Brendon Leitch has helped Wall Racing continue its success story at Mount Panorama, winning the Silver class at the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.
Leitch joined Bathurst 1000 podium finisher Tony D’Alberto, TV star Grant Denyer, and car owner Adrian Deitz in the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO as part of a star-studded 22-car grid.
The quartet stayed out of trouble in a race littered with safety cars to come out on top of the Silver class, finishing 20 laps ahead of their nearest rivals who came unstuck.
Perhaps as significant as their class win, was finishing third of the non-Pro entries. Leitch and co finished ninth overall and on the same lap as the Pro-Am class winners. It’s the best result for Wall Racing in the Bathurst 12 Hour in the Pro class era.
Against the speed of the Pro cars, the team spent the first half of the race trying to stick with the fastest cars. Leitch bemoaned a lack of straight line speed that ultimately hurt their bid to finish on the lead lap and challenge the all-Pro line-ups. Ultimately, they finished three laps down on the race winners.
“It’s a massive privilege to be part of Wall Racing for another of its Silver class-winning programs at the Bathurst 12 Hour,” said Leitch.
“The story of our race was really a lack of straight line speed. We were super fast over the top of the Mountain but we lacked the top end pace to keep up with the fastest Pro cars. Still, we maximised what we had and everyone did a great job and executed perfectly.
“A lot can go wrong in 12 hours, and to only have one hiccup during the race for a small indiscretion that added a bit of time to one of our pit stops was pretty incredible in what was such a chaotic first half of the race.
“Every pit stop went perfectly and there were no mistakes. The result is especially gratifying when you’ve got a bigger than usual driver line-up of four people.
“It’s the first endurance race where nothing wrong happened from Friday to Sunday, which is amazing considering Bathurst is the sketchiest race track in the world.
“The team did perfectly and the car was faultless. I’ve never driven a car where what we rolled out with was almost identical to what we finished the race with.”
Leitch praised the efforts of the team and his co-drivers.
“I’ve got to thank Adrian for giving me this opportunity. The Bathurst 12 Hour has been a bucket list race for me and to win our class on debut is a testament to this team and its know-how.
“Tony and Grant were awesome to work with too. Tony brings so much knowledge of this place and is such a safe pair of hands. Seeing the fanfare for Grant was incredible too. We were definitely one of the most popular teams in the pit lane, that’s for sure.”
Leitch will turn his attention to the Asian Le Mans Series at the Yas Marina Circuit for the 4 Hours of Abu Dhabi on February 15-16 with Earl Bamber Motorsport.
A line-up change for the Earl Bamber Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage means he will miss the 4 Hours of Dubai a week earlier.
