Brad Schumacher's Bathurst 12 Hour may have not gone to plan, but his team still managed to finish on the podium after a hectic day of racing on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The #95 GJ Motorsport MARC II Mustang caught on fire on two separate occasions in the morning and in afternoon, which restricted the team - also featuring Geoff Taunton, Bayley Hall and Warren Luff - to 167 laps at the Mount Panorama circuit.
The Bathurst local explained that the first incident was caused after one of the car's cylinders were not operating correctly.
"Luffy went out in the morning and we had a little issue with the engine. The eight cylinder wasn't firing but he persevered with it and we brought it in," he said.
"We diagnosed the issue but unfortunately we had a fire in the pit stop while we were refuelling. We had a fuel roll-over valve which failed.
None of us put a foot out of line once on the circuit, which was pretty good considering the amount of carnage that had occurred on weekend.
- Brad Schumacher
"Fuel spilled out of that and hit the transaxle which was quite hot and started the fire. It burnt a considerable amount of wire and the air jack lines, so we had to bring the car in and repair."
The car was able to get back onto the track and complete a considerable amount of laps.
Schumacher said his time in the car ran smoothly.
"None of us put a foot out of line once on the circuit, which was pretty good considering the amount of carnage that had occurred on weekend," he said.
"I'm really happy about how I drove. I ran really consistent times and I was quite comfortable in the car."
The second fire incident occurred in the afternoon, which caused the car to be repaired once again.
"I completed my two stints throughout the middle of the day and then we brought the car back in and then Bayley went out again," Schumacher said.
"We brought Bayley back in to put Luffy back in the car and send him out and run down second position, which we were only 10 laps behind. Of course, though, we had another fire which, unbelievably, was the same issue again which we thought we had sorted.
"We had to bring the car back and do intensive repairs, because the second fire caused a fair bit of damage. But again, the pit crew did an amazing job to get the car sorted and we were happy to send it back out again.
"The main thing is we were able to finish the race and we got third in class. I'm happy with that."
The GJ Motorsport team managed to get back on the track for the last 25 minutes of the race, which was ultimately won by the #7 Bentley team featuring Jules Gounon, Jordan Pepper and Maxime Soulet.
Schumacher's team finished third in the I-INV section, behind the the #91 SCANDIA Racing team and the #20 T2 Racing team in first and second respectively.
Bathurst's only other 12 Hour hopeful was Grant Denyer, who finished 14 laps behind the eventual winner.
Denyer and his #29 Trofeo Motorsport that featured Dean Canto, Liam Talbot and Marcel Zalloua completed 300 laps.
On Friday, Denyer completed his fastest ever lap around Mount Panorama in a time 1:06.2759, however his team's best time on Sunday was 1:06.3053.
Want to keep up to date with Bathurst sport? Sign up to our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts here:
