> Campbell/Jaminet/Pilet and Werner/Cairoli/Preining team-up for defending Bathurst winners and series champions
Absolute Racing will spearhead Porsche’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour defence on January 31 – February 2 when it fields both of the manufacturer’s full-season Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli driver crews.
The reigning GT World Challenge Asia Teams’ champions are no strangers to #IntGTC having run one of Porsche’s works entries at Suzuka last season. Now the Chinese squad and Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific customer will debut the same new-generation 911 GT3 R at Mount Panorama where Stuttgart’s previous model ended its front-line competition career in style earlier this year.
Porsche announced its Intercontinental drivers for the upcoming campaign earlier this month but stopped short of naming the precise combination of each crew.
It’s now been confirmed that 2019 Bathurst winner and Australian home hero Matt Campbell will partner Mathieu Jaminet, who won at Kyalami last month, and long-time Porsche factory ace Patrick Pilet in the #911 entry.
Meanwhile, Campbell’s former co-driver and fellow defending Bathurst winner Dirk Werner joins forces with two new additions to Porsche’s roster: reigning Carrera Cup Germany champion and Formula E test driver Thomas Preining, and this year’s European Le Mans Series runner-up Matteo Cairoli.
“We had a fantastic first year with Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific and the Porsche 911 GT3 R in 2019, so we’re very keen to continue that trend into the new year,” said Absolute Racing Team Manager Fabien Fior. “It’s the second time we have partnered for an Intercontinental GT Challenge race and look forward to competing at the Mount Panorama Circuit with the manufacturer which won last year’s event.”
Alexandre Gibot, Head of Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific, added: “We’re excited to make our first announcement for the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge season. With Porsche being the reigning Bathurst champions, we are confident that Absolute Racing will provide us with an excellent chance of an equally strong result, especially after such a successful first year with us in 2019, with multiple successes in Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia and the Suzuka 10 Hours. We’ll be working hard to provide them with all the support we can.”
Porsche’s 2019 victory at Bathurst – its first at Mount Panorama and in #IntGTC – laid the foundation for a successful Intercontinental campaign featuring two more wins and the Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles.