Bathurst 24: Only three to go

Mount Panorama, Bathurst (NSW) 22-23 November 2003
Update at 10.45 AM Sunday

Just over three hours remain in the Bathurst 24-Hour at Mount Panorama and the 427# and 05# Monaros continue to play with the field. They've covered 455 laps -- 2821 kilometres -- but the overall pace has been slower this year due to the number of safety car periods, 11 so far.

The 70# Graham Nash Motorsport Porsche and 11# Ferrari rejoined the race around 8 am after substantial work by the NRMA Smash Repair Team, following accidents. Under unique racing rules at the Bathurst 24-Hour, cars that crash can be removed from the track, repaired and put back in the race, stead of being forced to retire.

One of the fastest cars on lap times continues to be the Mosler MT900R of British team Rollcentre Racing. Driver Patrick Pearce has been matching the fastest lap times of the Monaros, but the team is 17 laps down on the leaders.

The 27# BMW M Coupe spun and retired on lap 459 at 1056 am, when a right-rear wheel let go at Murrays Corner. The car was otherwise undamaged. Mark King was driving and the incident brought out the safety car for the 12th occasion.

Also in the past hour, the 62# Holden Commodore with Scott Loadsman arrived at the pits with a smoking engine. The car had had a superb run, but recently dropped to fifth in class due to problems.

Outright 1. 427# Holden Monaro Tander/Richards/Pretty/McConville 455 laps 2. 05# Holden Brock/Murphy/Bright/Kelly 3. 54# Porsche GT3 Cup Shearman/Teulan/Fitzgerald/Morris 4. 6# Porsche GT3 Cup Alzen/Alzen/Klasen/Bartels 5. 900# Mosler Short/Pearce/Lamb/Spurle

Class A - 427# Holden Monaro            Tander/Richards/Pretty/McConville
Class B -   6# Porsche GT3 Cup          Alzen/Alzen/Klasen/Bartels
Class D -  71# BMW M3                   Boylan/Bates/Morgan/Hansen
Class E -  13# Toyota Celica            Osborne/Roecken/Grocl/Keene
Class F -  59# Holden Commodore         Williams/Moore/Bosnjak

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