Manthey Porsche paces Bathurst Practice 3

PORSCHE powerhouse Manthey EMA cemented its position as one of the favourites for the 2024 Repco Bathurst 12 Hour by topping Practice 3.

The Friday afternoon session was open to all drivers and ran green throughout its 40 minutes.  

Belgian ace Laurens Vanthoor put the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche on top just past the 10-minute mark with a 2:03.689s that went unbeaten for the duration.

SPOTTER GUIDE: Photos of every car in the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour

Vanthoor – who returns to Bathurst for the first time since 2020, still chasing his first victory in the event – shares the entry with Ayhancan Güven and Aussie Matt Campbell.

Güven spent the second half of the session aboard the car and only narrowly avoided contact with the concrete when he lost the rear through The Cutting with 10 minutes remaining.

BMW’s star attraction Valentino Rossi spent the entirety of the session in the #46 M4 GT3 and held down second place for much of the going.

Turn right to go left 🤪#B12HR pic.twitter.com/Kzmtg7oDln

— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 16, 2024

However, he was bumped to fourth thanks to late efforts from Mikaël Grenier in the #888 Triple Eight Mercedes and Joel Eriksson in the #13 Phantom Global Porsche.

Grenier’s best time remained 0.465s from Vanthoor, with Eriksson and Rossi 0.779s and 0.807s adrift respectively.

The #130 GruppeM and #88 Triple Eight entries made it three Mercedes-AMGs in the top six, with the latter topping Pro-Am.

The #22 Jamec Pem MPC Audi that topped the opening two sessions ended Practice 3 in seventh place, one ahead of Manthey EMA’s #911 Pro-Am contender.

The opening minutes of Practice 3 featured an unusual scene as the Bathurst 12 Hour competitors were joined on track by a Mercedes van, guarded by a course car.

What's the BOP on this? 🤣🤣#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/XG19czjcGX

— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 16, 2024

It took the ‘Circuit Safari’ concept previously deployed by Nissan at Sandown to a new level by running in an actual session.

Driven by former Bathurst 12 Hour and Bathurst 1000 starter Christian D’Agostin, guests aboard the van included event director Shane Rudzis and V8 Sleuth’s Head of Digital Will Dale.

A fourth practice session for Bronze-rated drivers only will get underway at 3:40pm local time and complete the Friday running.

RESULTS: Practice 3, 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour (40min)