The numbers behind the 2024 Repco Bathurst 12 Hour
19 Feb
IT was a Repco Bathurst 12 Hour to remember, and some remarkable stats were recorded. Here are some of the numbers, facts and stats that came out of a classic edition of Australia's International Enduro.
1 – Porsche’s finishing position, for the second time in Bathurst 12 Hour history. They’re the seventh brand to have won the race on more than one occasion.
1 – 2024 also marked Porsche’s first time scoring a fastest race lap in 12 Hour history, thanks to the early efforts of Jaxon Evans in the Phantom Global machine.
1 – Ahyancan Guven became the first Turkish driver to win on Mount Panorama, continuing the event’s track record of delivering new nationalities to the top step of the Bathurst podium. The last driver to win on debut was Jordan Pepper, who shared Bentley’s success in 2020. Coincidentally, that was the first time a South African driver had claimed Mount Panorama victory.
2 - 2024 represented Matt Campbell's second Bathurst 12 Hour win, becoming the 12th driver to have claimed multiple Bathurst 12 Hour triumphs. It was also his third podium finish from nine 12-Hour starts, having won in 2019 and finished second in 2023.
2 - The number of times a team that has won the previous year has finished second in their Bathurst title defence. SunEnergy1 finished second this year after winning in 2023 (and 2022), while the Nissan NISMO team did the same after winning in 2015. It's also gone the other way: Erebus Motorsport finished second in 2013 before winning the 2014 encounter.
2:01.9810s – Sheldon van der Linde’s pole time. Only the fourth in Bathurst history beneath 122 seconds. Remarkably, it was only 0.0470s different – in this case, marginally slower - to the last time a BMW was on pole on the Mountain, in 2018.
2.6336 – The #912 Porsche’s winning margin. Remarkably it’s only the sixth closest finish in 12 hour history.
3 – Where Jules Gounon’s streak of consecutive Bathurst victories ends – at least for now. He joins Peter Brock, Jim Richards, Larry Perkins, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes as the only drivers to have claimed three consecutive Bathurst enduros.
5 - Jules Gounon and Matt Campbell have now won the last five Repco Bathurst 12 Hours between them.
6 – It’s been six years since Audi’s last Bathurst podium, which came in 2018 with their victory with Team WRT.
7 – the number of cars to lead at least one lap this year. There were 17 lead changes, too.
8 – The number of cars on the lead lap at the end of the race, an event record. The previous best was seven, achieved on three occasions in 2018, ’19 and ’20.
8 – The number of attempts it took German star Christopher Haase to score a Bathurst podium. The Audi star has been a staple of the race, but bad luck has always gone his way with four DNFs and a best finish of 9th (in 2015) all he could show prior to his remarkable charge to third late in this year’s encounter.
9 – Remarkably, 2024 represented the ninth time from 13 in the ‘GT3 era’ where three different manufacturers have filled the top three positions at race’s end. It’s the second time that Porsche, Mercedes-AMG and Audi have shared the podium – the 2018 race featuring the same three brands at the top.
11 – Manthey EMA Racing became the 11th different team to win the race in the GT3 era, which is quite remarkable. Maranello Motorsport won the race twice, in 2014 and 2018, while SunEnergy 1 have also claimed it twice (though you could argue the team behind the ‘brand’ was different each year, the entrant was the same on both occasions, so it stands).
For the record, those 11 teams are: Team Joest, Phoenix Racing, Erebus Motorsport, Maranello Motorsport, Nissan NISMO, Tekno Autosport, Team WRT, Earl Bamber Motorsport, M-Sport, SunEnergy1 and now, Manthey-EMA.
12 – SunEnergy1 Racing’s second position gave Mercedes-AMG their 12th Bathurst 12 Hour podium, an event record – in fact, they’re the only brand to have scored more than six podium finishes. Audi and Porsche have six each, Ferrari four, Bentley three and Nissan, McLaren and Aston Martin one each.
13 – The number of Safety Cars, the most since the 2018 race. However, the 28 laps completed behind the Safety car were the same as the 2022 race – which only featured eight caution periods. The record, by the way, was 2015 when there were 20 pauses in action for a remarkable 73 laps..
57.2273 – the total combined margin of victory of the last five Repco Bathurst 12 Hour races – 60 hours of racing! The last three have all been decided by less than 10 seconds.
79 – the percentage of cars to finish the race that started it – the most in event history! 23 cars were classified at the end of the bruising race, of the 29 that commenced it. It’s the best finishing race in event history and only the sixth time more than 70% of the cars to have started the race, have made it home 12 Hours later.
195 – the number of laps led by the #912 Porsche, the most in 12 Hour history by any car. It eclipses the previous record set way back in 2012 by the winning Audi R8, at 168 laps led.
275 – The number of laps completed, totalling just overt 1708km of racing. It’s the least completed since 2018, when the race was stopped with 20 minutes remaining. The last race with fewer laps completed not halted by a red flag was 2015, where just 269 laps were ticked off in a carnage-filled day.
47,333 – the three-day attendance for the event. It’s the second-largest in the history of the event as a three-day affair (2019 ran for four days and drew just over 49,000).
