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GT Racing
GT: Erebus Mercedes Conquers Bathurst 12H
Bernd Schneider, Alex Roloff, Thomas Jaeger take Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 to first Bathurst 12 Hour victory...
Bernd Schneider and Thomas Jaeger helped take Erebus Racing to victory in Sunday's Bathurst 12 Hour. (Photo: Nathan Wong)
It was a Bernd Schneider masterclass that set up Erebus Motorsport and the Mercedes Benz SLS GT3 for victory at the 2013 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour. It was one of those races that had it all, a little controversy, massive battles throughout the field and a wet finish.
The race got underway at 7am with the 53 car field making the start. The Trofeo Motorsport Corvette was able to make the start after their heavy qualifying crash and the Invitational Class 3 Cobra started from pit lane.
The mood of the race was set from the outset with the Maranello Ferrari and Erebus Mercedes (the Australian contingent) making slight contact at the first corner. Everyone continued up the Mountain with the United Autosports Audi R8 and the Dragonspeed Audi R8 settling in at the tail end of the GT field.
At the front, Tim Slade (Erebus), Craig Baird (Clearwater) and Mika Salo (Maranello) immediately set to work and was lapping the slower cars within three laps. The pace was frenetic and soon the first yellow was out. The other Erebus car with Schenider, Alex Roloff and Thomas Jager at the wheel was in fourth.
Salo would overtake Slade in amongst the backmarkers and in the ensuing confusion the Motorsport Services Porsche of Mahy would tag the wall and Salo would also tag the wall. The yellow was out but that incident would have far greater implications later in the race.
The early strategy was also dictated by the Australian GT race which was in the first 50 minutes of the race so the runners for that race would not be taking advantage of the yellow.
The race returned to green - but in less than a lap, the yellow would be out again. This time a far greater impact would end the day for the unlucky Lago Lamborghini, Tony Quinn sustained broken ribs and the Aston Martin St Gallen squad would need to perform heavy repairs to get back out.
Tony Quinn, who was also to drive in the No. 5 Porsche would be sidelined and that car called in the services of Matt Kingsley. The VIP Petfood supported Porsche would be embroiled in controversy having been protested against for running the 2013 updates on their car. They were permitted to race.
Lago, however was again disparately disappointed with his race. This was the third major crash for his Lamborghini in a year - only once was he at the wheel.
The Australian GT race would end under safety car and controversy would surround those results (see separate report to come).
The second hour would see the race continue in its stop/start manner. It was also disastrous for the Englseter BMW Z4 team. Charles Ng took over the car early in the hour but at the pitstops fumes entered the cockpit. In retrospect, Ng should have stepped out of the car as the fumes proved to be strong and at the top of the Mountain on his out lap, he crashed heavily into the wall. The Clearwater Ferrari was lucky not to get involved.
Eric Lux at the wheel of the DragonSpeed car had perhaps the biggest incident of the day but suffered little damage. He had a rear tire let go at the end of Conrod - at full speed he spun four times, speared across the track in front of a Class B Porshce and ended up in the run off. In the past cars have rolled with incidents like this and in 2010 a Mosler suffered the same issue - with its windscreen ending up on top of a power pole.
These incidents and the safety car had brought an unwanted element to the race. The safety car wave around procedure had not been correctly followed and as a result, five cars lost a lap. Included in this was United Autosports and Peter Conroy’s Audi. When the mistake was realised the officials decided not to rectify the lap error something that infuriated the drivers. It was only that calmer minds prevailed that United’s Alain Li did share his angry mind with race control.
During the first quarter of the race, the Mosler also suffered a broken water pump and Donut King Nissan had issues at the back of the car.
The Maranello Motorsport Ferrari also suffered a spin with Peter Edwards at the wheel - losing a lap.
Allan Simonsen got in the car and in the third hour he drove like a maniac to get the lap back but it would come to nought in hour four when the suspension broke - courtesy of the contact Salo had early in the race. The car would make it back out but it’s run for victory would be over.
A further safety car at the end of the fourth hour would see the No. 63 Erebus and the Clearwater Ferrari get penalties for passing to early under the restart. This would be the first of four drive through penalties for Clearwater.
As the race neared the halfway mark, it could not find its rhythm with safety car periods punctuating the event.
The longest safety car period was 23 minutes in hour six after Craig Lowndes had a rear hub fail. He spun at the Cutting and the delay was caused by the difficulty in recovering the car.
Through the second third of the race, the race would pass the 1000km mark - famous for the touring car world. Erebus were able to run more than 500km on a single set of Michelin tires and front runners in Class C and Class I3 dropped out with accidents.
The Erebus team were peerless, running out in front. The Clearwater team were also strong but during the seventh hour, a divebomb move from Mok Wen Sung would see him make contact with another Audi. Both continues with Sung receiving a drive through for avoidable contact.
Like the Maranello incident, this crash would have further complications for Clearwater down the track.
