Mark Skaife has hailed the quality of this weekend’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour field as the best he has seen.
Skaife, who will share a BMW M6 GT3 with Russell Ingall, Tony Longhurst, and German ex-Formula 1 driver Timo Glock, remains awestruck by the depth of the field in what will be his GT3 debut.
“I was saying to Russell earlier, and I know a lot of the manufacturers are saying, that this is the most competitive GT3 endurance race that they’ve seen,” exclaimed, Skaife, a six-time Bathurst 1000 winner.
“It’s one of the best fields of drivers that I’ve ever seen in Australia, and to have a number of internationals in the field but mixed with a number of Supercars stars of yesterday and today makes it an extraordinary race.
“When you look up and down the field at the number of contenders there are probably 15 cars, maybe more, that can win it, which is pretty cool.”
The BMW Team SRM outfit will field Glock in the Castrol Vodafone car and his compatriot Marco Wittmann in the Laser Plumbing car alongside team owner Steven Richards and Prodrive Supercars driver Mark Winterbottom.
While Wittmann, the current and two-time DTM champion, participated in BMW’s private test at Mount Panorama in November, Glock has not ever driven the circuit.
The 34-year-old will lean on the Bathurst experience of his ex-Supercars team-mates as all four participate in the GT-era once-around-the-clock race for the first time.
“I can’t wait to go out, to be honest,” Glock said.
“I’ve watched a lot of races at Bathurst already on TV and internet, and I just said, ‘I need to do this race at least once in my life.’
“I’ve watched these guys a lot in the V8s and had a special track walk with Mark and Russell.
“They explained to me every millimetre of this track already, which is a big help – and Tony as well – so I think they can give me much more help than I can give them about the car.”
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