R-Motorsport will have two Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3s entered for this year’s half-a-day race, with Jake Dennis, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Pro category and Andreas Baenziger, Florian Kamelger, Australian driver Peter Leemhuis and Matt Parry in the Pro Am class category. 

R-Motorsport team manager Bob Friend said the team came out earlier on the Monday so that they could focus on preparing the car come practice sessions.

“These cars have come directly from Cota, where we did the 24 hour race there and we managed to get some of the preparation done after the race, but there’s still a load to do, to put on the car,” he said. 

“We want everything completely mint come Thursday, so we’ve got to get in early. Monday’s our set up day, so Tuesday and Wednesday we can stay completely focused on getting the cars ready.”

Friend said the R-Motorsport will have a team of more than 40 people, by the time the drivers arrive.

Most of mechanics our European-based, however, there’s one Australian-based mechanic, Matt Walther, a Bathurst local. 

Friend said it’s hard to pick how both the Pro and Pro Am teams will perform, but the team’s objective is to get at least one of the teams on the podium. 

“It’s so hard, especially in the history of this race with the yellow and safety cards in the first half of the race. It’s impossible to predict,” he said. 

“What you want is to be fighting for a podium with about four to five hours to go. That’s what we want to do. We want to come away with a podium, if we’re lucky.

“The team we’ve got, it’s the best team we’ve got. We’ve brought all our best guys.”

Friend described the 12 Hour event as a bucket-list event. 

“We’re just really grateful to come out hear,” he said. 

“This is really a bucket-list track for a lot of mechanics. We’ve done some other bucket-list circuits, but to come here, everyone is really excited. 

“It’s seen as an old school track, a man’s track. It’ll have you if you’re out of control.

“For the drivers, they’ve been in the sim at work, trying it. They’re all going to show a lot of respect to it and build slowing.” 

Racing at Mount Panorama begins with practice on Thursday, for the Combined Sedans, Formula Ford, Group S and Radical sessions.

Practice for the Bathurst 12 Hour starts on Friday, followed by qualifying on Saturday and the main race starting at 5.45am on Sunday morning.