Boccolacci Admits Disbelief at High Class’s Overall P2 Finish

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 third as a result, and while the final caution allowed the No. 46 Team WRT BMW to temporarily go ahead, the race-defining Turn 1 collision between Kelvin van der Linde and Jules Gounon’s 75 Express Mercedes-AMG then put Boccolacci up to second.

Looking back on the race, Boccolacci thought that mid-race setbacks had put paid to High Class’s chances of winning its class, let alone finish so high overall.

“Early in the race we were a bit lucky with the safety car, but in the middle of the race we were not lucky at all,” Boccolacci told Sportscar365.

“We were hit twice during the race and we lost 50 seconds to repair something at a pit stop. But we survived, we got back on the lead lap, and then anything can happen.

“We decided to have a bit more fuel than the others, and in the others it paid off, because the safety car came out one or two laps before we needed to pit. We were in a really good place after that, but I was matching the pace of the best drivers.

“I’m very happy to be able to perform like that one such a difficult track. I think it’s one of the three hardest I’ve driven along with the Nürburgring and Macau.

“If you told me this morning I would finish P2, I wouldn’t believe you, because we started 30th and we are in the Bronze category.

“I think we can be proud of what we achieved today.”

High Class Commits to Full IGTC with Fjordbach, Li

High Class clarified ahead of its Bathurst debut that it will contest all five rounds of this year’s IGTC, with Fjordbach and Li both set for full campaigns.

Chinese driver Li is also one of six drivers registered for this year’s Independent Cup, and while this allows drivers to skip one race through dropped scores, team owner Fjordbach clarified he and Li will contest all five rounds that make up the campaign.

It adds to a busy year for High Class, which is also committed to the European Le Mans Series with a Porsche LMGT3 entry, and has just concluded an Asian Le Mans Series season in which it fielded entries in both the LMP2 and LMP3 classes.

Fjordbach admitted that uncertainty about the future of the landscape in prototype racing, as a new generation of LMP2 cars is due to be introduced to the ELMS in 2028, pushed his team to look at expanding its GT racing activities more closely.

“We always look to expand our programs,” Fjordbach told Sportscar365. “While we did LMP2 [in the ELMS and FIA World Endurance Championship] it was a bit tricky; we had to get that a bit under control before we started any GT programs.

“Now we are happy to be in IGTC and see what this is all about.”

He added: “We are trying to do both [prototypes and GTs]. With LMP2 it’s a little bit certain what will happen after this homologation. It’s a big investment for all teams that might also affect the competition a lot, in terms of the amount of cars.

“We just need to make sure we are ready for everything. We are trying to expand, and we need to have programs that make sense for us.”

Fjordbach said that in addition to the five IGTC races, the team will likely also contest the Okayama round of the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS as a warm-up for the Suzuka 1000km, as well as NLS3 and the Nürburgring 24 qualifiers.

He also stated that the third driver role will rotate across the course of the year.

Source: Sports Car 365