Piggybacking off the immense competition of the GT classes at the 24 Hours of Daytona last weekend, Australia’s biggest GT race returns as 22 cars compete for glory in one of the most competitive GT races on the planet, and the opening round of 2025’s Intercontinental GT World Challenge. 

A total of 7 manufacturers are represented among the 18 GT3 entries, with Mclaren also represented in GT4 and KTM’s Xbow featuring as the only Invitational class entry. Among them, defending champions Manthey are joined by a whole host of world-class GT teams and drivers, including a two car effort from WRT, 2 time winners 75 Express racing and Heart of Racing’s Mercedes. With a sensational lineup that promises close competition, who will be lining up on the grid come Saturday morning?

Absolute Racing’s no.911 are surely the favourites, with the trio of Matt Campbell, Alessio Picariello and Ayhancan Guven jumping ship from Manthey EMA to join the Hong Kong based outfit. After winning the race in 2024, they’ll be back returning with a Porsche, as the brand hope to capitalise on their Daytona 24 Hour success. Campbell is chasing his third win in six years, having also won the 2019 edition as both his teammates are looking to go back to back at Bathurst.

Absolute aren’t the only team running a Porsche. Manthey have replaced the victory defending trio with Dutch sensation and Le Mans class winner Morris Schurring, who was also recently announced to feature in the team’s DTM squad for 2025. Joining him is another of Porsche’s rising stars and 2025 DTM teammate Laurin Heinrich. Having made his name in AO Racing’s Rexy and won the IMSA GTD Pro title last year, Heinrich will be eager to make this the first major victory of his career. And completing the lineup are the Shahin brothers Yasser and Sam.

Mercedes are the best represented manufacturer in the field, with GruppeM, Craft Bamboo Racing, Heart of Racing and 75 Express racing running the factory backed cars. Of those teams, only 75 Express has won the 12 Hour race before. They return with the same lineup that won in 2022 and 2023, as Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz join team owner Kenny Habul as they vie for a third overall win. 

Heart of Racing chose Mercedes over Aston Martin for this one, after narrowly missing out on victory in the GTD class at Daytona on Sunday they’ll be hoping to rectify that result with overall honours here. Ross Gunn, Zacharie Robichon and Ian James will be the drivers of the no.27 car, while GruppeM’s no.888 will be piloted by Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier and Maxime Martin. Lucas Auer, Maxi Gotz and Jayden Ojeda will share the Craft-Bamboo no.77 machine.

Thankfully though Aston Martin will still be present on the grid, and even better, the car will be running the iconic Gulf Oil Colours that have been present in racing since the late 1960’s. Volante Rosso’s no.14 Aston will be piloted by Jamie Day, Jaylyn Robotham and Mateo Villagomez. 
BMW are looking to win the race for the first time since GT machinery was introduced in 2011, and factory team WRT haven’t won this race since their days with Audi back in 2018. Dries Vanthoor was part of that 2018 crew, and after coming close a number of times in recent years, BMW’s WRT squad will be more hungry than ever to claim the marque’s first win in the 12 hour race. Also in their two car lineup is Augusto Farfus and both Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde, who’ll share the no.32 car. In car no.46 will be seven time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi, joined by Rafealle Marciello and Charles Weerts. 

Of Australia’s own teams, there’s Supabarn Motorsport sporting an all Aussie quartet. James and Theo Koundouris will drive alongside V8 Supercars drivers Luke Youlden and David Russel, who comes with three class wins already to his name. HallMarc will run one of the three Audis present, the no.9 machine with another all Australian trio of Marc Cini, Deane Fiore and Lee Holdsworth. Audi’s also represented by Geyer Valmont Racing with the no.44 of Scott Andrews, Sergio Pires and Marcel Zalloua while Jamec Racing’s no.183 of 2024 Supercars runner up Brock Feeney, 2024 Nurburgring 24 Hours winner Ricardo Feller and Liam Talbot.

And last but not least, Ferrari. The 296 has racked up a multitude of brilliant victories since its debut in 2023, including at the Nurburgring 24 Hours in that same year. It is still yet to win Bathurst, and equal the feat of its predecessor, the 488, which won the race in 2017 with Maranello Motorsport. Arise Racing GT will field two 296 GT3’s sporting an impressive lineup of Le Mans class winner Daniel Serra, V8 Supercars Champion Chaz Mostert and reigning champion of the series Will Brown in the no.26 car. The sister car, no.36 will feature Alessio Rovera, Jaxon Evans, Brad Schumacher and Elliot Schutte.

With the race only days away, I’m already buzzing for this one. Bathurst has always been one of my favourite GT races just for how intense the post covid editions have been. The grid may have slimmed since 2020, but the competition keeps on improving. Expect big battles all the way all throughout the day. The 2025 Bathurst 12 Hours may well be one for the ages.

thumbnail credit – Ted Barrett, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons