Bathurst winner Longhurst calls time on career

Longhurst teamed up with third-generation young guns Aaron Seton and Matt Brabham to dominate Class C at Bathurst in a BMW, the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner and ATCC/Supercars legend taking the opportunity to hang up his helmet on a winning note.

“I didn’t really think about the emotion of the last stint, but I am sure it will hit me in the next couple of hours," he said.

“I was going to finish my career at the Bathurst 12 Hour last year, but we had the bingle in the GT3 car and I just didn’t want to go out like that.

“It was fantastic to finish my career with a win in the BMW after starting my career with them."

Longhurst began his Australian Touring Car Championship career with the JPS BMW squad back in the mid-1980s, before setting up his own Benson and Hedges-backed squad in 1988. He started with a Ford Sierra, claiming the first of two Bathurst 1000 triumphs alongside Tomas Mezera in the team's first year, before switching to an M3 for the end of the Group A era in the early 1990s.

In 1994 Longhurst successfully campaigned a BMW 318i in the Australian Super Touring Championship, before a long stint fielding Ford Falcons under the well-known Castrol Longhurst Racing banner in Supercars.

His next major triumph came at the 2001 Bathurst 1000, Longhurst combining with Mark Skaife at the Holden Racing Team to win The Great Race for a second time.

He's also an outright Bathurst 12 Hour winner, taking out the 2009 running of the race in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo alongside Rod Salmon and Damien White.