Van Gisbergen's bid for rare Bathurst history

Shane van Gisbergen will join an exclusive club should he win a third LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour this weekend.

Van Gisbergen will share a Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG with Broc Feeney and Maximilian Gotz.

The van Gisbergen/Feeney/Gotz entry is one of the favourites to win the race.

It would add another feather to the cap of van Gisbergen, who has enjoyed a sparkling run of form.

Van Gisbergen won last October’s Repco Bathurst 1000, his second Great Race win.

If he wins this weekend’s race, he will become just the third driver to immediately follow a Great Race win with a 12 Hour victory.

Allan Grice was the first to do so over 30 years ago when he raced a Toyota Supra Turbo in the very first Bathurst 12 Hour.

Grice, who took the Holden Racing Team’s first Bathurst 1000 victory in 1990, returned four months later to win the 1991 Bathurst 12 Hour.

Three years later, the late Gregg Hansford won the 1993 Great Race with Larry Perkins.

Former motorcycle ace Hansford then raced a Mazda RX-7 to the 1994 12 Hour win alongside Neil Crompton.

Van Gisbergen — the 2016 12 Hour winner — has finished third in the last two editions of the 12 Hour.

Grice, Hansford and van Gisbergen are three of nine drivers to have done the Bathurst 12 Hour/Bathurst 1000 double.

Paul Morris won the 2007 and 2010 production car races in BMWs before winning the 2014 Bathurst 1000.

Morris and van Gisbergen are the only drivers to have won the Bathurst 1000, Bathurst 12 Hour and Bathurst 6 Hour.

Van Gisbergen celebrating in 2016

Tony Longhurst — the 1988 and 2001 Bathurst 1000 winner — won the 2009 Bathurst 12 Hour in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

John Bowe is one of two drivers to have won both races more than once.

Bowe won the 1989 and 1994 Bathurst 1000 with Dick Johnson, before winning the 2010 and 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour races.

Bowe and Johnson also followed up their 1994 win with victory in the Eastern Creek 12 Hour.

Bowe shared the 2014 12 Hour win with seven-time Great Race winner Craig Lowndes, who won the 12 Hour again in 2017.

Four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Jamie Whincup won his first 12 Hour with Lowndes in 2017.

Jonathon Webb, meanwhile, is the only driver to have won the Bathurst 12 Hour and Bathurst 1000 in the same year.

Webb won the 12 Hour in a Tekno McLaren in 2016, before scoring victory in the Great Race with Will Davison.

Lowndes, Whincup and Webb join van Gisbergen on the 2023 12 Hour grid.

Chaz Mostert, Lee Holdsworth and David Reynolds are all former Bathurst 1000 winners looking to claim their first 12 Hour wins.

Mostert won the 2014 and 2021 Great Races, and is the only two-time Allan Simonsen Pole Award winner.

Holdsworth won the 2021 Bathurst 1000 with Mostert, and scored a class 12 Hour podium in 2017.

Holdsworth scored that result with Marc Cini and Dean Fiore, with the trio to again line-up together this weekend.

Cars will hit the track at Mount Panorama for four practice sessions on Friday.

Drivers who have done the Bathurst 1000/Bathurst 12 Hour double