More strength added to Class B fight

ANOTHER Class B contender has firmed ahead of the 2018 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Kiwi racer Sam Fillmore locking in his plans to try and score a breakthrough 12-hour victory.

Fillmore confirmed to New Zealand website velocitynews.co.nz yesterday that he and Danny Stuttered will again join forces driving a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car next February.

The car will be run by experienced Melbourne team Ash Seward Motorsport and the pair will be joined by a yet to be named professional driver.

Fillmore and Stuttered raced a first-generation Audi R8 LMS Ultra in last year's race (pictured) and were running strongly inside the top-10 before crashing out in the closing stages.

“It’s a cool race. In the morning when you’re all up at half past four, now it start in the pitch black. When you’re half an hour or 40 minutes into the race and the sun is coming up and there’s kangaroos, it’s just such a cool race," Fillmore told Velocity.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger. There are more and more factory teams coming over for it. I’m just pleased we did it back in 2013. When Danny and I first did it in a SEAT Leon Supercopa… cool little car, pretty forgiving, but now you just couldn’t turn up in something like that.

“It’s hard enough in a Porsche looking in your rear vision mirror.”

After several near-misses, the now Bathurst veteran - Fillmore has contested every 12-Hour since 2013 - said he was searching for a class victory.

“The year before we did it in a Class B car and we were coming second, but we ran out of fuel 200 metres before the finish line.

“The year before that we were coming second in a Class B Porsche and we came in for fuel with one hour to go. One of our boys didn’t have their goggles on and we got black flagged so we dropped back to fourth.

“And the year before that we came third. I sorta feel like this will be our year. We’d love to win it in Class B.”

Class B will again be the domain of the Porsche GT3 Cup Car, with the strongest competition already confirmed likely to come from two-time class winners, Grove Racing.

The team launched their plans last week, locking in World Endurance Championship ace Ben Barker to steer alongside Stephen Grove and son Brenton.

Read the full story about the Fillmore / Stuttered entry at Velocity News here.