Double victory for Audi R8 LMS in Pro–Am class thanks to Melbourne Performance Centre and The Bend Motorsport Park
• Myland Team IMS wins Silver Cup, third place for M–Motorsport/VantageRacing
• Lap record with an all–electric road vehicle by Christopher Mies in the supporting program
Bathurst/Neuburg a. d. Donau, February 5, 2023 –
As many as four Audi Sport customer teams were on the podium at the Bathurst 12 Hour 2023: After a strong recovery, the three Australians Chaz Mostert, Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot won the Pro–Am class in the Audi R8 LMS. Close behind, Audi Sport drivers Christopher Mies and Ricardo Feller with privateer
driver Yasser Shahin for The Bend Motorsport Park finished second. In the Silver Cup
standings, Daniel Gaunt, Dylan O’Keeffe and Andrew Fawcet prevailed, with third place going
to David Crampton/Trent Harrison/Glen Wood. The three Audi Sport drivers Mattia
Drudi/Christopher Haase/Patric Niederhauser lost any chance of a good overall result as early
as on lap 13 when an opponent hit their Audi R8 LMS hard, causing it to crash into the
barrier.
The impact of the number 74 Audi into the tire barrier after only 33 minutes of racing, which
was caused by a competitor, meant retirement for starting driver Christopher Haase and his
teammates. The damage proved to be too severe to continue the race. “It’s more than
disappointing when our Pro car retires through no fault of its own shortly after the start,” said
Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “After this setback, it was even nicer to see
how our customer teams prevailed in their classes in this international competition. Our
congratulations go to the four driver line–ups who deservedly return from Bathurst with
trophies.”
The best result was achieved by the number 65 Audi R8 LMS of the Melbourne Performance
Centre despite multiple time losses. Chaz Mostert, Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot won the Pro–Am
class and clinched seventh place overall. Mostert drove the fastest race lap in 2m 02.168s. The
team lost valuable time due to a penalty and a repair, but the Australian driver trio never gave
up and was in second place in its class for a long time until their brand colleagues Ricardo
Feller/Christopher Mies/Yasser Shahin with the number 777 had to change the brake pads
towards the end. As a result, they finished ninth overall and second in the Pro–Am class. Another
Audi squad saw the finish in fifth place in this class: long–time Audi customers Marc Cini/Lee
Holdsworth/Dean Fiore clinched this result for Team Hallmarc.
*The collective fuel/electric power consumption and emissions values of all models named and
available on the German market can be found in the list provided at the end of this text
In the Silver classification, Audi Sport customer racing was able to celebrate another class
victory. Myland Team IMS from New Zealand, which won three titles in its home country with the
R8 LMS last year, relied on Australian Dylan O’Keeffe and the two New Zealanders Daniel Gaunt
and Andrew Fawcet. In the Audi R8 LMS, they lapped their nearest rival, a Mercedes–AMG, a total
of six times on their way to class victory. Team M–Motorsport/Vantage Racing also relied on Audi
at short notice: After their KTM X–Bow was not operational, David Crampton/Trent
Harrison/Glen Wood switched to an Audi R8 LMS from the Melbourne Performance Centre on
the race weekend. A swap that paid off: They finished third in the Silver classification and thus
made it onto the podium at the first attempt.
Team Supabarn, last year’s Am class winner at Bathurst, was left without a chance this year after
a collision with an opponent. James Koundouris, Theo Koundouris, David Russell and Jonathan
Webb finished fourth in the Silver Cup class after repairs. James Golding, Brad Schumacher and
Audi Sport driver Frédéric Vervisch did not finish the race.
In addition to Chaz Mostert’s fastest race lap, Audi achieved another best performance at
Bathurst. Two–time Bathurst winner Christopher Mies set the first lap record for an electrically
powered model on the legendary track. The 33–year–old professional lapped Mount Panorama on
Saturday in a time of 2m 28.15s in an Audi RS e–tron GT (power consumption combined in
kWh/100 km*: 22.1–19.8 (WLTP), CO2 emissions combined in g/km*: 0).
