Porsche and BMW complete overall podium
Independent Cup winner Li enjoys dream IGTC debut with second overall
Top two fight through from 29th and 30th on the grid

Mercedes-AMG began the new Intercontinental GT Challenge season in style by scoring a record-breaking fourth Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour victory. It was also a first win at Australia’s International Enduro for GMR, Maxime Martin, Mikael Grenier and Maro Engel who finally triumphed at Mount Panorama on his 10th attempt.

They beat the High Class Racing Porsche shared by Independent Cup winner Kerong Li and his co-drivers Anders Fjordbach and Dorian Boccolacci by just one second. The trio belied their Bronze class status to not only win their category but also out-perform the plethora of factory crews that finished behind.

Even more remarkably, but perhaps indicative of this race’s unpredictable nature, the top two achieved their results despite starting 29th and 30th, respectively. In doing so, GMR comfortably broke the event record of 11th that had stood since 2020.

An attendance figure of 55,231 was also an all-time high, while 13 cars finished on the lead lap – another new benchmark for the race.

BMW began the defence of its IGTC titles by completing the podium with WRT’s Raffaele Marciello, Augusto Farfus and Valentino Rossi who led home the Jamec/MPC Audi and Team KRC’s M4 driven by Tony Ruan, Maxime Oosten and Max Hesse.

Absolute’s Porsche rounded out the overall top six and IGTC’s first five entries.