The run up to this years Bathurst 12 hours on iRacing was a busy one for the team, with a number of new recruits coming out to help us field a whopping five cars for the event.
A huge amount of laps were done in preparation for the event, including many races in the official series' in the week leading up to race day, and so the 13 drivers were as ready as they could be.
The mountain, though, can be and often is a cruel mistress. All but one car found themselves with issues in the earliest parts of the race. The #561 with steering damage from a brush with the wall at Forests Elbow 20 minutes into the race, the #562 with a spin and shunt at The Cutting, the #563 had connection issues and the #565 had multiple contacts and early retirement. That left the #564 the only relatively unscathed car early on.
Ultimately the race was a tough one for every car through the rest of the race, with the #562 and #563 committing to a tough recovery drive from a number of laps back. The #564 didn't stay out of trouble forever, also having to retire after 100 laps.
That left the #561 car as the one with something tangible to fight for for the majority of the race, having dropped to 41st early on but only losing a couple of minutes to the leaders and the knowledge that cars in front would have their share of issues.
The car, driven by Jason Dilworth and Ryan Hamilton, made strong progress through the rest of the race. While unable to trouble the outright pace of the leaders enough to fight for the win, it became clear fairly early on that a top 10 was still possible. After 12 hours, the last 2 of which were especially frantic, they crossed the line in 8th position – a strong result in a strong split 5 of the race.
The rest of the cars results were as follows:
#562: 28th in Split 5
#563: 20th in Split 7
#564: DNF in Split 10
#565: DNF in Split 14