Following the premature death of the Bathurst 24 Hour when PROCAR Australia hut up shop in 2004, there was no talk of an additional endurance race at Mount Panorama for sometime until two years later when the 12 Hour was announced.
The Bathurst Motor Festival led by Yeehah Events and James O’Brien proved a precursor to the 12 Hour where the likes of Australian GT, Aussie Racing Cars, Formula 3 raced at the Mountain, with the event providing an opportunity for those categories to race at the country’s premier circuit.
Initially planned to be a race for sportscars in the ilk of the 24 Hour, the Bathurst 12 Hour was backed by WPS and after some lobbying by CAMS was for production cars harking back to the event of the early 1990s.
Unlike the first editions, manufacturers were not captured by the event as Subaru, Holden and Alfa Romeo were the first to enter factory-supported squads, but it was the privateer BMW 335i Coupe of the Eastern Creek Karts squad taking victory.
Much like how the Mazda RX-7, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo grew to dominate the event through Alan Heaphy’s TMR concern. There were many stillborn attempts such as talk of Mazda’s MPS line-up being entered or a factory Toyota entry featuring a pair of TRD Aurions, which failed to come to fruition.
The 2008 race was the first where TMR displayed its superiority, but it was Len Cave stealing the headlines when he barrel rolled Alan Shepherd’s Mazda 3 MPS through The Chase in a remarkable incident. It tore the engine, wheels and much more out, as Cave emerged under his own steam from the wreckage.
A change of Evo models to the X failed to stop TMR as it led a model clean-sweep of the podium, with the teammate to the inaugural year’s winning BMW being the first non-Mitsubishi in fifth.
As for the 2010 edition, it proved the final one only eligible for production cars and it was the Eastern Creek Karts squad taking another win in the now older 335i Turbo as the weather proved spectacular as a tree blocked the track exiting Forrest’s Elbow forcing the race to be stopped.
The writing was on the wall due to lack of manufacturer involvement and a new era dawned as GT3 became the star attraction, but it got off to a slow start.