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Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Alexander Sims has said he felt the “win was on” for JMR Johor Racing on the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour debut before mechanical failure put the team’s No. 2 car out of contention with less than two hours to go. While the two JMR Corvettes only qualified 25th and 26th for the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener, the Malaysian team emerged as a serious contender for the win come race day, boosted by a favorable Balance of Performance adjustment . Sims led the race at the three-hour mark , and the Briton’s co-drivers Nicky Catsburg and Earl Bamber both enjoyed spells at the head of the field, albeit the car also lost ground with a drive-through penalty and what appeared to be a fuel pick-up problem. Hopes of the Z06 GT3.R winning on debut came to an end when Bamber spun and hit the barriers at the Dipper inside the penultimate hour of the race, with the Kiwi driver telling the official event broadcast he felt a ...

Photo: Rutronik Racing Sven Mueller will make his return to SUPER GT this season with the Seven x Seven Racing Porsche team, eight years on from his last campaign in the GT300 class. The Porsche-contracted driver will share the team’s No. 666 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with Kiyoto Fujinami for the eight-round season that begins at Okayama International Circuit in April, effectively taking the place of Harry King within the second-year squad. Mueller last raced in SUPER GT back in 2017-18 with D’station Racing, scoring three podium finishes in that time together with Tomonobu Fujii. Since then, the 34-year-old has focused primarily on GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, winning last year’s Endurance Cup title together with Rutronik Racing co-drivers Patric Niederhauser and Alessio Picariello. “Sven brings plenty of experience from SUPER GT from his time with D’station, and I think he will make a great combination with Fujinami-san,” said Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific managing ...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Dorian Boccolacci has expressed his disbelief that High Class Racing’s Bronze class-entered Porsche was able to finish second on its Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour debut after ending up less than a second behind the winning GruppeM Mercedes-AMG. The No. 86 Porsche 911 GT3 R shared by Porsche-contracted Boccolacci, Anders Fjordbach and Kerong Li won its class in the Intercontinental GT Challenge opener as the French driver missed out on outright victory by 1.037 seconds having spent the closing stint trying to chase down Maxime Martin’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. High Class was thrust into the lead of its class during the ninth caution period of the race in the penultimate hour, caused by Earl Bamber’s crash at The Dipper aboard the No. 2 JMR Corvette, as it allowed Boccolacci a free pit stop after most of the other leading cars had been forced to stop for fuel under green. The former Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific selected driver found himself running thi...

Photo: SUPER GT CarGuy MKS Racing has announced its plans for the upcoming SUPER GT season, confirming Toyota junior Kiyoshi Umegaki as Zak O’Sullivan’s new full-time co-driver. Last year’s Formula Regional Japanese champion Umegaki takes the place of Rikuto Kobayashi, who has stepped up to the GT500 class with Toyota for the 2026 campaign, alongside sophomore driver O’Sullivan aboard the team’s No. 7 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo. Reimei Ito, meanwhile, has been named as the team’s new third driver, having taken part in a shootout test with the squad last month at Sepang along with Umegaki, whose position at the team was initially announced last year by Toyota. Ito held a similar role with the LM Corsa Lexus team last season, and was also previously a full-time driver for the Yogibo Racing Honda team for which Misato Haga, the team director for CarGuy MKS, served in the same role. A statement issued by CarGuy MKS said that Ito will accompany the team to all races. Yokohama will continu...

Image: Bathurst 12H Chris Mies has escaped injury after an early end to the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour when his HRT Ford Mustang GT3 struck a kangaroo. The two-time race winner, who was running inside the top-ten in the opening minutes of the race that began in full darkness, collided with a kangaroo on the high-speed Conrod Straight, resulting in “irreparable damage” in a statement provided by Ford Racing. Mies climbed from the heavily damaged Mustang GT3 under his own power and returned to the paddock without injury. “Unfortunately I hit a kangaroo, so the race is over,” the German driver said in a social media post. “It’s a shame because the HRT Ford Mustang was really good. That’s the way it is. We are out of the race.” The Mustang GT3, which Mies was due to share driving duties with Dennis Olsen and Broc Feeney, was making its highly anticipated Bathurst 12 Hour debut. HRT managing director Ulrich Fritz characterized the team’s early end to the race as an “unlucky situat...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Maxi Goetz led the opening hour of the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, which largely ran behind the safety car after Chris Mies’ Ford Mustang GT3 struck a kangaroo. Goetz, who started second in the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, got around the pole-sitting No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport entry of Thomas Randle in a three-wide battle for the lead on the first green flag lap after the 5:45 a.m. start. The German driver held the lead until the safety car was deployed when Mies’ No. 64 HRT Ford Racing entry, which was running inside the top-ten in the car’s highly anticipated race debut, pulled off on the left-side of Conrod Straight with heavy front-end damage, including to its windshield on the left-hand side. Mies climbed from the wrecked car under his own power, although appeared to be covered with dark fluids on his face and firesuit. Race control confirmed that Mies hit a kangaroo. A second car was taken out of the race while under t...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Ferrari 296 GT3 are among the cars that have received pre-race Balance of Performance breaks ahead of today’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour. Confirmed by SRO Motorsports Group in an updated BoP table on Sunday morning, the Corvette, which is making its debut at Mount Panorama, has received a 10 kg weight break, along with a reduction in minimum rear wing angle from 6.5 degrees to 6.2 degrees. It comes after the pair of JMR Johor Racing Corvettes qualified 25th and 26th out of the 31-car GT3 field. While the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and McLaren 720S GT3 Evo has also been given 10 kg weight reductions, the Ferrari will be 15 kg lighter, and with a significant five degree reduction in rear wing angle. Additionally, the Prancing Horses will have a slight increase in turbo boost pressures in the mid range, with a similar boost also given to the McLaren. The only GT3 car to be hit negatively has been the Mercedes-AMG ...