The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, Australia. The race was first held in 1991 for Series Production cars and moved to Sydney's Eastern Creek Raceway in 1995 before being discontinued. The race was revived in 2007, again for production cars, before adding a new class for GT3 and other GT cars in 2011. This has led to unprecedented domestic and international exposure for the event. In all, twenty one races have taken place; twenty at Mount Panorama and one at Eastern Creek Raceway (Sydney Motorsport Park).
Background
The event was inspired by the long-running Bathurst 500 production car race, which began at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria in 1960 (before moving to Bathurst in 1963) as a race for standard production cars with minimal modifications. In 1973 when the race was lengthened from 500 miles to 1000 kilometres, the regulations for cars entering the race changed from standard "series production" cars to improved touring cars. The Bathurst 12 Hour was intended to re-create the original feel of the Bathurst 1000, while providing a unique test in the longer race distance, rather than replicating the 1000 kilometre event.
History
Production origins
In 1990, Vincent Tesoriero, a race promoter and former Bathurst 1000 competitor, looked at the decline of Group A touring cars in Australia and saw an opportunity to run a 12-hour endurance race for Series Production cars at Mount Panorama. Tesoriero secured long time Bathurst 1000 sponsor James Hardie as a sponsor for the event in late 1990, leaving limited time to launch and organise the event for the Easter weekend in 1991. The race regulations were based on the Group 3E Series Production Car rules then in use in the Australian Production Car Championship for naturally aspirated four- and six-cylinder passenger sedans, but also allowed turbocharged and V8-engined cars which had been outlawed from the Production Car Championship in 1990. Despite the short deadline, twenty-four cars were entered for the first race, spread over six different classes based on engine capacity and sporting specification. Exotic mid-engined sports cars and GT cars were not eligible to enter.
The race was originally scheduled to run from 9am to 9pm but this was disallowed by Bathurst Regional Council. The race would instead run from 5:15am to 5:15pm, with the final two hours televised by Network Ten. Despite the event's length, the competitors proved extremely reliable, with twenty cars finishing the race. The race was won by Allan Grice, Peter Fitzgerald and Nigel Arkell racing Fitzgerald's 1989 Production Car Championship specification Toyota Supra Turbo.
In 1992, manufacturer-backed teams began to appear with large teams entered and funded by Mazda, Holden, Citroën and Peugeot. Porsche would also provide factory support from 1993 onwards. Honda, Nissan, Maserati, BMW and Lotus were also represented but not by factory-supported teams. The Mazda team would go on to dominate the event with the Mazda RX-7, winning the next three consecutive races at Mount Panorama.
Facing rising costs, the 1995 event was moved from Bathurst to Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney, and from the Easter weekend to August, before the race was discontinued in 1996.
Hiatus
After no major race for production cars for a number of years, the concept was revived with the short-lived Bathurst 24 Hour races in 2002 and 2003. The races were run by Nations Cup owners PROCAR and were dominated by the Holden Monaro 427Cs of Garry Rogers Motorsport. The Bathurst 24 Hour only lasted two years before PROCAR owner Ross Palmer was forced to abandon the race due to rising costs.
Revival
The Bathurst 12 Hour was successfully revived in 2007 as part of the Bathurst Motorsport Festival While James O'Brien, who masterminded the return of the event, planned for GT cars to share the event with production cars, the return of the race began with regulations close to its original concept as a race for production cars. 32 cars were entered for the 2007 race, which was won by Garry Holt, Paul Morris and Craig Baird in a BMW 335i. The win was ten years after Morris and Baird had won the 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 in a BMW only to later be disqualified for exceeding driver time regulations. The race proved a preview of this period of the race, which saw BMW and Mitsubishi as the main combatants. The 2007 Subaru entry of rally drivers Chris Atkinson, Dean Herridge and Cody Crocker would be the only other manufacturer to finish the race in the top two between 2007 and 2010.