Webb among Audi Bathurst 12 Hour drivers
Jonathon Webb will drive the Supabarn Audi in the 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour
Audi has announced the suite of R8 drivers for this year’s Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, including a comeback to motorsport for Jonathon Webb.
There will be a total of seven vehicles from the Ingolstadt marque in the race, all being the R8 LMS GT3 evo II, with one in the Pro class and three each in Pro-Am and Silver, most of which will be run by Melbourne Performance Centre.
That includes the #74 Audi Sport Team MPC entry which will be piloted by an all-factory trio of Mattia Drudi, Christopher Haase, and Patric Niederhauser.
Audi’s announcement also confirms that PremiAir Racing’s James Golding will drive the Pro-Am #55 Schumacher Motorsport Fuchs Racing entry which Supercars’ newest team is running for Brad Schumacher himself, with Frederic Vervisch named as the factory steerer in the crew.
Also in Pro-Am, the #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Team MPC car’s line-up is comprised of Ricardo Feller, Christopher Mies, and back-to-back Australian GT champion Yasser Shahin, while the #9 Hallmarc Team MPC entry will be driven by Lee Holdsworth, Dean Fiore, and Marc Cini.
2016 Bathurst 12 Hour winner Webb will drive the #47 Supabarn Team MPC entry with David Russell, James Koundouris, and Theo Koundouris; while a PremiAir and Tekno Autosports Supercars co-driver in Dylan O’Keeffe is set to line up with Andre Fawcet and Daniel Gaunt in the #10 Myland Team IMS car.
Both of those are Silver class entries as is the #65 Team MPC Audi, pending announcement of the third driver, given only Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross have been confirmed thus far.
“For our local MPC partners, the race is a first-class sporting challenge just as it is for us,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing.
“Already traditionally, MPC is represented at Bathurst with a strong, competitive base of customers.
“Audi Sport customer racing complements the privateer line-up with six Audi Sport drivers split across three race cars.”
Audi has won the Bathurst 12 Hour three times, most recently in 2018 with Team WRT, which is now a BMW squad and will field two M4 GT3s in this year’s race, including one to be driven by Valentino Rossi.
The event begins on Friday, February 3.
Audi drivers: 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour
| Num | Team/Sponsor | Class | Make | Model | Driver 1 | Ranking* | Driver 2 | Ranking* | Driver 3 | Ranking* | (Driver 4) | (Ranking)* |
| 74 | Audi Sport Team MPC | Pro | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Mattia Drudi | Platinum | Christopher Haase | Platinum | Patric Niederhauser | Platinum | ||
| 9 | Hallmarc Team MPC | Pro-Am | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Dean Fiore | Gold | Lee Holdsworth | Gold | Marc Cini | Bronze | ||
| 55 | Schumacher Motorsport Fuchs Racing | Pro-Am | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Frederic Vervisch | Gold | James Golding | Silver | Brad Schumacher | Bronze | ||
| 777 | The Bend Motorsport Park Team MPC | Pro-Am | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Ricardo Feller | Platinum | Christopher Mies | Platinum | Yasser Shahin | Bronze | ||
| 10 | Myland Team IMS | Silver | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Daniel Gaunt | Silver | Dylan O’Keeffe | Silver | Andrew Fawcet | Bronze | ||
| 47 | Supabarn Team MPC | Silver | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | David Russell | Silver | Jonathon Webb | Silver | James Koundouris | Bronze | Theo Koundouris | Bronze |
| 65 | Team MPC | Silver | Audi | R8 LMS evo II | Fraser Ross | Silver | Liam Talbot | Bronze | TBA | TBA |
* Per 2023 FIA Driver Categorisation list