Audi has announced the suite of R8 drivers for this year’s Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, including a comeback to motorsport for Jonathon Webb.
There will be a total of seven vehicles from the Ingolstadt marque in the race, all being the R8 LMS GT3 evo II, with one in the Pro class and three each in Pro-Am and Silver, most of which will be run by Melbourne Performance Centre.
That includes the #74 Audi Sport Team MPC entry which will be piloted by an all-factory trio of Mattia Drudi, Christopher Haase, and Patric Niederhauser.
Audi’s announcement also confirms that PremiAir Racing’s James Golding will drive the Pro-Am #55 Schumacher Motorsport Fuchs Racing entry which Supercars’ newest team is running for Brad Schumacher himself, with Frederic Vervisch named as the factory steerer in the crew.
Also in Pro-Am, the #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Team MPC car’s line-up is comprised of Ricardo Feller, Christopher Mies, and back-to-back Australian GT champion Yasser Shahin, while the #9 Hallmarc Team MPC entry will be driven by Lee Holdsworth, Dean Fiore, and Marc Cini.
2016 Bathurst 12 Hour winner Webb will drive the #47 Supabarn Team MPC entry with David Russell, James Koundouris, and Theo Koundouris; while a PremiAir and Tekno Autosports Supercars co-driver in Dylan O’Keeffe is set to line up with Andre Fawcet and Daniel Gaunt in the #10 Myland Team IMS car.
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Both of those are Silver class entries as is the #65 Team MPC Audi, pending announcement of the third driver, given only Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross have been confirmed thus far.
“For our local MPC partners, the race is a first-class sporting challenge just as it is for us,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing.
“Already traditionally, MPC is represented at Bathurst with a strong, competitive base of customers.
“Audi Sport customer racing complements the privateer line-up with six Audi Sport drivers split across three race cars.”
Audi has won the Bathurst 12 Hour three times, most recently in 2018 with Team WRT, which is now a BMW squad and will field two M4 GT3s in this year’s race, including one to be driven by Valentino Rossi.
The event begins on Friday, February 3.
Audi drivers: 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour
| Num | Team/Sponsor | Class | Make | Model | Driver 1 | Ranking* | Driver 2 | Ranking* | Driver 3 | Ranking* | (Driver 4) | (Ranking)* |
| 74 | Audi Sport Team MPC | Pro | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Mattia Drudi | Platinum | Christopher Haase | Platinum | Patric Niederhauser | Platinum | ||
| 9 | Hallmarc Team MPC | Pro-Am | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Dean Fiore | Gold | Lee Holdsworth | Gold | Marc Cini | Bronze | ||
| 55 | Schumacher Motorsport Fuchs Racing | Pro-Am | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Frederic Vervisch | Gold | James Golding | Silver | Brad Schumacher | Bronze | ||
| 777 | The Bend Motorsport Park Team MPC | Pro-Am | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Ricardo Feller | Platinum | Christopher Mies | Platinum | Yasser Shahin | Bronze | ||
| 10 | Myland Team IMS | Silver | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Daniel Gaunt | Silver | Dylan O’Keeffe | Silver | Andrew Fawcet | Bronze | ||
| 47 | Supabarn Team MPC | Silver | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | David Russell | Silver | Jonathon Webb | Silver | James Koundouris | Bronze | Theo Koundouris | Bronze |
| 65 | Team MPC | Silver | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Fraser Ross | Silver | Liam Talbot | Bronze | TBA | TBA |
* Per 2023 FIA Driver Categorisation list
