- Home
- TV Shows
-
TV Schedule
-
SPEED Showcase
-
- NASCAR
-
- Formula 1
- Auto Racing
- Moto Racing
- Cars
- Bikes
- Store
- Social
- Mobile
- Deals
- Videos
- Photos
GT Racing
GT: Erebus Mercedes On Bathurst 12H Pole
Australian GT’s Erebus Motorsport upstages international field for pole in Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour...
Erebus Racing took pole for Sunday's Bathurst 12 Hour. (Photo: Nathan Wong/Bathurst 12H)
It was Australian GT’s Erebus Motorsport who upstaged an international field to take pole position for the 2013 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
The quickest time was set by Lee Holdsworth, with the V8 Supercar regular setting his quickest ever time at Mount Panorama - beating out his V8 Supercar times.
“It’s strange to be going this quick in something that isn’t the V8 Supercar,” Holdsworth said. “When you do a 2m08 in the V8, you really feel like you’re hanging it out but in this (the SLS AMG) it’s totally different.
“We got very close to the benchmark time and from there it was a case of keeping an eye on everyone else – especially the Ferrari – to see if anyone beat it. The car is fantastic and is a really good package and as a team, the three of us are really comfortable so we’re happy.”
The other Erebus car with the German trio of Schneider, Roloff and Jaeger would end up sixth.
If the plight of one of the favorites - i.e. the German Erebus squad was surprising, the other big favourite - the Craig Lowndes led Audi R8 was even more surprising.
Having topped practice one and two, the squad could not lift their performance in qualifying and ended up in 12th.
The talk of the session was the Maranello Motorsports Ferrari 458. The car was lightning quick - in fact too quick. In the first qualifying session, Allan Simonsen broke the 2:06 benchmark time - resulting in the team’s fastest lap being disallowed and having to run a 50kg penalty for the race.
Simonsen’s co driver, Peter Edwards didn’t want to dwell on that issue, however.
“I told Allan not to worry about it (qualifying mistake)," Edwards said. "Things happen, we are all trying to put in good times. Trying to get to that reference time is important, especially for the Australian GT Championship. We have two minds in place and prepare as necessary."
The day then got worse for Maranello with John Bowe getting into the side of the Mosler with just two minutes to go in second qualifying, bending the steering arm and giving the team a lot more work to do.
They, however got off lightly compared to the Trofeo Corvette. Part way through the first session, Greg Murphy clashed with the Sherrin BMW Production class car, sending the Corvette into the wall.
The resulting impact broke both ends of the car, ruling the team out of second qualifying and a race against time to be ready for the race.
Despite this, they still qualified 11th and best of the Pirelli runners.
The American teams in the field struggled for outright pace with United Autosports qualifying 14th with Brendon Hartley turning in a 2:08.9.
“I arrived here on Thursday - I am pretty comfortable with the track but the car is new to me," Hartley said. "I was pretty happy there are some experienced Audi drivers behind me and it would be unreasonable to think I could put it on pole position with just 15 laps of the circuit."
The DragonSpeed Audi qualified 17th with a 2:11, showing gradual improvement over the weekend. The squad of Christian Zugel, Eric Lux and team boss Elton Julian always had their work cut out for them with no experience on the Mountain.
That was also demonstrated by the Englester BMW Z4 squad. The only BMW GT3 in the field had little engineering or driver knowledge of Bathurst and were the slowest of the GT3 runners with a 2:13.
The best of the international teams was AF Corse, reaching the top-10 with their Ferrari and the Australian-run Erebus Mercedes with their German trio of Schneider, Roloff and Jaeger were sixth after the qualifying sessions.
Defending Champions, the Phoenix Audi squad, have an entirely new driver lineup for 2013 and the Kristoffersson, Primat and Andreas Simonsen squad were seventh on the grid.
The surprise of the session was the Mal Rose Commodore in the Invitational 3 class, which came perilously close to their benchmark time of a 2:15 with 2:15.8. This time upstaged many of the more fancied runners and they will line up 24th overall.
The Peugeot RCZ teams led the Invitation 1 class and the lead car is 33rd on the grid. The front wheel drive team could punch above their weight in the race should predicted rain occur.
The race will commence at 7am local (Sat. 3 p.m. ET) with live streaming on www.bathurst12hour.com and live audio being provided by Radio Le Mans.
Qualifying Results (Top 10 Combined)
Slade / Hackett / Holdsworth Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 2:06.2730
Simonsen / Salo / Bowe / Edwards Ferrari F458 GT3 +0.2109
Weng / Baird / Griffen Ferrari F458 GT3 +0.6127
Lago / Russell / Kox Lamborghini LP560 GT3 +0.6885
Cini / Mies / Eddy / Grant Audi R8 LMS Ultra +0.7105
Schneider / Jaeger / Roloff Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 +0.9659
Kristoffersson / Primat / Simonsen Audi R8 LMS Ultra +1.2942
Quinn / Quinn / van Gisbergen Porsche 911 GT3 R +1.3285
Richards / McMillan / Lilley Lamborghini LP560 GT3 +1.4108
Wyatt / Rugolo / Cioci Ferrari F458 GT3 +1.6590
The quickest time was set by Lee Holdsworth, with the V8 Supercar regular setting his quickest ever time at Mount Panorama - beating out his V8 Supercar times.
