2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour

The 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour was an endurance race for GT3 cars, GT4 cars, Group 3E Series Production Cars and Dubai 24 Hour cars.^[1] The event, which was staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia on 26 February 2012, was the tenth running of the Bathurst 12 Hour, and the sixth since the race was revived in 2007.

There were 25 starters in the race, the smallest field since the inaugural Bathurst 12 Hour event in 1991. Four of the six classes, B, C, E and I, each had only three starters.

The race was won by 2011 Armour All Bathurst 12 Hour winners Darryl O'Young of Hong Kong and Christopher Mies of Germany with their new co-driver for 2012, German Christer Jöns. The trio drove a Phoenix Racing prepared Audi R8 LMS GT3, the same model that Mies and O'Young had driven to victory in 2011.

Cars competed in the following six classes.^[1]

• Class A – GT3 Outright^[1]
• Class B – GT3^[1]
• Class C – GT4^[1]
• Class D – Production (High Performance)^[1]
• Class E – Production (Performance)^[1]
• Class I – Invitational^[1]

Classes D & E were open to Group 3E Series Production Cars and Class I was for cars complying with the regulations for the 2012 Dubai 24 Hour race.^[1]

Two qualifying sessions were run on Saturday 25 February with New Zealand driver Craig Baird setting the fastest time of 2:07.56 in the Clearwater Racing entered Ferrari 458 GT3 and Allan Simonsen next in the Maranello Motorsports Ferrari 458 GT3. However, as grid positions were determined by aggregating the lap times of all drivers in each three-driver entry and the three slowest drivers in each four-driver car,^[2] pole position was awarded to the Phoenix Racing entered Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Christer Jöns, Christopher Mies and Darryl O'Young.^[3] Simonsen's Ferrari started second on the grid ahead of the Clearwater Racing Ferrari and the Lago Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 of Roger Lago, David Russell and Wayne Park. The Hunter Sports Group Porsche 997 GT3 Cup was the first of the Class B cars in eighth grid position.

The Clearwater Racing Ferrari was forced to carry addition weight during the race as, in a form of parity equalisation, any car undercutting a 2:08 lap time in any pre-race session was levied with a 50 kg penalty.^[4]

Two cars were withdrawn before the race. The Consolidated Chemicals Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 was crashed by Ted Huglin during Qualifying and could not be repaired in time for the race^[5] and the Mark Bell Racing Ford BF Falcon XR8 did not start after only one of its three drivers had lapped during Practice or Qualifying within the mandatory 130% of the fastest time set during Qualifying.

The Phoenix Racing Audi won by 1 minute and 13 seconds over the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG jointly run by international team Black Falcon and Australian team Erebus Racing. The Mercedes was driven by Dutch driver Jeroen Bleekemolen, American Bret Curtis and Australians Peter Hackett and Tim Slade. The two leading cars finished two laps ahead of the third placed car, the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 GT3 driven by New Zealand driver Craig Baird, Irish driver Matt Griffin and Indonesian driver Weng Sun Mok.

The race was affected by inclement weather, with rain falling for over eight of the races twelve hours, exacting a high price amongst the fastest cars in the race. Of the Class A starters, only the three podium placed cars finished, with crashes eliminating the other two Audis, a second Mercedes and a Lamborghini. The only other car in the class was the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3 which retired early with mechanical problems, but not before the car's lead driver, Dane Allan Simonsen, established a new outright lap record for the Mount Panorama circuit, the first time the record had been held by a GT car.

In fourth place outright, 14 laps behind the Clearwater Ferrari, was the first of the Class B cars, the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup fielded by the Tinkler Motorsports team owned by former mining magnate Nathan Tinkler. Tinkler himself was one of the drivers, joined by professional V8 Supercar drivers Steven Johnson and Steven Richards. They won Class B by ten laps over the similar Porsche of New Zealand team Motorsport Services Limited, driven by Simon McLennan, Brett Niall and Scott O'Donnell.

Class C was won by the Donut King Racing Nissan R35 GT-R driven by Tony Alford, Peter Leemhuis and Adam Beechey. The Nissan finished ten laps ahead of the Lotus Exige of Rob Thomson, Sarah Harley and Austrian driver Christian Klien.

Class D was won by the HSV GTS of James Atkinson, Dean Lillie and Rick Newman. It inherited the class lead after the Maximum Motorsport Subaru Impreza WRX STi of Dean Herridge, John O'Dowd and Angus Kennard suffered a turbocharger failure. The damage was repaired and the Subaru still finished second in class, 11 laps down.

Class E saw the HSV VXR Turbo of Elliot Barbour, Scott Pye, New Zealand V8 Utes racer Chris Pither finishing first in class and seventh outright. The HSV finished 13 laps ahead of the second placed GWS Personnel Motorsport BMW 130i driven by Angus Chapel, Richard Gartner and Tony Prior, and nine laps ahead of the first Class D car.

Class I saw only two classified finishers with the Dutch SEAT León TDI of Ivo Breukers, Henk Thijssen and Australian driver Martin Bailey winning the class and finishing in sixteenth position outright, over 100 laps behind the winning Audi. A pair of Mazda RX-7s completed the class with one retiring after 53 laps and the other still running at the finish but having completed only 82 laps.

