Australia’s international endurance race will be without the country’s benchmark team when it takes place on February 2.
Triple Eight has a long history in the event and has run two-car Mercedes-AMG efforts in recent years, a Pro entry and a Pro-Am car for its GT customer Johor Racing.
The Malaysian royals, however, have split from Triple Eight this year and the Banyo squad has effectively pivoted towards the Super2 Series as its secondary program.
Triple Eight MD Jamie Whincup told Speedcafe the team’s current workload is such that a Bathurst 12 Hour entry was not possible.
“One of the biggest influences was the commitment to the Super2 program. It’s a bit bigger than it looks on the outside,” Whincup told Speedcafe of the Bathurst absence.
“We’re fully restoring two existing Triple Eight cars owned by Ben Gomersall [for use in Super2], and also building a new car for Will Brown as well.
“The program was already a little full before we engage in the Bathurst 12 Hour.
“We say it every year, it’s a great thing to do and we love to be there, but it does put us on the back foot in Supercar-land for Round 1.
“So we elected this year to just focus on the programs that we’ve got, a new car build and Super2 and sit out this year for the 12 Hour.”
Triple Eight will still have a presence at the event through its ongoing arrangement with Mercedes-AMG.
“We’re the AMG customer service representative so we’ll have our truck there and be supplying trackside customer service to all AMG customers all weekend,” he said.
“It’ll purely be parts supply. AMG have a local team that help out from an engineering point of view, so they’ll be at the 12 Hour also helping AMG customers.”
The team’s GT activities beyond its 12 Hour absence are a work-in-progress.
In addition to the now discontinued global program with Johor Motor Racing, Triple Eight ran a single-car Mercedes entry in GT World Challenge Australia last year and may yet do so again.
Ambitions to field the new Chevrolet Corvette GT3 remain on hold due to a lack of available machinery.
“The Corvette program, I think there’s no availability of cars until after Round 1, so if anything, that would be down the track a bit,” he said.
“The only option we’ve got is with AMG. We haven’t finalised a GT3 program at this stage, that’s still 50:50, but we’re looking to run a GT4 car.”
Triple Eight’s Supercars champion Will Brown is set to share an Arise Racing Ferrari at the Bathurst 12 Hour with Chaz Mostert, while Broc Feeney is hunting for a drive after another deal fell through.
The Triple Eight team has its own history with Ferrari in the 12 Hour, winning the race in conjunction with Maranello Motorsport in 2014 and ’17, before running Kenny Habul’s victorious Mercedes in 2022.
