Audi supercar scores 1-2 finish in Bathurst 12 Hour

Australian team robbed of victory after botched pit stops

Audi R8 supercars cruised to a 1-2 victory in the Bathurst 12 Hour yesterday — but the race-favourite Australian drivers were left to play second fiddle to their teammates after they were forced to circulate slowly behind a safety car on two separate occasions, while the German Audi team made timely pit-stops.

The German team car of Marc Basseng, Christopher Mies and Darryl O’Young completed 292 laps in a formation finish ahead of the Australian driver trio of Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy.

Local Porsche drivers Tony Quinn, Klark Quinn and Craig Baird finished third in their 911 GT3R — one lap down on the Audi duo and ahead of a trio of Porsches and a Ferrari.

While the podium Porsche team led on a couple of occasions during the day, the event was effectively a two-horse race within the factory-backed mega-dollar Audi supercar squad.

Although the Australian Audi team had qualified on pole position and was consistently faster throughout the race, they were effectively robbed of the win after German team management twice left the Australian car to lap slowly behind the safety car in what was dismissed as a “breakdown in communication”.

“It wasn’t a stitch up,” Lowndes told the Carsales Network. “There was just a breakdown in communication. By the time they figured out where we were on the track it was too late.”

Audi race team manager Ralf Juttner told the Carsales Network: “It was to do with driving time issues. If you look at the driving times of the three drivers it was very close to the maximum.”

The head of Audi’s customer racing programs worldwide, Romolo Liebche, said: “The Australians lost the race when they got a puncture.”

A punctured tyre forced the Australian Audi team to make an unscheduled pit stop about half race distance.

But despite this, the Australian Audi — primarily driven by five-times Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes and his V8 Supercar counterpart Warren Luff, also a Bathurst veteran — climbed back into outright contention and overtook the German Audi team in the final hour of the race.

On lap 263, both the German and Australian Audis had pitted at the same time but the German car spun on cold tyres as it left pit lane — and Lowndes quickly took the lead.

Lowndes, who continued to lap faster than the German car in the final stages of the race, should have cruised to victory. But he was forced to make an extra pit stop because of controversial rules that required the elite ‘Class A’ cars to make a minimum of 12 compulsory pit stops, each lasting 90 seconds, at least 10 laps apart.

Because the punctured tyre earlier in the race was replaced within 10 laps of a previous pit stop, it did not count towards the Australian team’s tally. And so the Australians had to make a 13th stop that lasted 90 seconds — while the German team’s 13th stop was merely a ‘splash and dash’, enabling them to take the lead and, ultimately, the chequered flag.

The 90-second pit stop rules were designed to give showroom cars a chance at staying in touch with the big budget exotics, but instead created a farce as soon as the race started.

The podium Porsche team remained stationary in pit lane for the first 90 seconds of the race — to eliminate one of its 12 compulsory stops.

Meanwhile, concerned about how the mega-dollar motor-racing indulgence may be viewed by the Australian community following the devastation from several natural disasters across the country, Audi Australia donated $35,000 to the Queensland Relief Fund — the equivalent of $1000 from each dealer. The drivers in the Australian Audi team also donated their $5000 prize money for qualifying on pole position.

French tyre maker Michelin, whose tyres drove all three cars on the podium and most Top 10 finishers, had earlier pledged a donation of at least $100,000.

Both Lowndes and Luff were due to fly out for the first round of the 2011 V8 Supercar championship in Abu Dhabi today (Monday).

Lowndes said: “I’m really pumped about this season. I finished really strong last year and this is the first time in a long time that I’m taking an old car with me into a new season.”

Luff, who returns to V8 Supercars full-time this year, said: “It’s going to be hard to go back to a V8 Supercar after this.”

The Audi R8 they drove was powered by a V10 engine, had a paddle-shift gearbox, anti-lock brakes and stability control, which enabled the drivers to brake much later and deeper into the corners. It was also the first time both drivers had raced a left-hand drive car around the mountain.

“It’s absolutely awesome,” said Lowndes. “The grip and how late you can brake is just phenomenal, it’s such an easy car to drive. The slower cars weren’t too bad at getting out of the way, but I’m not sure what it’d be like with twice the number of cars out there as we had today.”

Although the top speed of the Audis on Conrod Straight was 270km/h — about 25km/h less than a V8 Supercar — they lapped within two seconds of V8 Supercar race lap times because of their incredible grip and low-slung stability across the top of the mountain.

Of the 29-car field, 19 cars finished, including a Holden Astra and a BMW 130i.

Production car ace Mark Brame won the showroom car class in a Mitsubishi Evo X he shared with category stalwarts Anthony Robson and Peter Conroy, finishing ninth outright ahead of a Porsche 911.

This year is the first time exotic supercars — on slick racing tyres as opposed to grooved rubber used on production cars — have been allowed to compete in the 12 Hour; previously vehicles that cost in excess of $130,000 were excluded from competition.

This year the event attracted 18 GT supercars but organisers expect to attract up to 25 next year — and 10 to 15 production cars.

Organisers said a crowd of 6700 spectators attended the race on Sunday — about 300 more than last year — while another 1900 or so viewers watched the event’s live streaming footage on the internet throughout the day, with a peak of 2700 viewers tuning in near the end of the race.

A three-hour highlights package of the race hosted by motorsport commentator Greg Rust and V8 Supercar driver Garth Tander will be broadcast on Channel Ten’s One Digital channel on Saturday 19 February from 7.30pm.