THE FINAL pieces of the LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour grid have fallen into place, with Mark Griffith confirming a strong driving squad for his Invitational Class-entered Mercedes-AMG GT.
Griffith will be joined by 25-year-old German Fabian Schiller, who races for Mercedes-AMG in the Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS).
Schiller finished third in the 2022 ADAC GT Masters Series, and represented Germany at the FIA Motorsport Games last year, finishing second.
He jetted into Australia today following the Rolex 24 at Daytona last weekend – one of now 14 drivers to be doing a 36 hour endurance double between the two classic races on opposite sides of the globe.
He and Griffith will be joined by young Aussie rising star, Christian Pancione.
The Victorian driver currently races the VCM Performance-backed entry in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, finishing 9th in the 2022 championship.
Both drivers are yet to make a Bathurst 12 Hour start, however the experienced Griffith has 8 prior 12-Hour races and a host of other Bathurst endurance experience under his belt.
The trio are entered in the Invitational class aboard Griffith’s GT4 Mercedes-AMG and will compete against MARC Cars Australia entries, a SIN from Daytona Sports Cars and the KTM Xbow GT2.
Meanwhile, the #65 Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia entry of Chaz Mostert, Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross has officially moved into the Bausele Watches Pro-Am class for the 2023 race.
Originally entered in Silver, Mostert’s addition to the team means the squad was required to step into the fiercely competitive Pro-Am battle.
Rivals include the Boost Mobile Racing entry of Jamie Whincup, Richie Stanaway and Prince Jefri Ibrahim, the Fuchs Racing entry of James Golding, Frederic Vervisch and Brad Schumacher and the Audi Sport / The Bend entry of Christopher Mies, Ricardo Feller and Yasser Shahin – among others.
The Mostert / Ross / Talbot car will unveil their 2023 livery and sponsor tomorrow at Mount Panorama.
There are eight entries in the Pro-Am class alongside Eight in Pro and five in the Silver category for GT3 vehicles.
All 26 cars are now at Mount Panorama with final preparations underway for Australia’s International Enduro this weekend.
Action commences tomorrow with the Track to Town activation underway as cars travel from the circuit to the centre of Bathurst under Police Escort.
Once in town, an all-in autograph session, the 2022 winners plaque presentation and food / drink for fans will be on offer until the cars depart just prior to 1pm.
On-track action commences at Mount Panorama on Friday.
Tickets are still on sale via Ticketek, while the race will be broadcast live on Fox Sports, Kayo and the Seven Network around Australia, Sky Sports New Zealand and internationally via SRO’S GT World YouTube Channel, Radio Show Ltd and other streaming providers.
