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Team Eastern Creek Karts Wins Emotional Bathurst 12 Hour |
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Monday, 09 April 2007 |
There were emotional scenes at Mount Panorama today as Garry Holt, Paul Morris and Craig Baird combined in a team Eastern Creek Karts BMW 335 Twin-turbo to win the historic return of the WPS Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race.
Driving a car that only arrived six weeks before the event and had only been briefly tested prior to the event, Holt and his strong team combined to bounce back from a number of mid-race setbacks to secure a 1-minute win over the factory-supported Subaru Impreza of Chris Atkinson, Dean Herridge and Cody Crocker.
The Eastern Creek Karts BMW 335i completed 257 Laps of the 6.213km circuit, logging 1596 km in the 720 minutes of racing.
After qualifying on pole position, the dramas began early for Holt when
a last-minute fuel flow problem left the BMW Stranded in pit lane
before the start of the race – forcing Paul Morris to begin the race
from the pits.
The V8 Supercar ace quickly worked his way through the field and was
comfortably inside the top six by the 10th lap of the race.
Regularly the pace sitter, Morris and Baird split the first few driving
stints with Baird setting the races fastest lap of 2m32.5945 on the
105th lap.
Holt raced the mid-afternoon shift on old tyres and ceded the lead to
the Subaru of World Rally driver Chris Atkinson with about four hours
to go – a lead that the team was able to regain thanks to a combination
of strong pit strategy and event-leading pace.
In a dramatic last hour, whilst in the lead, the car was black-flagged
due to a fuel overflow problem, the team quickly rectifying the problem
allowing Craig Baird to bring the car home in front to record a
stunning and emotional victory for Holt and the Eastern Creek Karts
team.
”It’s amazing,” Garry Holt said.
“It’s very emotional. We have just put so much work into putting this
all together. We have only had the car for a few weeks and it’s all
been a huge effort to get it together.
“We had three extra fuel stops because in the beginning of the race the
car was only taking 40 of the usual 100 litres of fuel,” he explained.
”Then the car cut out on us when we were in the lead and we lot about two laps because of that. What we did was amazing.
”It means so much to me to be able to do it with these amazing drivers
in Paul and Craig. They both did an astonishing job, as did the team.
“We’ll be back next year to do it again.” He said.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 April 2007 )
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