Bathurst 12 Hours: Patient Ferrari Navigates Chaotic Mount Panorama

Bathurst 12 Hours is always a bit of a tough one for us Brits to watch, not because of the Australian accents, but the awkward time zones. However, with two Ferrari 296 GT3s competing, I did my best to keep track of our mighty Prancing Horses throughout one of the toughest endurance races in the world. This year, we had the #26 Arise Racing GT in the PRO class and #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT in the BRONZE CUP class.

The PRO team consisted of Jaxon Evans, Daniel Serra, and Davide Rigon. Both Serra and Rigon are Ferrari factory drivers, with Jaxon Evans also full of experience within the Arise Racing GT team. In the BRONZE CUP team, Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT had Ryan Wood, Christoper Froggatt, Jonathan Hui, and Lorenzo Patrese at their disposal. It was a strong yet slightly inexperienced team in terms of Bathurst knowledge, but each driver brought plenty of talent to the lineup. In particular, Italian driver Lorenzo Patrese caught the eye, with the 20-year-old continuing to gain endurance racing experience behind the wheel of a Ferrari 296 GT3. Their British driver, Froggatt, is no stranger to driving a Ferrari either, winning the 2018 Ferrari Challenge Trofeo AM championship while piloting the 488 Challenge.

Right from the very start of the race, you could tell it was going to be hectic. The leaders instantly went three-wide through the first corner and continued down the back straight. The Arise Racing GT PRO team was sitting in the top ten, just a few seconds away from the top five cars. However, it was pretty clear that a Ferrari wasn’t going to be winning the overall battle, as for the vast majority of the race it was the Mercedes GT3 teams leading the way. 

Nevertheless, after about an hour and 30 minutes of running, Jaxon Evans was going strong in the #26 Ferrari, putting the PRO class 296 GT3 in sixth-place - quietly making up positions while the big fights happen near the front. The BRONZE CUP boys weren’t having the best overall race, sitting in 14th, but in their class they had managed to maintain a podium position after the opening stages. However, from a Ferrari perspective, we weren't getting involved in many wheel-to-wheel duels, and this continued even when the sun started to illuminate the beautiful Bathurst track.

In fact, during the daylight running, the Ferrari strategy was starting to pay off, with both cars making huge positional gains during a chaotic race. With Daniel Serra behind the wheel of the #26 Arise Racing GT machine, the PRO class team moved into fifth-place overall, with even the BRONZE CUP team climbing to ninth overall and leading their class!

During the middle part of the race, the fighting on track seemed to ramp up even more. But once again, none of the Ferraris were interested in joining in. Instead, it was Valentino Rossi behind the wheel of the #46 BMW who was getting stuck into all sorts of battles. Rossi’s journey throughout GT racing is continuing to catch the attention of the public, but he was being put to the test by the leading GT3 Mercedes teams. Nobody was giving him an inch, with the Moto GP legend even colliding with the #222 Mercedes, which resulted in a telling-off from the stewards because of a double move under braking. However, the #222 car quickly got its revenge, passing Rossi down the back straight. Even though the Mercedes had the last laugh, watching Rossi battle against these guys was superb entertainment from a neutral standpoint.

Bathurst 12 Hours or Daytona 500?

With around five hours left in the race, the busy #222 Mercedes spun-out in the mountain section while running in fourth place, handing both Ferraris another freebie. But this wasn’t the only free positions the Ferraris received in Bathurst, with yet another crash in the mountain section bringing out the safety car once again. This time it was the #268 Audi, which caught fire after a huge high-speed crash straight into the wall. But by the time the race went green again, the #26 Ferrari had lost a bit of track position, sitting down in 11th overall… 

However, a particularly dangerous moment came with just three and a half hours left in the race. What seemed to either be a missed or very late yellow flag led to the leading Mercedes colliding with a stationary Porsche in the mountains. The #79 Porsche spun in the middle of the track, and the late yellow flag meant the leading #77 Mercedes didn't know a car was waiting for him around the corner, causing a massive crash, setting the Mercedes on fire, and issuing another safety car. Once again, our Ferraris had gained a couple of positions by just staying out of the wrecks - it was feeling a bit like the Daytona 500 out there…

In particular, the #193 Ferrari Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT in the BRONZE CUP class was really benefiting from the chaos. Lorenzo Patrese was behind the wheel and the young Italian GT driver was just 0.4 seconds behind the PRO #26 Ferrari, with just two and a half-hours to go! Shortly after the restart, a four-way battle for third overall formed. While this didn’t involve either of the Ferraris, you just knew that if we kept our noses clean, it was only a matter of time before we (hopefully) gained some more freebies - this is despite hardly looking like we were anywhere near an overall podium throughout the last ten hours of racing.

Avoiding the Bathurst drama pays off for Ferrari

It took a long time and a few more minor crashes for the Ferraris to really threaten any of the top positions, with the two cars running in 9th and 10th with 30 minutes left in the race. But, the #193 BRONZE CUP class Ferrari was sitting third in class, so that was certainly something to cheer for during the latter stages of the race! As the race got closer to the end, Daniel Serra in the #26 Ferrari did another great job of just waiting for a bit of chaos to gain another position - with the #61 and #911 Porsche GT3s battling hard just in front of the Ferrari, handing Serra 8th overall with 20 minutes to go…

However, the Ferrari GT3s just didn’t have the pace in Bathurst, as Serra could not keep the #61 behind him, despite the Porsche going off track, which initially allowed Serra to squeeze past! As the winning Mercedes #888 GT3 driven by Maro Engel crossed the finish line, the #26 Ferrari secured 9th overall, with the BRONZE CUP class #193 Ferrari driven home by Aussie Supercars star Ryan Wood bagging the last spot on the podium in their class and finishing 10th overall, which is a great result for the #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT team despite a slightly underwhelming performance from the #26 Arise Racing GT drivers. However, it was clear throughout the 12 hour race that one of the Mercedes GT3s was going to win, and at the end of the day, they had the pace, and we didn’t.

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