BENTLEY CONQUERS THE MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB ON THE PODIUM

Bentley Motorsport finished the Bathurst 12 Hours in third place with its #10 Bentley Team M-Sport Continental GT3. Piloted by Brits Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Matt Bell, the car completed 297 laps of 6.2km long circuit and led for just over an hour.

The identical #31 car, which also led the race, finished in seventh place making the brand the only GT manufacturer to cross the line with all of its entries, after 12 hours of challenging but reliable racing for the Continental GT3s. 

“A podium finish in just our second year racing here at Mount Panorama Circuit is a great achievement,” commented Bentley's Director of Motorsport, Brian Gush. “Both of our cars have completed 12 hours of extremely demanding and competitive racing without any reliability issues.

“Staying out of trouble on the mountain is difficult and we fell foul of some incidents but the crew fought hard to keep us going and completed some very impressive pit stops. It’s good to take a haul of points forward into the 2016 SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge and we look forward to continuing with the new series at Spa 24 Hours in July.”

The Bathurst 12 Hours is the opening round of the new-for-2016 SRO Intercontinental GT Challenge, which also comprises the Spa 24 Hours and the Sepang 12 Hours.

“It feels great to be on the podium,” said Matt Bell. “It’s especially rewarding as we missed out so narrowly last year. The car was fantastic all week. When you are on a track as demanding as this, you need to have confidence in your car so you can keep pushing throughout.”

According to Steven Kane, “Third place is a fantastic finish but when you come here and have a really strong week, you become focused on the win. In the middle of the race, we had the potential to challenge for the win but, by the end, we just didn’t have the pace.”

While the #31 car finished, the result was not good enough for the two drivers.

“It’s a disappointing race for us but we had the car to win,” noted Maxime Soulet. “My team did a great job and the Bentley Continental GT3 was alongside the competition all weekend.”

Bentley Motorsport will continue its 2016 program with the opening round of the Blancpain GT Series. Follow the team on Twitter using @BentleyRacing.