Craig Lowndes wins Bathurst 12 Hours
V8 Supercar Championship ace Craig Lowndes won the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hours this weekend after an exciting end to the GT race.
Lowndes shared the car with Mika Salo, John Bowe and Peter Edwards, taking the il Bello Rosso prepared Ferrari F458 Italia to a narrow victory by just 0.4 seconds ahead of Mercedes trio Maximilian Buhk, who looks set to join Mercedes in DTM this year, Thomas Jaeger and Harold Primat.
“Thirty minutes to go in the race and we had about a 25s lead over the McLaren, it was closing fast, it must have been having problems. Then the Mercedes closed the gap really quick, the safety car came out and it diminished any gap we would have had,” said Lowndes.
”I knew the Merc was always going to be quick in a straight line, and these guys have been telling me all week the Ferrari is generally quick across the top and that is a section I really enjoy. I had to push hard to get a gap, to get a car and half for a bit of a buffer zone. I was doing my best, running on the inside lines, making the Merc go around the long way, thankfully we had enough.”
There were several touring car drivers in the field with newly recruited Erebus Motorsport driver Will Davison finishing third in a Mercedes SLS AMG GT. Fellow V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen crossed the line in fourth, driving a Darrell Lea prepared McLaren MP4 12C.
2012 WTCC champion Rob Huff retired from the race due to an mechanical failure on the Rotek Racing Audi R8 LMS four hours into the race.
”I think we had a lap on our nearest rival as the Safety Car was deployed in response to another heavy shunt involving a Class A Lamborghini,” said Huff. “Unfortunately, this is when our car developed a misfire. Rotek Racing’s crew did everything they could to resolve the problem, running a series of system checks and restarts before identifying a damaged valve spring in the car’s V10. It was bitterly disappointing to have to call it a day, but that’s racing and you have to take the rough with the smooth in this sport.”
2012 BTCC champion Gordon Shedden had to retire from the race as well in the Motionsport Lotus Exige. The team suffered from various technical problems from the very start of the race with brake failure and an alternator problem.
Nissan V8 Supercar driver Rick Kelly had to watch the race from the pits as well as his co-driver Katsumasa Chiyo hit the stranded Clearwater Racing Ferrari 458 of Hiroshi Hamaguchi. The Nissan GT-R NISMO GT was severely damaged after the incident with a retirement as result, watch the incident in the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lGwPusf2j0
