A yr after Campbell and Jules Gounon fought for the win within the Bathurst 12 Hour, they did it once more in 2024 – via this time the manufacturing facility Porsche driver had the higher of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 pilot.
Despite going off-strategy mid-race and two drive-through penalties, Manthey EMA’s Campbell and co-drivers Vanthoor and Bathurst rookie Guven stayed in rivalry it doesn’t matter what situations the monitor and the sky threw at them. When a Security Automobile prompted a 30-minute sprint to the flag, Campbell gapped the sector to take his and Porsche’s second Bathurst win.
After a dry first half, 4 hours of rain challenged the drivers earlier than slick tyres reappeared for the ultimate sprint to the flag.
“That is superior, it was a tricky day,” mentioned Campbell, who gained the race in 2019.
“Hats off to everybody, we weren’t at all times operating on the entrance. It wasn’t simple in blended situations. It’s phenomenal! It was a bit of little bit of threat administration as nicely, there was fairly a little bit of water off-line as nicely. We obtained there ultimately.”
“Fairly wonderful, I’ve been ready for this and dreaming of this one for some time!,” mentioned Belgian Vanthoor, who took his first win within the race.
Gounon was capturing for Bathurst historical past and a fourth straight win (one thing not even Australian Touring Automobile nice Peter Brock managed throughout his profession). As soon as once more SunEnergy1 workforce proprietor Kenny Habul devised a method to enter the workforce’s automobile as an all-Professional entry, permitting him to finish minimal laps and permit Gounon and Luca Stolz to drive many of the laps.
With the highest two firmly in place the late cost got here from Christopher Haase, who moved from fifth to 3rd in a single transfer with solely seven minutes of the race remaining. It was an opportune transfer from the Jamec Racing/MPC Audi that he shared with Kelvin van der Linde and Liam Talbot.
#75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo: Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul, Luca Stolz
Picture by: Gruppe C GmbH
In fourth place, the most effective performances of the race got here from the Phantom International Racing Porsche 992 GT3R. After ranging from 18th on the grid, Joel Eriksson, Jaxon Evans and Bastian Buus picked their manner into the highest six after three hours and stayed there, holding out many groups with extra Bathurst expertise.
It was a day of contrasts for BMW. The 2 WRT M4 GT3s misplaced floor once they raced one another early within the race and the entry of Maxim Martin, Valentino Rossi, Raffaele Marciello completed fifth. However any probability of a win for the polesitting M4 ended when Charles Weerts launched into the wall at The Chopping after 5 hours, whereas attempting to lap a GT4 automobile.
Within the ProAm class, Alessio Picariello, Harry King and Yasser Shahin gave Porsche and the Manthey EMA workforce a double win once they took the lead within the closing half-hour of the race, after earlier being pressured off the monitor at Brock Skyline.
Within the class for Silver drivers the Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan of Tony D’Alberto, David Wall, Grant Denyer and Adrian Deitz took the win.
GT4 honours went to Daniel Bilski, Mark Griffith, Adam Christodoulou (Mercedes-AMG GT4).
There was loads of motion within the Invitational class, gained by Adam Hargraves, Daniel Jileson, Cedric Sbirrazzuloi within the MARC GT, which was rebuilt in a single day after a serious crash on Saturday.
