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McLaren, partly-owned by Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, recorded its biggest sports car victory since claiming the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours, with a maiden win in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
After a charging opening stint, driver Shane van Gisbergen, known by race fans as SVG, brought the McLaren home with a measured final stint to ensure victory for him and co-drivers Jonathon Webb and Portuguese racer Alvaro Parente.
The Nissan of defending champions Katsumasa Chiyo, Rick Kelly and Florian Strauss came home second, while last year’s hard luck story Bentley finally cracked a podium finish with third going to Steven Kane, Guy Smith and Matt Bell.
It is the biggest win of SVG’s career and the Tekno Autosports team. The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour is an international endurance race, for performance and production cars, at the spiritual home of Australian motor sport, the Mount Panorama Circuit. “The car has been the fastest all weekend, so thanks to the team,” he said. “This is the same car I raced in Europe, she’s a beauty.”
But last year’s winner did not go down without a fight. Chiyo put in a near superhuman charge aboard Nissan’s brand-new ‘Godzilla’ GT-R NISMO, slashing a 14-second deficit to cross the line just 1.2s behind the winner.
Not that SVG was worried. “We had them covered,” he said. “Any time (Chiyo) did a lap, I stuck the knife in and did the same.”
Yet it was a far from trouble-free day for the orange McLaren. It rolled to a stop with electrical troubles early in Parente’s first stint, the Portuguese pilot losing almost a minute as he rebooted the car’s system.
SVG cost them a further half-minute as he began his final stint, speeding in the pit lane and earning himself a penalty.
A timely Safety Car allowed Tekno to play the strategy game to perfection, topping up the car with fuel to vault the car into the lead after the final pit stops.
