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Kavich/Kavich/Randle leads at half-way point
THE BMW of Ben Kavich, Michael Kavich and Thomas Randle holds the lead halfway through an interruption-laden Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour.
The race got underway with 69 cars for the rolling start, after late withdrawals for the #28 (Peter O’Donnell/Garry Mennell/Scott Turner), #94 (Jack, Adam and Jed Wallis) and #111 (James Meaden/David Murphy/Mathew Thewlis).
Beric Lynton (#23) got the jump off the outside of the front row and Randle (#92) also jumped pole-sitter Simon Hodges (#1).
There was plenty of excitement from the get-go, Randle passing Lynton, before the latter outdragged his way back to the front, before Randle reclaimed the lead into the Chase – all on Lap 1!
Further back, there was one eye on Cameron Crick, who’d started 66th after a qualifying drama. The #118 BMW was all the way up to 32nd by the end of the first lap.
The wait wasn’t long for the first Safety Car of the race, Ian Joyce (#3) becoming beached at Hell Corner on Lap 3.
The order at that point ran Randle from Lynton, Tom McLennan (#81), Hodges and Amar Sharma (#90).
The race promptly restarted and by Lap 8, Crick was into the top 10.
The next time around, Randle pitted from the lead, handing over to Ben Kavich who re-emerged in 50th place.
Crick passed Hodges for fourth on the road on Lap 11, but the cards fell the #1’s way moments later when Andrew Martin stopped at Forrest’s Elbow to spark another Safety Car intervention.
Hodges was perfectly placed to head to the lane while the four cars ahead were all past pit entry and subsequently caught the Safety Car, losing track position by the time they stopped the next time around.
A reminder: the Class X cars are compelled to make six compulsory pitstops, each involving a minimum transit time of 90 seconds. Once those are ticked off, the minimum transit time no longer applies.
So it was a jumbled order for the second restart on Lap 16, with a tad over five hours remaining: Zac Soutar (#154) leading from the Class A2 cars of Zak Best (#21), Grant Denyer (#101) and Hadrian Morrall (#9).
Hodges was 10th and the only competitor in the top 21 with a pitstop under its belt.
The faster Hankook rubber at this year’s event caused some headaches for several frontrunners, with Tom Shaw (#115), Brock Giblin (#10), McLennan, Sharma, Soutar and Trent Whyte (#18) all suffering tyre trauma in a short space of time.
Soutar’s drama left Best in the lead of the race, the #21 Mustang competing under appeal (relating to the legality of its differential) which will be heard post-race.
The Safety Car returned on Lap 26, the catalyst being Denyer’s Camaro running out of fuel at the Chase.
That led to a stop/start phase of the race, the Lap 29 restart lasting a matter of corners until Aaron Zerefos (#105) and Steve Coe (#128) collided at the Cutting.
Another restart on Lap 34 was short-lived, with contact on the first run through Hell Corner firing Scott Gore (#48) into the gravel trap at Hell Corner.
The race went green again on Lap 36 and yellow once more on Lap 37 thanks to Anthony Levitt’s Audi (#7) pulling off to the left-hand side of Mountain Straight. Nick Winsor (#43) also ground to a halt at Griffins Bend.
The #23, which now had Tim Leahey aboard, was hit with a drive-through penalty for a Safety Car infringement, to be served under green flag conditions, contributing further to the sparsity of Class X runners at the pointy end.
In fact, there was only one outright class car in the top 10 when the race finally enjoyed a block of green running starting Lap 40 – that being Oscar Targett (#60) in ninth.
Leahey dropped to the back of the 28 cars on the lead lap upon serving his penalty, while David Russell (#81) sought to unlap himself.
All the while it was Tyler Mecklem in the #9 Mustang cruising along in the lead, building a sizeable margin to the pack of cars behind.
For a time it was Targett in second until he temporarily slowed; Brandon Madden (#10) in the HSV grabbing second on Lap 50, followed by Todd Hazelwood (#30) and Ben Gersekowski (#41).
It turned out to be Lap 50 when the next Safety Car intervention came, 20 minutes short of the halfway point, with the Class X BMW of Ray Hislop (#154) stranded in the Chase sandtrap.
Mecklem, Hazelwood, Dean Campbell (#118), George Miedecke (#1), Targett, Leahey among others pitted, leaving Madden, Gersekowski and Brianna Wilson (#23) at the head of the field.
Critically, the pitstop for the #1 – in which Hodges and Jayden Ojeda are hunting a three-peat – meant it became the first Class X car to tick off its sixth and final CPS.
Each of Madden, Gersekowski and Wilson then pitted the next time around, putting the Class A #143 of Darcy Inwood in the lead from Kavich.
Miedecke curiously pitted again, for a seventh time, with a potential fuel issue apparent. He re-emerged in 21st, but still on the lead lap.
The race restarted with three hours and six minutes on the clock, and Kavich wasted no time dispatching Inwood from the lead.
At the end of that tour, Lap 54, it was Kavich from Inwood, Campbell, Alex Holzl (#140), Morrall, Leahey and Hazelwood in seventh.
Coverage Provided by V8 Sleuth