First cars, teams arrive at Mount Panorama
30 Jan 2018
THE FIRST teams have arrived at Mount Panorama today ahead of the 2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
Several major international entries spent the day unloading containers, setting up garages and preparing vehicles, while the first local teams began to arrive in their transporters from around the country.
US-based Black Swan Racing was the first to inhabit their garage, their American flag flying proudly over their Porsche 911 GT3R safely nestled in their garage.
This year will be the first time that the Pirelli World Challenge team has visited Mount Panorama.
Meanwhile, the Belgian-based WRT Audi Team was flat out preparing their pair of Audi R8 LMS entries, with both cars to be rebuilt and prepped in the garages this week following their last engagement.
Long lead times with international shipping often mean cars are loaded into containers quickly following a key race and prepared at their destination well in advance of the event starting - as is the case with the Audi team this week.
Strakka Racing's pair of Mercedes-AMG GT3s arrived on site today and were hunkered in next to their locally-based bretheren from Scott Taylor Motorsport.
The Queensland team arrived at the track this morning with Taylor himself at the helm of their impressive B-Double transporter.
Craft-Bamboo unloaded their Porsche 911 GT3R later in the afternoon, making their return to the Mountain for the first time since a podium in 2015 official.
BMW Team Schnitzer also settled their BMW M6 GT3 into position, showing off the stunning BMW 'M' livery of White, Red and Blue that has become famous over the years.
Wednesday is likely to be a much busier day on the Mountain with a host of the local teams expected to arrive on site.
McElrea Racing's pair of transporters were en-route from Queensland late on Tuesday afternoon, carrying the pair of YNA Autosport McLaren 650s entries, the Objective Racing McLaren and the Ice Break Competition Motorsport Porsche. Much of their 65-strong crew will be expected on site too.
From Melbourne, BMW team SRM was sighted en-route, while MARC Cars Australia are due into Bathurst tomorrow morning with their enormous fleet of Invitational Class cars - set to show off their three completed MARC II racers to the public for the first time.