“It’s strange to be going this quick in something that isn’t the V8 Supercar,” Holdsworth said. “When you do a 2m08 in the V8, you really feel like you’re hanging it out but in this (the SLS AMG) it’s totally different.
“We got very close to the benchmark time and from there it was a case of keeping an eye on everyone else – especially the Ferrari – to see if anyone beat it. The car is fantastic and is a really good package and as a team, the three of us are really comfortable so we’re happy.”
The other Erebus car with the German trio of Schneider, Roloff and Jaeger would end up sixth.
If the plight of one of the favorites - i.e. the German Erebus squad was surprising, the other big favourite - the Craig Lowndes led Audi R8 was even more surprising.
Having topped practice one and two, the squad could not lift their performance in qualifying and ended up in 12th.
The talk of the session was the Maranello Motorsports Ferrari 458. The car was lightning quick - in fact too quick. In the first qualifying session, Allan Simonsen broke the 2:06 benchmark time - resulting in the team’s fastest lap being disallowed and having to run a 50kg penalty for the race.
Simonsen’s co driver, Peter Edwards didn’t want to dwell on that issue, however.
“I told Allan not to worry about it (qualifying mistake)," Edwards said. "Things happen, we are all trying to put in good times. Trying to get to that reference time is important, especially for the Australian GT Championship. We have two minds in place and prepare as necessary."
The day then got worse for Maranello with John Bowe getting into the side of the Mosler with just two minutes to go in second qualifying, bending the steering arm and giving the team a lot more work to do.
They, however got off lightly compared to the Trofeo Corvette. Part way through the first session, Greg Murphy clashed with the Sherrin BMW Production class car, sending the Corvette into the wall.
The resulting impact broke both ends of the car, ruling the team out of second qualifying and a race against time to be ready for the race.
Despite this, they still qualified 11th and best of the Pirelli runners.
The American teams in the field struggled for outright pace with United Autosports qualifying 14th with Brendon Hartley turning in a 2:08.9.
“I arrived here on Thursday - I am pretty comfortable with the track but the car is new to me," Hartley said. "I was pretty happy there are some experienced Audi drivers behind me and it would be unreasonable to think I could put it on pole position with just 15 laps of the circuit."
The DragonSpeed Audi qualified 17th with a 2:11, showing gradual improvement over the weekend. The squad of Christian Zugel, Eric Lux and team boss Elton Julian always had their work cut out for them with no experience on the Mountain.
That was also demonstrated by the Englester BMW Z4 squad. The only BMW GT3 in the field had little engineering or driver knowledge of Bathurst and were the slowest of the GT3 runners with a 2:13.
The best of the international teams was AF Corse, reaching the top-10 with their Ferrari and the Australian-run Erebus Mercedes with their German trio of Schneider, Roloff and Jaeger were sixth after the qualifying sessions.
Defending Champions, the Phoenix Audi squad, have an entirely new driver lineup for 2013 and the Kristoffersson, Primat and Andreas Simonsen squad were seventh on the grid.
The surprise of the session was the Mal Rose Commodore in the Invitational 3 class, which came perilously close to their benchmark time of a 2:15 with 2:15.8. This time upstaged many of the more fancied runners and they will line up 24th overall.
The Peugeot RCZ teams led the Invitation 1 class and the lead car is 33rd on the grid. The front wheel drive team could punch above their weight in the race should predicted rain occur.
The race will commence at 7am local (Sat. 3 p.m. ET) with live streaming on www.bathurst12hour.com and live audio being provided by Radio Le Mans.
Qualifying Results (Top 10 Combined)
Slade / Hackett / Holdsworth Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 2:06.2730
Simonsen / Salo / Bowe / Edwards Ferrari F458 GT3 +0.2109
Weng / Baird / Griffen Ferrari F458 GT3 +0.6127
Lago / Russell / Kox Lamborghini LP560 GT3 +0.6885
Cini / Mies / Eddy / Grant Audi R8 LMS Ultra +0.7105
Schneider / Jaeger / Roloff Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 +0.9659
Kristoffersson / Primat / Simonsen Audi R8 LMS Ultra +1.2942
Quinn / Quinn / van Gisbergen Porsche 911 GT3 R +1.3285
Richards / McMillan / Lilley Lamborghini LP560 GT3 +1.4108
Wyatt / Rugolo / Cioci Ferrari F458 GT3 +1.6590
LATEST HEADLINES: AUTO-RACING
-
VIDEO: 8Star LM24 Wednesday vBlog
Rui Aguas checks into SPEED.com prior to the start of practice and… -
LE MANS: Corvette On-Board Pass Returns For LM24
Watch! Live in-car and garage cameras from Corvette Racing during… -
LE MANS: Lotus LMP2 Cars Seized By Court
BREAKING: Lotus T128 parts seized by local courts over financial… -
LE MANS: Taylor Brothers Continuing Family Tradition
Second-generation racers Jordan, Ricky Taylor seek victory at Le… -
LE MANS: LM24 LMP1 Preview
John Dagys takes a team-by-team look at this year’s LMP1 class… -
DE CHAUNAC: Le Mans 1998, Extreme Tension
After two participations without podium with the Viper, 1998 was… -
LE MANS: Baron's Helping Hand At SRT
2012 LMP2 class-winning team owner and strategist drafted in to support… - More News
