The 2025 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour is the 14th to feature GT3 models following the inclusion of the global GT formula in 2011, which proved a controversial move at the time.
Originating in 1991, the Bathurst 12 Hour arrived on the Australian motorsport scene at a time when production car racing had changed its regulations to focus on the Ford Falcons, Holden Commodores and smaller capacity models thus banning the likes of the dominant Toyota Supra.
Bathurst 12 Hour organisers included the likes of the Supra and its turbocharged rivals, which had also been banned after 1989 amid some controversy.
Although a modest 24 entries contested the race, it proved a solid starting point and Channel 10’s superb live coverage ensured interest grew surrounding the event.
This was proven in 1992 when a capacity grid took to the start featuring factory support from the likes of Ford, Mazda, BMW, Toyota, Peugeot, Citroen, Holden, Nissan, Hyundai and Mitsubishi.
Mazda grew to dominate the event in which it debuted the RX-7 in 1992, with the challenges coming from more exotic models putting into question the ethics of allowing such thoroughbreds. These included Porsche’s 968CS, Honda NSX, Nissan GT-R and a Lotus Espirit.
This didn’t stop Mazda’s dominance, but the Bathurst 12 Hour lost its James-Hardie title sponsorship and was forced to move to Eastern Creek where the Japanese manufacturer’s new homologation special RX-7 SP won the last edition.
Ross Palmer’s PROCAR organisation took on production cars in 1996 and built it into a popular, semi-professional category. PROCAR returned production car racing to endurance racing at the Mountain on 1000 weekend through the classic Showroom Showdowns.
But when the pin was pulled by PROCAR in 2004, production car racing proved the biggest loser and has never quite recovered from those glory days of the early-2000s.
The Bathurst 12 Hour returned to prominence for production cars in 2007 and although grids were reasonable, the interest from manufacturers failed to match the earlier editions.
Just like in the early-1990s events, the Japanese led the way through Mitsubishi.
A major shift came in 2011 to open the entry up to GT competitors leading to disgruntled production car entrants and a downturn in entries for the first two editions in this era.
Audi was a major supporter during the start and was rewarded by increased competition from 2013 where at the race’s height in 2020, there were manufacturer supported entries from Porsche, Mercedes-AMG, Bentley, Nissan, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Honda, BMW, McLaren and Aston Martin.
SRO Motorsports Group interest led to it becoming a round of its global Intercontinental GT Challenge series from its first season in 2016.
Since the global pandemic, the race has not welcomed the entries of this strength again, but the growth in the local GT scene will provide a great depth when international teams return in the next few years.