Pos[6]	Class[6]	No[6]	Team / Entrant[6]	Drivers	Car[6]	Laps[6]	Time/Retired
					Engine
1	A	1	Phoenix Racing	Christer Jöns Christopher Mies Darryl O'Young	Audi R8 LMS GT3	270	12:03:31.3753
					5.2 L FSI 2×DOHC Audi V10
2	A	20	Erebus Racing	Jeroen Bleekemolen Bret Curtis Peter Hackett Tim Slade	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	270	+13.2838
					6.2 L Mercedes-Benz M159 V8
3	A	33	Clearwater Racing	Craig Baird Matt Griffin Weng Sun Mok	Ferrari 458 GT3	268	+2 laps
					4.5 L Ferrari F142 V8
4	B	3	Hunter Sports Group	Steven Johnson Steven Richards Nathan Tinkler	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	254	+16 laps
					3.8 L Porsche H6
5	B	65	Motorsport Services Limited	Simon McLennan Brett Niall Scott O'Donnell	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	244	+26 laps
					3.8 L Porsche H6
6	C	54	Donut King Racing	Tony Alford Adam Beechey Peter Leemhuis	Nissan R35 GT-R	237	+33 laps
					3.8 L Twin-turbo VR38DETT V6
7	E	50	Racer Industries	Elliott Barbour Chris Pither Scott Pye	HSV VXR Turbo	231	+39 laps
					2.2 L Ecotec I4
8	B	66	Motorsport Services Limited	Allan Dippie Mark Maddren Bruce Tomlinson	Porsche 996 GT3 Cup	228	+42 laps
					3.8 L Porsche H6
9	C	62	Rob Thomson Racing	Sarah Harley Christian Klien Rob Thomson	Lotus Exige S	227	+43 laps
					1.8 L Supercharged Toyota I4
10	D	53	James Atkinson Racing	James Atkinson Dean Lillie Rick Newman	HSV GTS	222	+48 laps
					6.2 L LS3 V8
11	E	26	GWS Personnel Motorsport	Angus Chapel Richard Gartner Tony Prior	BMW 130i	218	+52 laps
					3.0 L BMW N52 I6
12	D	7	Maximum Motorsport	Dean Herridge Angus Kennard John O'Dowd	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	211	+59 laps
					2.5 L Subaru H4
13	D	28	GWS Personnel Motorsport	Christian D'Agostin Garth Duffy Peter O'Donnell	BMW 335i	205	+65 laps
					3.0 L BMW N54 Twin-turbo I6
14	E	27	GWS Personnel Motorsport	Kean Booker Carl Oberhauser Allan Shephard	BMW 130i	200	+70 laps
					3.0 L BMW N52 I6
15	D	67	Motorsport Services Limited	John de Veth Tony Head Todd Murphy Lewis Scott	BMW 135i	198	+72 laps
					3.0 L BMW N55 Twin-turbo I6
16	I	14	Red Camels Jordans	Martin Bailey Ivo Breukers Henk Thijssen	SEAT León TDI	166	+104 laps
					2.0 L SEAT Turbodiesel I4
17	D	68	Motorsport Services Limited	David Glasson Aaron Harris Dennis Roderick	BMW 135i	162	+108 laps
					3.0 L BMW N55 Twin-turbo I6
18	I	32	Massel Racing	Michael Caine Gerry Murphy Jim Pollicina	Mazda RX-7	82	+188 laps
					1.3 L Mazda 13B-REW Twin-turbo Two-Rotor
DNF	A	2	Phoenix Racing	Mark Eddy Craig Lowndes Warren Luff	Audi R8 LMS GT3	156	Crash
					5.2 L FSI 2×DOHC Audi V10
DNF	A	17	Maranello Motorsport	John Bowe Peter Edwards Dominik Farnbacher Allan Simonsen	Ferrari 458 GT3	114	Electrical issues
					4.5 L Ferrari F142 V8
DNF	A	23	Lago Racing	Roger Lago Wayne Park David Russell	Lamborghini Gallardo LP600	103	Crash
					5.2 L Lamborghini V10
DNF	C	10	Simply Sports Cars	Adam Gowans Chris Lillingston-Price Richard Meins	Lotus Exige S	69	Engine
					1.8 L Supercharged Toyota I4
DNF	A	22	United Autosports	Alain Li Mark Patterson Frank Yu Siu Fung	Audi R8 LMS GT3	59	Crash
					5.2 L Audi V10
DNF	I	35	Ric Shaw Racing	Phil Alexander Andrew Bollom Duvashen Padayachee James Parish	Mazda RX-7	53	Crash
					1.3 L Mazda 13B-REW Twin-turbo Two-Rotor
DNF	A	21	Black Falcon	Sean Patrick Breslin Sean Paul Breslin Vimal Mehta Rob Wilson	Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG	52	Crash
					6.2 L Mercedes-Benz M159 V8
DNS	A	4	Consolidated Chemicals Racing	Ted Huglin Peter Kox Cameron McConville Luke Searle	Lamborghini Gallardo LP560	0	Crash in Qualifying
					5.2 L Lamborghini V10
DNQ	E	91	Mark Bell Racing	Mark Bell Adam Dodd Aaron Zerefos	Ford BF Falcon XR8	0	Did not qualify
					5.4 L Boss 315 V8

• Note: Class winners are shown in Bold
• Race time of winning car: 12:03:31.3753
• Fastest race lap: 2:06.3311 – Car 17 – New outright lap record

• Official website
• Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour - 24th to 26th February 2012 - 12 Hour Event Supplementary Regulations, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, as archived at www.webcitation.org
• 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour Entry List as at 24/01/12, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, as archived at www.webcitation.org
• 2012 Results, www.bathurst12hour.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org
• Reflections on the 2012 Bathurst 12 Hour, www.ausmotive.com, as archived at web.archive.org