> 2020 Bathurst 12 Hour schedule
Demonstration sessions for a field of classic Group C sports-prototypes will be amongst the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour’s jam-packed schedule in 2020.
Australia’s international enduro hosts the opening round of 2020’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli on January 31-February 2 when the world’s only global GT3 championship is joined by a host of top-notch support races and demo runs around Mount Panorama.
Three support categories – Aussie Racing Cars, Group S Historic Sports Cars and Combined Sedans – as well as more than six hours of track time for Bathurst 12 Hour entries prior to Sunday’s race ensure the focus is once again on providing non-stop on-track entertainment.
Introduced by the FIA as the main International Sports Car category in 1982, Group C was famous for providing some of the fastest and most impressive racing cars ever produced.
While perhaps most famous for the all-conquering Porsche 956 and subsequent 962 models, the class attracted a range of brands to compete in both the World Sportscar Championship, Le Mans and in the IMSA GTP Series, which utilised similar rules.
A selection of classic Croup C machinery will take to the track once on Friday and then for a pair of 15-minute sessions on Saturday.
Practice for the 12 Hour itself commences on Friday morning with a 30-minute session for all-comers, excluding platinum and gold-graded drivers competing in Class A.
That session is then followed immediately by a further one-hour of practice for all entrants.
Practice 3 will likely see teams begin to simulate qualifying while the fourth session on Friday will likely see conditions close to the Shootout on Saturday afternoon.
The fifth and final practice session will be held on Saturday morning and see teams complete a final systems-check before qualifying takes over the schedule later that day.
To be held across two parts, a 45-minute session for all cars will be immediately followed by a 30-minute session for Class A cars only to determine who progresses through to the Pirelli Top-10 Shootout that afternoon. The Shootout will commence just after 5PM local time on Saturday.
FOX Sports in Australia will cover Saturday’s action exclusively with their broadcast to run between 12:30pm – 6:00pm local time.
Along with the 12-Hour and Group C demonstration sessions, Saturday will also feature six support category races from Aussie Racing Cars, Group S Historic Sports Cars and Combined Sedans.
The support categories will practice and qualify on Friday morning with the first racing of the weekend to commence at 1:45pm that afternoon.
As per tradition, the 2020 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Race itself commences at 5:45am on Sunday morning, 2 February.
Sunday’s coverage will commence at 5:30am local time and run for 12.5 Hours concurrently on Channel 7 and FOX Sports 506. International viewers can watch the race and Top-10 Shootout on Intercontinental’s website and Facebook page, as well as SRO’s GT World Youtube channel.