Wow!! What an afternoon of racing it has been on Easter Sunday at Mount Panorama. Yes, we may have seen a few drivers slipping away either off the track, spinning around where one was fortunate to go one, forced to stop due to some mechanical issue or unfortunately making contact with the wall. However, we also saw some amazing moments at the same time with a mix of outright lead changes, late race moves & even post-race drama that define such a great endurance race here that is dedicated to production cars.
The No.21 BMW M4 of Jayden Ojeda & Simon Hodges has been sensational with the outright win. Not only Ojeda’s gamble to stay out on track paid off with enough gas to bring it home, but he also even used the grass a bit to pass a bunch of other cars over at Conrod straight. Then the No.58 BMW M3 Russells trio of Wayne, Drew & Aaren finished in 2nd.
Now we may have saw a late pass by Tyler Everingham ahead of Supercars regular Anton De Pasquale (No.111 Ford Mustang for Dick Johnson Racing) for 3rd, but then race officials gave his No.24 BMW M4 a 15-second time penalty for overtaking under yellow. That means Everingham & his co-drivers Grant Walden & Michael Auld were demoted to 6th, while De Pasquale join the Russells & Ojeda/Hodges alongside Anthony Soole & Adam Burgess out of a BMW filled podium.
And shoutout to Ryder Quinn alongside Grant Denyer & his grandad Tony, who won the A2 class in the No.1 Ford Mustang, following an unreal winning move just before the race ended by only 0.09 seconds v Circuit Excel Bathurst winner Ryan Casha (No.2 Ford Mustang with Rylan Grey & Chris Delfsma).
Can’t wait for another SpeedSeries Bathurst round this November with TCR Australia v the world + the season-finale 100km Trans-Am race before the 6 Hour returns for another year in 2024.
