THE overall victory is what every driver in Sunday’s Bathurst 12 Hour desires but there’s another contest some Class A competitors are aiming to win at Mount Panorama.
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The allowance of full professional lineups at this year’s 12 Hour has led to some amazing driver combinations, who will no doubt be fighting it out at the pointy end of the race.
However, the battle among the combined professional-amateur (‘Pro-Am’, with at least one amateur driver) and amateur (‘Am’, with at least two amateur drivers) lineups is expected to be just as fierce, as they fight amongst themselves for titles.
Quality drivers are still everywhere in sight among those two groups.
Tony Bates is among that tussle as he takes on the amateur competition in Class A alongside George Miedecke and Ash Walsh.
Bates and his team will take an Aston Martin V12 Vantage around Mount Panorama in Sunday’s race.
“I think we’ve got a very solid combination. There’s probably three to four really solid combinations in this class within the race. We’ve got a good outfit together. We have a nice mixture of GT and Supercars experience in our team so I think we should go well,” he said.
“All three of us have done a few laps at Bathurst over the years but none of us have done a lot of laps here in the GT cars so we’re using the practice sessions to adjust ourselves to the characteristics of the GT car.
“I’ve done a lot here in Carrera Cup and development series. Ash has done a lot of laps in Supercars and George has also done a lot across various categories.”
The speed of the Aston is a shot of adrenaline for the 2016 Carrera Cup Challenge class champion.
“I’m going six seconds quicker around here … and that’s phenomenal,” Bates said.
“You’ve got all the driver assists like the ABS and traction control so the key is to maximise those benefits. If you try and drive this car around like it was a Carrera Cup car, where you don’t have those benefits, you’re going to be slow.
“That’s what today’s practice sessions are for, to find the limits. The boys have already shown though in these sessions that there’s going to be some pretty wild times being put down.
“There’s been some good times already. They’re putting the challenge out.”
There are 14 pro-pro, six pro-am and 14 amateur lineups in Class A for Sunday’s race.
Of the three Aston Martins taking part in the 12 Hour, the Miedecke Stone Motorsport has the distinction of being the only one competing in Class A.