Jules Gounon inherited the lead with three hours and 17 minutes to go after Matt Campbell wrapped up his latest stint in the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche.
That appeared a huge recovery for the long-time race-leading entry after it served two drive-throughs – one under Safety Car and then the one which counted – but Car #912 appears strategically compromised and in need of a half-stint to make it home.
With three hours to go, the #75 Sun Energy1 Mercedes-AMG leads the #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes by 1.00s, the #46 Team WRT BMW, the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche, the #22 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, and the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG which has not long been sent spinning at The Chase.
Ayanchan Guven is currently 11th in the #912 Porsche, after leading at the end of the sixth hour.
MPC’s Christopher Haase had grabbed second place in the #22 Audi when Valentino Rossi ran the #46 WRT BMW off the road at The Chase at the start of the seventh hour.
The sixth Safety Car period of the race was called minutes later on Lap 150 when John Holinger spun into the wall at The Esses after contact between the #10 Matt Stone Racing IRC and the #2 MPC Audi piloted by Ricardo Feller.
Rossi pitted immediately, just as the rain began to fall in a meaningful way, and WRT would make a late call to throw wets on as Raffaele Marciello belted up.
The rest of the top 10 pitted over the next two laps and, once it all shook out, the #912 Porsche was back in front in the hands of Campbell, from the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche (Bastian Buus), the #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG (Daniel Juncadella), the #130 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG (Maro Engel), the #46 BMW, the Pro-Am leading #27 Heart of Racing/SPS Mercedes-AMG (Ross Gunn), the #48 M-Motorsport Mercedes-AMG (Jack Le Brocq), the #911 Manthey EMA Porsche (Alessio Picariello), the #888 Mercedes-AMG (Broc Feeney), the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG (Cam Waters), the #2 Audi (Feller), the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG (Luca Stolz), the #88 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes-AMG (Jamie Whincup), and the #22 Audi (Haase) in 14th.
No sooner had the race restarted on Lap 157, on a genuinely wet track, Race Control issued two very significant penalties.
The race leaders copped a drive-through for undercutting the regulated 85-second pit lane time while the #2 MPC entry was issued a two-minute hold for the MSR incident.
MPC opted to take its medicine straight away while Campbell stayed out for another lap, only for Paul Tracy to spin the #702 Tekworkx IRC and trigger a Safety Car.
Surprisingly, Campbell did then transit the lane and resumed in sixth position, leading to an argument with officialdom about whether the penalty had been served or not.
In any case, the #13 Porsche had inherited the lead, from the #77 Mercedes-AMG, the #130 Mercedes-AMG, the #46 BMW, the #911 Porsche, the #912 Porsche, the #222 Mercedes-AMG, the #75 Mercedes-AMG, the #88 Mercedes-AMG, and the #22 Audi, while the #888 Mercedes-AMG was 13th after Feeney had pitted under Safety Car and the #2 Audi just stayed on the lead lap in 16th.
Meanwhile, the rain had stopped but the track remained wet for the time being, and the race went green on Lap 163.
Campbell had to take his drive-through – again – that lap, before Marciello served one on Lap 164 for crossing the blend line, and the GT4-leading #25 Method Motorsport McLaren copped one for a Safety Car procedure breach.
Engel was coming under huge pressure from Picariello, who eventually took third place from the German at The Cutting on Lap 167 after hanging on the outside at Griffins Bend.
A lap later, Engel and fellow factory Mercedes-AMG driver Stolz were banging wheels on the run up Mountain Straight.
Feller was back up to 10th when he was called in to swap back to slicks moments later, and Feeney peeled off from seventh to do likewise on Lap 169.
Engel, Whincup, Campbell, and Waters were in on Lap 170, then leader Buus along with Juncadella, Stolz, and more on Lap 171.
The Safety Car came again on Lap 172 when Cameron Hill ran into the tyres at Griffins Bend in the MSR entry, seemingly due to a lingering problem.
It was a massive free kick to Manthey EMA given the Pro-Am #911 Porsche had yet to pit and switch back to slicks.
Picariello handed over to Yasser Shahin with effectively a free pit stop but the latter was about to have the big guns stacked up behind him as the Safety Car collected the field, headed up by Jaxon Evans in the #13 Porsche.
Then the race came again, light initially but still making for an awkward Lap 176 restart.
Shahin let Evans take the lead at Griffins and Maximilian Goetz (#77 Mercedes-AMG) also made his way past on the run to The Cutting.
Shahin continued to let the professional drivers go by, while Goetz passed Evans for the lead at The Chase, before Maxime Martin threw the #46 BMW off the road at Murray’s Corner.
The rain got even heavier on Lap 177 and all pitted for wets except Waters.
It would prove the wrong decision with the #222 STM Mercedes-AMG ran off at McPhillamy Park, and Cam Waters was indeed into pit lane on Lap 178.
The rain continued to pelt down and Jack Le Brocq crashed into the wall at Skyline in an incident which began with an aquaplane moment back at McPhillamy Park in the #48 M-Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.
Despite it being a glancing blow and Le Brocq driving off for the pits, the Safety Car was called for the ninth time.
Under yellow flags, the #912 Porsche led from the #77 Mercedes-AMG, Felipe Fraga in the #130 Mercedes-AMG, Gounon in the #75 Mercedes-AMG, Mikael Grenier in the #888 Mercedes-AMG, the #13 Porsche, Kelvin van der Linde in the #22 Audi, the #46 BMW, David Wall in the Silver-leading #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini, Markus Winkelhock in the #22 Audi, the #911 Porsche, and Prince Jefri Ibrahim in 12th in the #88 Mercedes-AMG, with Thomas Randle 14th in the #222 Mercedes-AMG.
Conditions were treacherous for the Lap 185 restart and Gounon passed Fraga for third when the Brazilian ran wide straight away at Hell Corner.
He then engaged in a hair-raising battle with Goetz for second, eventually passing Car #77 up Mountain Straight on Lap 189, by which time Campbell had disappeared 9.93s up the road.
Campbell was 15.04s to the good when he pitted on Lap 196, eight hours and 43 minutes into the race, making for an awkward stint pattern for the #912 Manthey EMA entry to make the chequered flag after 12 hours.
Minutes later, a Full Course Yellow was called when the #111 MRA Motorsport IRC was punted by the #47 Supabarn Mercedes-AMG exiting The Dipper.
The restart came about a minute later and Grenier ran off at The Chase while running fourth, with replays suggesting the possibility of contact with the #130 Mercedes-AMG of Fraga.
Grenier spun back onto the edge of the track and the net result was that Fraga still emerged third, from Martin, Evans, Kelvin van der Linde, Winkelhock, and the #888 Mercedes-AMG in eighth.
Car #130 was indeed then issued a drive-through penalty, which Fraga served with 3:00:03s to go plus one lap.
That meant a top 10 of the #75 Mercedes-AMG, the #77 Mercedes-AMG, the #46 BMW, the #13 Porsche, the #22 Audi, the #888 Mercedes-AMG, the #222 Mercedes-AMG, the Pro-Am leading #27 Mercedes-AMG, the #9 Hallmarc Audi, and the #912 Porsche.
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