The first major national event of the year has arrived with drivers and motorsport fans from both Australia and around the world all in Bathurst for the 2020 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

 

It’s been a big lead up to the great race for teams and drivers alike as excitement builds for the first of five events at Mount Panorama this year.

 

With the big race on Sunday 2 February, motorsport.org.au previews the key facts for this weekend’s international weekend of racing.

 

It’s going to be a long day on Sunday for everyone involved, with the race beginning at 5:45am local time and finishing at 5:45pm.

 

Ahead of Sunday’s race, the main gamers will get five practice sessions on Friday and Saturday morning before completing qualifying and the top 10 shootout on Saturday afternoon.

 

For fans, there are plenty of ways to keep up with the action, both on television and online streaming. Fox Sports 506 will broadcast Saturday’s qualifying and shootout exclusively, as well as the entire race, ad-break free on Sunday.

 

For those without subscription television, the Seven network will also be showing Sunday’s race live and free on 7mate with coverage to begin at 5:30am AEDT.

 

For computer, mobile and tablet users, streaming will be available via 7plus.

 

With the iconic Mount Panorama track often considered an honour to race on, the four categories supporting Sunday’s race will be battling hard to put on a show for travelling spectators.

 

This year, there will again be a range of different cars on track outside of the main race, with support categories including Aussie Racing Cars and Group C touring cars are new in 2020, while Combined Sports Sedans and Group S on the card again this year after impressing in 2019.

 

Aussie Racing Cars get the most action with four races, while Group S and the Combined Sports Sedans get three races each. There will be no racing for Group C - three demonstrations will instead be held across the two days.

 

 

The 12 Hour race is always dramatic and 2019 was no different. Alongside Dirk Werner and Dennis Olsen in the Earl Bamber Motorsport prepared Porsche 911 GT3 R, Australian Matt Campbell found himself on the top step of the podium after a thrilling final 10 laps.

 

It all started with nine laps to go as the third placed Campbell chased down Raffaele Marciello and pulled off a brilliant move to take second place. Four laps later, Campbell did exactly the same thing on leader Jake Dennis to secure first place.

 

 

There is a vast amount of talent on this year’s entry list, ranging from homegrown heroes to international stars.

 

There will be 39 cars taking part in the 12-hour race, with 33 of them to compete across the three GT3 classes.

From Brazil to the USA, Great Britain to South Africa, the overseas driving talent is endless as more than 75 individuals from six different continents have made the journey to Australia. This list of drivers comprises of two LeMans winners, nine Nürburgring 24 winners and eight Spa 24 winners.

 

Home grown talent is just as strong, with over 40 drivers confirmed to compete. The 40 drivers include five Supercars champions, 19 Bathurst 1000 winners and a host of Motorsport Australia GT Champions.

 

Across the 39 teams, only six are all Australian, 19 feature just international drivers and 14 teams are made up of both.

 

Most notably, the reigning champion Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche team has a completely different lineup to last year with Bamber in the driver’s seat this time around alongside Craig Lowndes and Laurens Vanthoor.

 

Campbell and Werner both return this year in different cars but for the same team in Absolute Racing, while their 2019 teammate Olsen is absent this year.

