Bathurst 12H: David Russell race report

DAVID RUSSELL JOINS ROGER LAGO AND MATT KINGSLEY TO FINISH 5TH OVERALL AND TAKE CLASS B VICTORY AT BATHURST 12 HOUR

February 6, 2011 - Top five 2010 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series driver David Russell raced to his third consecutive Bathurst victory today when he and fellow Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car drivers Roger Lago and Matt Kingsley claimed a dominant Class B victory and a remarkable outright 5th place in the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race.

This impressive result was preceded by Russell, Lago and Kingsley claiming the Class B (GT Challenge) pole position in qualifying at Bathurst which also placed the Porsche trio seventh outright. For Russell it was his second consecutive top qualifying position at Mount Panorama after claiming the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series Pole at the legendary New South Wales circuit last October.

The combinaton of two Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge champions with V8 Supercar ace Russell proved to be a powerful triumverate, the car 23 team managing to keep several more fancied competitors well behind them throughout the marathon race. A direct result of their consistency, excellent team work and outright pace throughout the long day.

According to Russell, it was fantastic to once again stand on the Bathurst podium after such a long and testing race. "A brilliant result for the team, we focussed solely on our own race and kept it clean through the changing weather conditions and lapped traffic. For me personally it is very satisfying coming off my Fujitsu Series V8 Supercar wins here last year and adding to my tally of class victories in all three Bathurst endurance race formats - the 3hour, 12 hour and 24 Hour during my career. I'd like to thank Roger Lago for the invitation to drive with his team this year and I look forward to racing with him again in the future."

The Armor All Bathurst 1000 was whitewashed by the two Audi R8 LMS GT3 teams, with the winning trio of Darrell O'Young, Marc Basseng and Christopher Mies claiming victory on their Bathurst debut ahead of Craig Lowndes, Warren Luff and Mark Eddy who piloted the Audi Australia entry. Third overall went to the Porsche GT3-R of Klark and Tony Quinn partnered by Craig Baird. The Porsche GT3 Cup S driven by David Wall, Greg Crick and Barton Mower was the last of the Class A entries in the top five with Russell, Lago and Kingsley's giant killing peformance slotting them into fifth overall and 18 laps ahead of their nearest rivals for Class B honours, after completing a total of 281 laps in 12 hours and seven seconds.

-source: marinellipr/david russell