Craft Bamboo Racing withdraws from Bathurst

Craft Bamboo Racing will be absent from the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour after electing to withdraw its entry just days before the event.

The top Asian GT outfit originally planned to field two Porsche 911 GT3 Rs at Mount Panorama before restricting its effort to a sole entrant after both its cars sustained damage during the GT World Cup event at Macau last year.

While its Porsche has successfully arrived in Australia, the team has been forced to abandon its program this week when a driver sponsor failed to deliver the required funds for the Bathurst 12 Hour bid.

The Darryl O’Young led outfit, entered in the professional class, was one of the only teams yet to reveal its full driver line-up for the race.

The news comes as a cruel blow for the team that has previously enjoyed success at the Bathurst 12 Hour.

In 2015 the squad entered two Aston Martin Vantage GT3s which resulted in a third place finish for its lead entry featuring O’Young, Alex MacDowall and Stefan Mucke.

The operation investigated the possibility of finding a replacement driver to help foot the bill but its search was ultimately unsuccessful.

“We have made the decision to withdraw the car from the race which is unfortunate,” O’Young told Speedcafe.com.

“We had two cars destroyed in Macau which included chassis and engines which made it tough for us to air freight new chassis from Europe to Asia and then onto Australia.

“From that point we decided to only enter one car.

“We shipped the car to Australia and the team was prepared with strong drivers and engineers but last week one of the driver’s sponsors hadn’t made a payment.

“Being quite late we couldn’t find a way to recover as it was a big chunk of our budget.

“It is a real shame because our car and equipment is here in Australia and it is a race that we love to do.

“I really believe that the car would have been very competitive.

“We are pretty gutted not to be there, but we hope to be back again in the future.”

Craft Bamboo Racing’s demise sees 33 GT3 cars line up on the grid to tackle Class A.

Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Entry List

Class A – GT3 Pro

No	Team Name	Manufacturer	Model	Drivers
7	BMW Team SRM	BMW	M6 GT3	Tony	Longhurst
				Mark	Skaife
				Russell	Ingall
				Timo	Glock
8	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	Continential GT3	Steven	Kane
				Guy	Smith
				Oliver	Jarvis
17	Bentley Team M-Sport	Bentley	Continential GT3	Andy	Soucek
				Maxime	Soulet
				Vincent	Abril
22	STM / HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	AMG GT3	Craig	Baird
				Shane	Van Gisbergen
				Maro	Engel
23	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan	GT-R Nismo GT3	Katsumasa	Chiyo
				Alex	Buncombe
				Michael	Caruso
24	Nissan Motorsport	Nissan	GT-R Nismo GT3	Florian	Strauss
				Todd	Kelly
				Jann	Mardenborough
60	BMW Team SRM	BMW	M6 GT3	Steve	Richards
				Mark	Winterbottom
				Marco	Wittmann
58	Tekno Autosports / McLaren GT	McLaren	650s GT3	Alvaro	Parente
				Rob	Bell
				Côme	Ledogar
59	Tekno Autosports / McLaren GT	McLaren	650s GT3	Ben	Barnicoat
				Jonny	Kane
				Will	Davison
74	Jamec Pem Racing	Audi	R8 LMS	Garth	Tander
				Christopher	Mies
				Christopher	Haase
75	Jamec Pem Racing	Audi	R8 LMS	Markus	Winkelhock
				Robin	Frijns
				Frank	Stippler
88	Maranello Motorsport	Ferrari	488 GT3	Toni	Vilander
				Craig	Lowndes
				Jamie	Whincup
99	Walkenhorst	BMW	M6 GT3	Jörg	Müller
				Nico	Menzel
				Ricky	Collard
911	Walkinshaw GT3	Porsche	911 GT3 R (Type 991)	Earl	Bamber
				Kevin	Estre
				Laurens	Vanthoor

Class A – GT3 Pro/Am

No	Team Name	Manufacturer	Model	Drivers
3	Team ASR Pty Ltd	Audi	R8 LMS	Ash	Samadi
				Daniel	Gaunt
				Matt	Halliday
9	Hallmarc	Audi	R8 LMS	Marc	Cini
				Lee	Holdsworth
				Dean	Fiore
11	Objective Racing	McLaren	650s	Tony	Walls
				Warren	Luff
				Tim	Slade
				Alex	Davison
12	Competition Motorsports powered by Ice Break	Porsche	991 GT3 R	David	Calvert-Jones
				Patrick	Long
				Marc	Lieb
				Matt	Campbell
61	Hogs	Mercedes	AMG	Mark	Griffith
				Dominic	Storey
				David	Reynolds
83	HTP Motorsport	Mercedes	AMG GT GT3	Paul	Dalla Lana
				Pedro	Lamy
				Mathias	Lauda
				Bernd	Schneider

