Report: runners-up set for B12hr return

THE team that narrowly missed victory in the thrilling 2014 running of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour looks set for a return in 2017, according to Sportscar news resource, Sportscar365.com.

Read the full story on Sportscar365.com here.

The website reports that HTP Motorsport will return to the Mountain in 2017 with a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3, as part of an attack planned by noted Sportscar ace, Canadian Paul Dalla Lana.

The website reports that Dalla Lana will partner with Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda - the son of Formula 1 champion Niki - as part of a two-tiered attack that includes the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“Everyone’s been telling me about [Bathurst]. I think even when I raced with Boris [Said] back at Turner and was telling me about it," Dalla Lana told Sportscar365.com.

“We all had it on our list, right up there with Nurburgring, as an event to do.

“It’s a great team; they just won the Blancpain GT [championship]; hopefully we can keep up to their standards.”

Dalla Lana, Lauda and Lamy are currently Aston Martin Racing teammates contesting the World Endurance Championship, in the LMGT-E AM class this year. After seven rounds the team has won their class on four occasions, including at the Fuji round of the championship held on the weekend.

They sit second in the GTE-AM standings with two rounds remaining.

HTP Motorsport became well known with Aussie fans when they fought for victory in the closing stages of the 2014 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, then GT Champion Maximilian Buhk falling narrowly short of passing Maranello Motorsport's Ferrari driven by Bathurst hero Craig Lowndes.

HTP finished a narrow second in this year's Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup teams championship and were also runners up in the Blancpain Endurance Championship drivers' title - falling one point short of the Garage 59 McLaren driven in part by Shane van Gisbergen.

The event has not received official confirmation of the teams participation in the 3-5 February event.