Australia’s greatest endurance race is underway, and over the next rotation of the sun I’ll be updating you on the hectic happenings of the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hours.

As the third hour ticked over, the race was back underway with Ayhancan Guven opening up a gap on Mateo Villagomez’s no.14 Aston Martin, the race settling down a little after a hectic first two hours.

Villagomez would not be second for long, after a breach of safety car procedure earned the no.14 car a drive through penalty. The car had only stopped once thus far, so on a different strategy than its Silver class rivals but the penalty would still hurt its run.

The next car to end its day in what was turning out to be a race of attrition was the no.4 of Grove Racing, as Kenny Habul misjudged an overtake and made slight contact with Stephen Grove. The car slammed into the wall Skyline, riding the fencing on two wheels and bringing out the third safety car of the race. Absolute Racing used the opportunity to pit from a nicely built lead, and Ayhancan Guven was rewarded with a rest as Absolute Racing took over the running of that car, as the rest of the top five placed cars all pitted. A huge accident in a race of huge accidents, it seems.

Under the safety car, the Mclaren Artura of Anthony Levitt then proceeded to carry out an unsolicited waveby procedure all by himself, nearly being knocked off track by GT3’s that had no idea he was there. Levitt was chastised by race control after his antics nearly caused contact with a recovering Craft Bamboo no.77 Mercedes. Levitt’s Artura was eventually given a huge penalty in the form of a five minute stop and go.

Alessio Picariello led off the restart, pulling away from the WRT BMW’s, now piloted by Charles Weerts in the no.46 and Kelvin Van De Linde in the no.32. Maxime Martin’s no.888 Mercedes ran in fourth, before the no.14 Aston Martin was given another drive through penalty for a shorter pitstop than allowed. 

Adding insult to injury, the no.24 Mclaren was then given another drive through penalty for its earlier antics under the safety car from the contact with Craft Bamboo Racing’s no.77 car.

The battle for the lead was brought to the boil as Charles Weerts hunted down Alessio Picariello, and the two duelled for outright honours. Weert’s teammate Kelvin Van De Linde was also closing in as the Arise Racing Ferrari, now driven by Daniel Serra was up to fourth.

Halfway through the third hour Picariello had held off the WRT challenge and the race had settled down. He still led with Absolute Racing’s no.911 entry, ahead of both WRT BMW’s and Broc Feeney’s impressive stint had him in fourth overall.

Picariello would eventually relinquish the lead following a pitstop, the car running an alternate strategy and left the WRT BMW’s that had been running almost metronomically thus far to inherit the lead. They’d have to fend off Brock Feeney who after a slew of fastest laps and personal bests had driven a monster stint to catch up and threaten them.

The safety car was then brought out after Wall Racing’s Lamborghini was hit from behind by the Mercedes of Luke Youlden’s no.47 Mercedes. The contact left enough debris littered across the mountain for race control to neutralise the race. It meant that WRT once again gained in the pistols by staying out one lap longer, and Absolute Racing lost the lead after pitting the previous lap.

Four hours in, the race is now led by both WRT BMW’s, with the no.46 ahead of the no.32. They’re split by Broc Feeney’s no.183 Jamec Audi. In the silver class, it’s Jamie Day’s Wall Racing Lamborghini while bronze is headed by Ian James in the no.27 Heart of Racing Mercedes. Pro/Am is still led by the no.91 now with Laurin Heinrich at the helm, as GT4 is still lead by the Team Nineteen Mercedes of Mark Griffith.

As much as I’d love to give you the full rundown of this race, my body simply won’t let me stay up all night without completely ruining my sunday. I’ll be back in a few hours to see the race through to the finish.

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