Class A – GT3 Am

No	Team Name	Manufacturer	Model	Drivers
2	DJS Racing	Audi	LMS R8	Daniel	Stuttard
				James	Bergmuller
				Samuel	Fillmore
5	GT Motorsport Pty Ltd	Audi	R8 LMS	Greg	Taylor
				Nathan	Antunes
				Elliot	Barbour
29	Trofeo Motorsport	Lamborghini	Huracan GT3	Jim	Manolis
				Ryan	Millier
				Ivan	Capelli
				Dean	Canto
32	Lago Racing	Lamborghini	R-EX	Roger	Lago
				Steve	Owen
				David	Russell
35	Miedecke Stone Motorsport	Aston Martin	V12 Vantage	George	Miedecke
				Ashley	Walsh
				Tony	Bates
37	Keltic Racing	McLaren	650s	Anthony	Quinn
				Klark	Quinn
				Grant	Denyer
				Andrew	Waite
38	Wall Racing	Nissan	GT-R	Daniel	Bilski
				Adrian	Flack
				Chris	Pither
44	Supabarn	Audi	R8 LMS	James (Dimitri)	Koundouris
				Theo	Koundouris
				Markus	Marshall
				Simon	Evans
47	Kiwi Racing	Lamborghini	Reiter R-EX	Glenn	Smith
				Kevin	Bell
				Nicholas	Chester
				John	De Veth
51	AMAC Motorsport	Porsche	GT3 R	Andrew	MacPherson
				Neale	Muston
				Tim	Miles
66	Wall Racing	Nissan	GT-R	Brett	Hodges
				Erik	Davis
				Fred	Poordad
90	MARC Cars Australia	BMW	M6 GT3	Chaz	Mostert
				Max	Twigg
				Morgan	Haber
912	Walkinshaw GT3	Porsche	911 GT3 R (Type 991)	Liam	Talbot
				John	Martin
				Duvashen	Padayachee

Class B – GT3 (Cup Cars)

No	Team Name	Manufacturer	Model	Drivers
4	Grove Motorsport	Porsche	911 Cup Car	Stephen	Grove
				Benjamin	Barker
				Alexandre	Imperatori
6	Wall Racing	Porsche	997 GT3 Cup	Richard	Gartner
				Aaron	Zerefos
				Indiran	Padayachee
				Ric	Shaw
14	IKAD Racing	Porsche	997 Cup Car	Peter	Major
				Jordan	Love
				Nick	McBride
21	Steve Richards Motorsport	Porsche	GT3 Cup	Dean	Grant
				Dylan	O’Keeffe
				Xavier	West
50	Synep Racing	Porsche	991 Cup Car	Adam	Cranston
				Josh	Cranston
				Aaron	Steer
				Jamie	Winslow

Class C – GT4

No	Team Name	Manufacturer	Model	Drivers
18	PROsport Performance	Porsche	Cayman PRO 4	Charles	Putman
				Charles	Espenlaub
				Joe	Foster
19	PROsport Performance	Porsche	Cayman PRO 4	Andrew	Pilgrim
				Max	Braams
				Jörg	Viebahn
				Nicolaij	Moller- Madsen
40	Brookspeed	Porsche	Cayman GT4 Clubsport	Aaron	Mason
				David	Drinkwater
				TBA
41	Brookspeed	Porsche	Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR	TBA
				TBA
				TBA
48	M Motorsport	KTM	X-Bow GT4	Justin	McMillan
				Glen	Wood
				Tomas	Enge
				Reinhard	Kofler
55	RA Motorsports – Ginetta	Ginetta	G55	Mike	Simpson
				Peter	Paddon
				Tim	Berryman
62	R-Motorsport	Aston Martin	V8 Vantage	Andreas	Baenziger
				Peter	Leemhuis
				Jan	Struve
69	RA Motorsports – Ginetta	Ginetta	G55	Zen	Low
				Shinyo	Sano
				Jake	Parsons

Class D – Invitational

No	Team Name	Manufacturer	Model	Drivers
28	On Track Motorsport	BMW	335i	Garry	Mennell
				Bernard	Verryt
				Steve	Vanbellingen
54	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	Tony	Alford
				Beric	Lynton
				Jeffrey	Smith
65	Daytona Sportscars	Dodge	Viper Coupe	Jamie	Augustine
				Benjamin	Schoots
				Dean	Lillie
76	R-Motorsport	Aston Martin	Vantage GT8	Florian	Kamelger
				Darren	Turner
				Markus	Lungstrass
91	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	Keith	Kassulke
				William	Brown
				Rod	Salmon
92	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	Michael	Benton
				Hadrian	Morrall
				Aaron	Seton
93	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Mazda 3 V8	Jake	Camilleri
				Jack	Smith
				Rob	Thomson
94	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Mazda 3 V8	Leanne	Tander
				Nicholas	Rowe
				Gerard	McLeod
				Tim	Leahey
95	MARC Cars Australia	MARC	Focus V8	Geoffrey Peter	Taunton
				Jason Andrew	Busk
				Bryce	Fullwood