BMW Team SRM Bathurst 12 Hour Review

EVENT

Round 1, 2018 Intercontinental GT Challenge, Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour

SUMMARY

Steve Richards, Timo Glock and Philipp Eng finished ninth outright and fifth in the Professional GT3 class after a mixed day for the team.

The #100 Laser Plumbing & Electrical BMW M6 completed 270 laps of the Bathurst circuit, one lap behind the winning car, with a quickest lap time of 2m03.197s.

Both car and drivers survivied a tough 12 hours of racing to come all the way from the back of the grid (49th) to run with the lead pack throughout the day.

The car led the race at points and could have been in contention for a podium before a sequence of pitstops dropped it off the lead lap with two hours to go.

The race was won by Audi Sport Team WRT’s Audi R8 GT3 driven by Robin Frijns, Dries Vanthoor and
Stuart Leonard – the race was ended 20 minutes early after a large crash at the top of the circuit.

BMW Team SRM also fielded a car in Class C for the first time with the Australian race debut of the BMW M4 GT4.

The BP Ultimate M4 GT4 was driven by Dean Grant, Xavier West and young gun Cameron Hill and finished the race 30th outright and fifth in class C.

The car tagged the wall at Forrest’s Elbow three hours in after leading Class C in the first stint and was
forced into the garage for a lengthy repair, eventually completing 162 laps – 88 laps behind the class victors.

Class C was won by another BMW M4 driven by Aaron Seton, Mathew Brabham and Tony Longhurst.

QUOTEBOOK

Steve Richards:

“I am really, really proud of our team this weekend. The strategy today was spot-on and if not for an
unexpected brake issue then who knows, it might have been a podium. At the end of the day, it’s great to get the car home without a scratch on it. Very happy with the result, everyone worked really well together.”

Philipp Eng:

“It was a great experience – I had a really great time, especially with Timo and Steve. The guys were all
pushing like hell to get us a good race car, which we had. We had some issues unfortunately in the last
quarter of the race which cost us dearly. But it was good fun and I enjoyed every minute here, even though it was tough in some stages.”

Timo Glock:

“It was a pleasure to drive here at Bathurst again. I think our car had very good speed, very good balance
and we stayed out of trouble – I don’t think the car had any scratches on it and that’s normally the key for a result. Unfortunately towards the end of the race we had to change the brakes which cost us the ability to stay in the lead lap and to get a better result. The whole team did a great job.”

NEXT EVENT

CAMS Australian GT Championship, Round 1 at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 22-25.