Sung soon jumped out of the car to allow Matt Griffin to drive. Through his stint, the front splitter came apart - meaning he had to serve a black flag to repair the car the resulting loss of downforce would see their challenge for victory turn into a challenge for the podium.
Through it all, the Erebus team were supreme and entering the last third of the race found themselves in a 1-2 with a lap on the rest of the field.
The race got underway at 7am with the 53 car field making the start. The Trofeo Motorsport Corvette was able to make the start after their heavy qualifying crash and the Invitational Class 3 Cobra started from pit lane.
The mood of the race was set from the outset with the Maranello Ferrari and Erebus Mercedes (the Australian contingent) making slight contact at the first corner. Everyone continued up the Mountain with the United Autosports Audi R8 and the Dragonspeed Audi R8 settling in at the tail end of the GT field.
At the front, Tim Slade (Erebus), Craig Baird (Clearwater) and Mika Salo (Maranello) immediately set to work and was lapping the slower cars within three laps. The pace was frenetic and soon the first yellow was out. The other Erebus car with Schenider, Alex Roloff and Thomas Jager at the wheel was in fourth.
Salo would overtake Slade in amongst the backmarkers and in the ensuing confusion the Motorsport Services Porsche of Mahy would tag the wall and Salo would also tag the wall. The yellow was out but that incident would have far greater implications later in the race.
The early strategy was also dictated by the Australian GT race which was in the first 50 minutes of the race so the runners for that race would not be taking advantage of the yellow.
The race returned to green - but in less than a lap, the yellow would be out again. This time a far greater impact would end the day for the unlucky Lago Lamborghini, Tony Quinn sustained broken ribs and the Aston Martin St Gallen squad would need to perform heavy repairs to get back out.
Tony Quinn, who was also to drive in the No. 5 Porsche would be sidelined and that car called in the services of Matt Kingsley. The VIP Petfood supported Porsche would be embroiled in controversy having been protested against for running the 2013 updates on their car. They were permitted to race.
Lago, however was again disparately disappointed with his race. This was the third major crash for his Lamborghini in a year - only once was he at the wheel.
The Australian GT race would end under safety car and controversy would surround those results (see separate report to come).
The second hour would see the race continue in its stop/start manner. It was also disastrous for the Englseter BMW Z4 team. Charles Ng took over the car early in the hour but at the pitstops fumes entered the cockpit. In retrospect, Ng should have stepped out of the car as the fumes proved to be strong and at the top of the Mountain on his out lap, he crashed heavily into the wall. The Clearwater Ferrari was lucky not to get involved.
Eric Lux at the wheel of the DragonSpeed car had perhaps the biggest incident of the day but suffered little damage. He had a rear tire let go at the end of Conrod - at full speed he spun four times, speared across the track in front of a Class B Porshce and ended up in the run off. In the past cars have rolled with incidents like this and in 2010 a Mosler suffered the same issue - with its windscreen ending up on top of a power pole.
These incidents and the safety car had brought an unwanted element to the race. The safety car wave around procedure had not been correctly followed and as a result, five cars lost a lap. Included in this was United Autosports and Peter Conroy’s Audi. When the mistake was realised the officials decided not to rectify the lap error something that infuriated the drivers. It was only that calmer minds prevailed that United’s Alain Li did share his angry mind with race control.
During the first quarter of the race, the Mosler also suffered a broken water pump and Donut King Nissan had issues at the back of the car.
The Maranello Motorsport Ferrari also suffered a spin with Peter Edwards at the wheel - losing a lap.
Allan Simonsen got in the car and in the third hour he drove like a maniac to get the lap back but it would come to nought in hour four when the suspension broke - courtesy of the contact Salo had early in the race. The car would make it back out but it’s run for victory would be over.
A further safety car at the end of the fourth hour would see the No. 63 Erebus and the Clearwater Ferrari get penalties for passing to early under the restart. This would be the first of four drive through penalties for Clearwater.
As the race neared the halfway mark, it could not find its rhythm with safety car periods punctuating the event.
The longest safety car period was 23 minutes in hour six after Craig Lowndes had a rear hub fail. He spun at the Cutting and the delay was caused by the difficulty in recovering the car.
Through the second third of the race, the race would pass the 1000km mark - famous for the touring car world. Erebus were able to run more than 500km on a single set of Michelin tires and front runners in Class C and Class I3 dropped out with accidents.
The Erebus team were peerless, running out in front. The Clearwater team were also strong but during the seventh hour, a divebomb move from Mok Wen Sung would see him make contact with another Audi. Both continues with Sung receiving a drive through for avoidable contact.
Like the Maranello incident, this crash would have further complications for Clearwater down the track.
Sung soon jumped out of the car to allow Matt Griffin to drive. Through his stint, the front splitter came apart - meaning he had to serve a black flag to repair the car the resulting loss of downforce would see their challenge for victory turn into a challenge for the podium.
Through it all, the Erebus team were supreme and entering the last third of the race found themselves in a 1-2 with a lap on the rest of the field.
FIA GT Nogaro
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