2025 Bathurst 12 Hour: All you need to know

19 hours ago 11

It’s Australia versus the world when the best sports car drivers on the planet take to the famous Mount Panorama circuit this Sunday – here’s how the battle is shaping up.

The 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour is one of the most treasured events on the Australian motor racing calendar with its pre-dawn start as competitors race once around the clock in a gruelling, high-speed contest.

Held at the iconic Mount Panorama circuit, around two hours west of Sydney, New South Wales, the Bathurst 12 Hour has a truly international flavour, with drivers from 15 countries competing in what serves as the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge which also heads to Europe, Japan and the United States.

With V8 Supercars drivers, touring car and sports car champions and even MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi in the mix, the 12 Hour attracts global talent of the highest level in some of the most entertaining race cars in the world.

The event will also see Supercars test sessions on Friday and Saturday, Ferrari Challenge Australia and Combined Sedans categories.

There’s also a special event for luxury car brand Genesis with one of the greatest sports car drivers – and former Grand Prix driver – Jacky Ickx, who won the Bathurst 1000 in 1977 with Allan Moffat in a crushing Ford one-two formation finish.

What cars are competing at the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour?

The Bathurst 12 Hour was first held in 1991 – won by a Toyota Supra – with near-standard, showroom production cars until 2011, when GT3-spec race cars were permitted to enter.

In 2013, the race became a GT3 affair and has never looked back, a field of 19 GT3 entries and three GT4 cars setting off in the dark to start the 2025 race at 5:45 am this Sunday 2 February.

A car made for GT3 racing car is a high-performance version of a road going sports car with a series of modifications to make it much faster but still be recognisable as its showroom version.

The 'Class A' GT3 cars will share the track with ‘Class B’ Porsche 911 Carrera Cup cars, while there will be several ‘Class C’ GT4 cars – slightly slower vehicles than GT3 and closer to production guise – in the field.

There is a single entry in the ‘Invitational Class’ – a wild KTM X-Bow.

Which brand has won the most Bathurst 12 Hour races?

Mazda still holds the record for the most wins – after its RX-7 sports car won four in a row between 1992-1995 – but that record will be matched if a Mercedes-Benz or Audi wins in 2025, both brands on three wins.

How fast are the cars racing at the Bathurst 12 Hour?

Supercars driver Broc Feeney set the fastest time in qualifying at the Bathurst 12 Hour last year with a 2:01.8911 in a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3.

The following weekend he returned to Mount Panorama in his Chevrolet Camaro V8 Supercar with a fastest qualifying lap of 2:05.3317 around the same 6.213km layout.

Who are the drivers in this year’s race?

There are 22 cars lining up for this year’s race, with 69 drivers from around the world including six previous 12 Hour winners.

The length of the race means each car has to have at least three drivers to cover the 12 hours – with three entries running four drivers.

In 2024 the winning Porsche completed 275 laps – 114 laps more than the Bathurst 1000 race – for a total distance of 1708.6km.

There are ‘Pro’ and ‘Am’ classes, with drivers’ status (Gold, Silver or Bronze) determined by the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) based on their experience.

Supercars driver Feeney is back for this year’s 12 Hour driving an Audi R8 GT with Swiss racer Ricardo Feller – who competes in the German touring cars (DTM) – and previous 12 Hour class winner Liam Talbot in a formidable combination.

In fact the top five finishers in the 2024 Supercars Championship will race this weekend, including Feeney’s Red Bull team-mate Will Brown who beat him to last year’s title.

Brown will race a Ferrari 296 GT3 with factory veteran Daniel Serra and Ford-driving Supercars rival Chaz Mostert.

While Brown and Mostert normally compete against each other, the combination makes their #26 Ferrari one of the most fancied entries.

Supercars drivers’ experience at Mount Panorama is a key strength against overseas drivers who may know GT3 cars better but are not as familiar with the challenging circuit – yet Brown and Mostert have extensive experience in GT3 cars, too.

Craig Lowndes – who has won both the 12 Hour and seven Bathurst 1000s – will drive a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3 with Supercars drivers Cam Waters and Thomas Randle in another strong trio.

Stephen Grove – an experienced GT racer who also owns the Penrite Racing Supercars team – will be in another Mercedes-Benz with son Brenton and German driver Fabian Schiller.

There’s even a former Supercars driver in Maro Engel – who has a best finish of second – driving a Mercedes-Benz with sports car champion Maxime Martin and Mikael Grenier.

Australian Kenny Habul – who made it two wins in a row 2022 and 2023 – is back with the winning combination of Luca Stolz and Jules Gounon in a Mercedes-Benz – Gounon setting a lap record in a modified Mercedes-Benz at last year’s event.

Despite the fearsome off-shore talent in the field, the 2024 race was won by a Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Australian Matt Campbell – who hails from Warwick, Queensland, but is now an international Porsche Factory Driver – with co-drivers Ayhancan Güven and Laurens Vanthoor.

Campbell is back in a Porsche 911 with Güven, the pair looking for back-to-back wins, with Alessio Picariello – another factory Porsche driver – sharing the driving with them.

There’s also serious star power in motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi’s return to Mount Panorama, driving a factory BMW entry – but don’t think Rossi is there just to draw a crowd, as his talent shines through behind the wheel.

Rossi is in one of two factory-backed BMW entries, the other driven by brothers Sheldon van der Linde and Kelvin van der Linde with Augusto Farfus.