2017 Bathurst 12 Hour entry list revealed

The 16th running of the Bathurst 12 Hour, the greatest Australian endurance race for GT cars, will take part at the famous Mount Panorama Circuit on February 3-5. As the non-championship race which is on the calendar when most of the sportscar competitions are still hibernating, the Bathurst 12 Hour attracts drivers from all over the world with only one wish – to tame one of the most exciting racetracks in the world.[show_more more=”Read More” less=”Show Less“]

The #59 McLaren is returning to Mount Panorama to defend last year’s win

Last year, the Australian team Tekno Autosports scored a victory with an international crew in the #59 McLaren 650S GT3. This year, Tekno Autosports is returning with two McLaren but the drivers’ line-up would be significantly different. Of last year’s winners (Alvaro Parente, Jonathon Webb, Shane van Gisbergen), only Parente will drive this year for McLaren, together with Rob Bell and Come Ledogar in the #1 car. The #59 McLaren will be piloted by Will Davison, Jonny Kane and Ben Barnicoat.

The 2016 V8 Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will defend his last year’s Bathurst triumph with a new team, joining Maro Engel and Craig Baird in the STM’s #22 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Mount Panorama Circuit is one of the most exciting racetracks in the world

Nissan Motorsport’s Katsumasa Chiyo and Florian Strauss, who finished second last year and won the race in 2015, will be back at Mount Panorama this year but separated in two cars. Chiyo will share the #23 Nissan GT-R Nismo with Alex Buncombe and Michael Caruso, Strauss will share the #24 Nissan with Todd Kelly and Jann Mardenborough.

Other strong entries with two cars are Bentley Team M-Sport, BMW Team SRM or Jamec Pem Racing. In total, 56 crews are on the entry list. Thirty-four top-class GT3 cars are divided into 16 Pro entries and 18 Pro-Am/Am entries. On the rest of the grid, we will see five GT3 cup cars (Class B), eight GT4 cars (Class C) and nine cars in Class I (Invitational).

56 cars will start the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour race

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Class A – GT3 Pro

Class A – GT3 Pro-Am

Class A – GT3 Am

Class B – GT3 (Cup Cars)

Class C – GT4

Class I – Invitational

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Photos: bathurst12hour.com.au,