The second day of the Bathurst 12 Hour at Mount Panorama saw teams continuing to dial in their cars ahead of qualifying, with Practice 5 and 6 providing a mix of strong pace, technical issues, and setbacks for several Kiwi drivers.
Practice 5
In the fifth session, Steve Brooks’ co-drivers at Team BRM – Alex Peroni, Mark Rosser, and James Golding – were active despite Brooks himself not taking part. The trio put the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo firmly in contention, finishing 4th overall and 1st in the PAM class after 22 laps. Their fastest lap of 2:03.355s left them just 0.314 seconds shy of the quickest lap in the session.
Brendon Leitch and his Tigani Motorsport/Geyer Valmont Racing squad, with co-drivers Sergio Pires and Scott Andrews, completed 22 laps in the Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO, ending 23rd overall and 3rd in the PAM class. Leitch’s fastest lap was 2:04.661s, over 1.6 seconds off the overall pace.
Kiwi veteran Daniel Gaunt, whose TSUNAMI RT Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) saw only his co-drivers Alex Fontana and Fabian Babini on track, recorded 6th overall and 1st in Bronze class, with a fastest lap of 2:03.682s across 21 laps.
In the Pro class, Earl Bamber, alongside Alexander Sims and Nicky Catsburg in the Johor Motorsports Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R, ended 22nd overall and 14th in class. The crew completed 24 laps, with a best of 2:04.644s, roughly 1.6 seconds off the top pace.
Jaxon Evans’ Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 faced significant issues. Only co-driver Daniel Serra completed laps in Practice 5, finishing 31st overall and 15th in class with a fastest lap of 2:07.983s after the car suffered a suspected sensor failure and a rapid coolant leak, keeping it in the garage for most of the session.
Ryan Wood’s Ziggo Sport Tempesta Ferrari 296 GT3 didn’t see him on track either, but his co-drivers Jonathan Hui and Christopher Froggatt managed 26th overall and 8th in the Bronze class, completing 25 laps with a fastest time of 2:05.599s.
Meanwhile, Team NZ was forced to withdraw their Aston Martin Vantage GT4 after heavy damage sustained in Practice 4. Graeme Dowsett, Romain Leroux, and Chris Van Der Drift’s weekend came to an early end following a collision with Alfred Renauer’s Porsche at Sulman Park on Friday, resulting in irreparable damage to the right-rear of the car.
The session was topped by the Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Will Brown, Christopher Haase, and Brad Schumacher, who set a fastest lap of 2:04.040s.
Practice 6
Practice 6 saw Kiwi drivers continue to refine their race setups. Steve Brooks, joined by Alex Peroni, finished 9th overall and 2nd in PAM class, completing 21 laps with a fastest lap of 2:02.891s, just 0.533 seconds off the session’s top time.
Leitch’s co-drivers – Sergio Pires, Marcel Zalloua, and Scott Andrews – were on track without him, finishing 5th overall and 1st in PAM class after 18 laps. Their fastest lap of 2:02.695s was less than 0.35 seconds off the overall pace set by Cam Waters, Chaz Mostert, and Thomas Randle in the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO.
Daniel Gaunt’s co-drivers, Alex Fontana, Fabian Babini, and Johannes Zelger, ran 23 laps in Practice 6, finishing 15th overall and 5th in the Bronze class, with a fastest lap of 2:03.251s.
Earl Bamber and his Johor Motorsports Racing teammates completed 25 laps to finish 23rd overall and 13th in class, with a best lap of 2:03.710s.
Jaxon Evans, alongside Daniel Serra and Davide Rigon, returned to the track with the #26 Arise Ferrari 296 GT3, completing 24 laps and ending 20th overall and 11th in Pro class, with a fastest lap of 2:03.637s.
Ryan Wood’s crew finished 31st overall and 10th in the Bronze class, completing 25 laps with a best lap of 2:05.103s.
