The records broken in 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour
This year’s LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour reset a number of benchmarks and records.
Sunday’s race ended in a thrilling climax, with Jules Gounon staving off Matt Campbell and Maro Engel.
It came after Engel collided with Gounon in the final hour at The Chase as they fought for the lead.
Event attendance
This year’s LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour brought in a record attendance of 53,446.
This year’s three-day event was higher than the previous record of 49,495 set in 2019, which was a four-day event.
Practice/qualifying lap record
Maro Engel powered to pole position to secure his second Allan Simonsen Trophy on Saturday.
Engel defeated Broc Feeney and Matt Campbell in a thrilling Pirelli Top 10 Shootout.
The #999 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG driver reset his own 12 Hour lap record to grab pole.
Engel clocked a 2:00.8819s to undercut his qualifying record — a 2:01.0836s — set in qualifying.
It was the first ever sub-2:01s lap at the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Most wins
Jules Gounon became the first three-time winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour — and all came in succession.
Gounon led Bentley to victory in 2020 before joining Kenny Habul’s SunEnergy1 Racing squad last year.
Andorran driver Gounon, Aussie Habul and German Luca Stolz have won the last two 12 Hours.
Gounon, Habul and Stolz were joined by Martin Konrad last year.
Gounon had the honour of crossing the line to win the race in each of his three victories.
Top three split
The race also produced the closest split between the top three finishing cars in the event’s GT3 era.
Jules Gounon, Matt Campbell and Maro Engel were covered by just 1.4177s at the chequered flag.
It betters the 2.4025s which covered the top three finishers in 2014, when Craig Lowndes beat Maximilian Buhk by 0.4138s
The top three in 2015 were covered by 2.8016s, when Katsumasa Chiyo famously won for Nissan.
Race distance
The top four completed 323 laps, a distance of 2006.799km — the most completed in Bathurst 12 Hour history.
The previous record of 314 laps — 1950.882km — was set in 2020, when Gounon led Bentley to victory.
Average race speed
The 12 Hour also created a new benchmark for fastest average speed in a Bathurst enduro.
Sunday’s race was completed at an average speed of 167km/h, with the Safety Car deployed just four times after the start.
It betters the average speed of the 2018 Bathurst 1000, which was run at nearly 166km/h.
Just four Bathurst 1000 races — 2010, 2013, 2018 and 2020 — have been run at more than 100mph.
Three of the last four 12 Hours — 2019, 2020 and 2023 — have now been run at more than 100mph.
Longest green flag run
Just 16 laps were held under the control of the Mercedes-AMG Safety Car on Sunday.
Sunday’s race featured a 4h45m green flag run to the end of the race.
The Safety Car neutralised the field early in the eighth hour when Scott Taylor crashed on the approach to the Dipper.
From there, the race ran at full tilt to the end, beating the 4h10m green flag run in the 2020 race.
