Patrick Long, Marc Lieb, David Calvert-Jones and Matt Campbell scored a sensational class win and claimed p2 overall in a hectic, unforgettable Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hours on Saturday, at the legendary Mount Panorama circuit. The #12A Ice Break Coffee Porsche 911 GT3 R, run by Competition Motorsports, ran a strong weekend throughout, progressing through the unique qualifying format to ultimately take place in the Top Ten shootout, where new Porsche Junior Matt Campbell qualified 9th overall.
During the race, which saw a characteristic high number of safety car periods due to Mount Panorama’s incredibly narrow confines and large, varied grid, the Ice Break team led for a few stretches but was in and amongst the fight at the front all day. The team did incur three penalties in the race for various infractions, but were running first in class and P3 overall when pre-race favorite Shane Van Gisbergen spectacularly crashed out from P2 with just minutes remaining.
2016 FIA WEC Champion Marc Lieb said, “Second place and class victory feels pretty good. We had to cope with a lot of minor setbacks, probably more than any other team, and that alone makes this a super result.”
Patrick remarked, “My stints were good. During the second stint I unfortunately nudged a Mercedes. I wanted to overtake it to snatch the lead but he didn’t budge an inch and I didn’t want to risk anything. So I decided to pull back and keep my position. But I was on the dirty side of the track and I couldn’t avoid touching the car. Luckily nothing more happened.”
