest qualifiers).

Race day coverage kicks off at 05:30 local time/AEDT, 15 minutes prior to the now traditional start time which the Bathurst 12 Hour reverts to this year.

International viewers can watch on Sky Sports NZ in New Zealand, or via the GT World channel on YouTube.

2023 Bathurst 12 Hour Entry List