1	Earl Bamber Motorsport	Earl Bamber	Laurens Vanthoor	Craig Lowndes		Porsche GT3 R	A-Pro
2	Audi Sport Team Valvoline	Dries Vanthoor	Christopher Haase	Frederic Vervisch		Audi R8 - LMS GT3	A-Pro
4	Grove Racing	Stephen Grove	Brenton Grove	Benjamin Barker		Porsche GT3 R	A-PA
6	Wall Racing	Adrian Deitz	Antonio D'Alberto	Julian Westwood	Cameron McConville	Lamborghini Hurracan GT3	A-SIL
7	Bentley Team M-Sport	Jules Gounon	Maxime Soulet	Jordan Pepper		Bentley Continental GT3	A-Pro
8	Bentley Team M-Sport	Alex Buncombe	Oliver Jarvis	Sebastian Morris		Bentley Continental GT3	A-Pro
9	Hallmarc	Marc Cini	Dean Fiore	Lee Holdsworth		Audi R8 - LMS GT3	A-PA
12	NED Racing Team	David Calvert-Jones	Romain Dumas	Jaxon Evans		Porsche GT3 R	A-PA
18	KCMG	Joao Paulo Lima De Oliveira	Edoardo Liberati	Alexandre Imperatori		Nissan GTR Nismo GT3	A-Pro
22	Audi Sport Team Valvoline	Garth Tander	Chris Mies	Mirko Bortolotti		Audi R8 - LMS GT3	A-Pro
24	Bostik Australia	Tony Bates	Geoff Emery	Max Twigg	Dylan O'Keeffe	Audi R8 - LMS GT3	A-SIL
27	Hub Auto Corsa	Marcos Gomes	Tim Slade	Daniel Serra		Ferrari 488 GT3	A-Pro
29	Trofeo Motorsport	Liam Talbot	Dean Canto	Marcel Zalloua	Grant Denyer	Lamborghini Huracan GT3	A-SIL
30	Honda Racing Team JAS	Dane Cameron	Renger Van Der Zande	Mario Farnbacher		Acura/ Honda NSX GT3	A-Pro
34	Walkenhorst Motorsport	Augusto Farfus	Nicky Catsburg	Chaz Mostert		BMW M6 GT3	A-Pro
35	KCMG	Josh Burdon	Katsumasa Chiyo	Tsugio Matsuda		Nissan GTR Nismo GT3	A-Pro
46	Black Falcon	Patrick Assenheimer	Sergey Afanasiev	Michele Beretta		Mercedes AMG GT3	A-SIL
59	59Racing	Dominic Storey	Fraser Ross	Martin Kodric		McLaren 720S GT3	A-SIL
60	59Racing / EMA Racing	Alvaro Parente	Ben Barnicoat	Tom Blomqvist		McLaren 720S GT3	A-Pro
62	R - Motorsport	Luca Ghiotto	Marvin Kirchhoefer	Oliver Caldwell		Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	A-Pro
63	Orange 1 FFF Racing Team	Andrea Caldarelli	Marco Mapelli	Dennis Lind		Lamborghini Hurracan GT3	A-Pro
75	SunEnergy1 Racing	Kenny Habul	Dominik Baumann	Martin Konrad	David Reynolds	Mercedes AMG GT3	A-PA
76	R - Motorsport	Jake Dennis	Rick Kelly	Scott Dixon		Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	A-Pro
77	Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Black Falcon	Maro Engel	Luca Stolz	Yelmer Buurman		Mercedes AMG GT3	A-Pro
96	Hobson Motorsport	Brett Hobson	Kurt Kostecki	Garth Walden		Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3	A-SIL
159	Garage 59	Andrew Watson	Olivier Hart	Roman De Angelis		Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	A-SIL
188	Garage 59	Alexander West	Chris Goodwin	Come Ledogar	Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	A-PA
222	Audi Sport Team Valvoline	Kelvin Van der Linde	Mattia Drudi	Markus Winkelhock		Audi R8 - LMS GT3	A-Pro
777	The Bend Motorsport Park	Yasser Shahin	Nick Foster	Anton De Pasquale	Sam Shahin	Mercedes AMG GT3	A-PA
888	Mercedes-AMG Team Triple Eight Race Engineering	Shane Van Gisbergen	Jamie Whincup	Maximilian Götz		Mercedes AMG GT3	A-Pro
911	Absolute Racing	Mathieu Jaminet	Patrick Pilet	Matt Campbell		Porsche GT3 R	A-Pro
912	Absolute Racing	Dirk Werner	Matteo Cairoli	Thomas Preining		Porsche GT3 R	A-Pro
999	Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing	Felipe Fraga	Maximilian Buhk	Raffaele Marciello		Mercedes AMG GT3	A-Pro
13	RHC Jorgensen / Strom	Daren E. Jorgensen	Brett Strom	Danny van Dongen		BMW M4 GT4	C-GT4
19	Nineteen Corp	Harrison Newey	Mark Griffith	Dirk Muller		Mercedes AMG GT4	C-GT4
20	T2 Racing	Adam Hargraves	Cedric Sbirrazzuoli	Daniel Jilesen	Steve Owen	MARC II	I-Inv
91	SCANDIA Racing - by Racer Industries	Aaron Cameron	Broc Feeney	Nick Percat		MARC II	I-Inv
92	SCANDIA Racing - by Racer Industries	Hadrian Morrall	Tyler Everingham	James Kaye		MARC II	I-Inv
95	MARC Cars Australia	Geoff Taunton	Bayley Hall	Warren Luff	Brad Schumacher	MARC II	I-Inv