Practice 6 concluded with some surprises for the top teams. The 17-car fields for the top and bottom 50% qualifying brackets were set, including five Pro entries in the first group and several pre-race favourites facing a challenging path through slower traffic to reach the Pirelli Pole Battle top 10 runoff. Cam Waters’ #222 Mercedes topped the session, continuing the strong pace seen in previous years.
The Q1 bracket will feature Jaxon Evans, Earl Bamber, and Ryan Wood, while Daniel Gaunt, Brendon Leitch, and Steve Brooks have been placed in Q2.
Qualifying
With an evolving track from Q1 to Q2, heavier cloud cover bringing colder conditions and potential rain over the top of the mountain, it was shaping up to be an edge-of-your-seat qualifying session.
Jaxon Evans, Ryan Wood, and Earl Bamber featured in a caution-free Q1. Drivers headed out early to scrub tyres and warm them up, which led to a stagnant start, with representative times not really set until the final ten minutes. After the first laps were complete, Evans sat fifth with a 2.04.126, closely followed by Wood with a 2.04.216 – both in Ferrari 296 GT3s. Bamber, debuting the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R around the mountain, sat in fourteenth.
Bamber soon moved into second place with a 2.03.097. At the same time, Austrian Lucas Auer put in an impressive lap, recording a 2.02.171, which improved on to be the only driver in Q1 to get into the 2.01’s, with a 2.01.972.
With a minute and a half to go, Wood set a solid lap to record a 2.02.609, which compatriot Evans quickly eclipsed with a slightly faster 2.02.553. The chequered flag fell soon after that, where Wood put in a final flying lap to set a 2.02.524, moving him into third place and finishing the session +0.553 off pole. Evans finished in fourth, +0.582 off Auer, and Bamber finished +1.087 off the Mercedes to wrap the session up in eighth.
Brendon Leitch, Daniel Gaunt, and Steve Brooks all had cars fighting to go through to the Pirelli Pole Battle. In a similar fashion to Q1 with extended warming and scrubbing periods, Leitch’s teammate Scott Andrews sat in third with a 2.02.382, Brook’s teammate Alex Peroni sat in sixth with a 2.02.548, and Gaunt’s teammate Alex Fontana registered a 2.03.472, putting him down the field.
The session was temporarily red-flagged after the #100 Grove Racing car, driven by Kai Allen, lost a left rear wheel coming out of the pit lane. Their best lap up until that point was deleted, and the team rushed to get the car back out on track, a task they ultimately managed to do. At this time, Cameron Waters held provisional pole with a 2.01.889.
Once red-flag conditions ended and qualifying resumed, track evolution proved costly for the Kiwis in Q1, with Evans, Wood, and Bamber all dropping out of the top ten, meaning they would not participate in the Pirelli Pole Battle.
Leitch’s teammate, Andrews, finished the session a mere +0.108 off the top of the timesheets, meaning Leitch would be the only Kiwi driver to feature with a chance to win the highly coveted Bathurst 12-hour pole. This meant that Wood would start the 12-hour sixteenth, Brooks the eighteenth, Evans the nineteenth, Gaunt the twenty-second, and Bamber the twenty-fifth.
In a fifteen-minute session, the Pirelli Pole Battle decides the final order for the top ten. In a closely contested session, the #268 Mercedes-AMG of Leitch was the only Kiwi in contention to win the Allan Simonsen Trophy and start the Bathurst 12-hour on pole.
Broc Feeney was the first to set a flying lap with a 2.02.415, to which Leitch’s teammate Andrews responded with a 2.02.593. Shortly after, Waters set a 2.01.079 to go to the top of the timesheet, which went unbeaten for the rest of the session, claiming pole position for the 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour and winning the Allan Simonsen Pirelli Pole Award. Andrews came into the pits with about a minute and a half to go on the clock and eventually finished the Pirelli Pole Battle in eighth.
With a long race of attrition ahead for our Kiwi drivers, all eyes will be focused on the start of the race tomorrow, kicking off at 7:45 am NZST.
Qualifying Results
Pirelli Pole Battle Results
Header Image: Tigani Motorsport
