CoRe To Tame The Mountain With 3 Teams
The iRacing Bathurst 12 Hour is one of the most mind-wrecking events in sim racing, set on the legendary Mount Panorama Circuit in Australia. Known for its tight corners, rapid elevation changes, and unforgiving walls, the 6.213 km track demands precision, skill, and endurance from all drivers. As a virtual counterpart to the real-world Bathurst 12 Hour, this special event tests teams in GT3 machinery against some of the best sim racers worldwide. This year, the 13GMT Saturday split faced one of the most challenging rain conditions ever seen in iRacing, making it an unforgiving race with treacherous track conditions. For the 2025 edition of the race, CoRe SimRacing fielded three teams to tackle the mountain : CoRe SimRacing Orange with Mikko Nurmi, Sven Neumann, and Pascal Stix in the Ford Mustang GT3 (13:00 GMT Split 3) – CoRe SimRacing Silver with Thomas Arends, Marcus R Fox, and Maik Paluch in the Porsche 992 R GT3 (07:00 GMT Split 1) – and CoRe SimRacing White with Tom Kunath and Sven Lottmann in the Porsche, as well (13:00 GMT Split 6).
The 13:00 GMT timeslot proved to be an endurance nightmare, with treacherous rain conditions leading to unavoidable incidents. CoRe SimRacing White’s Sven & Tom, who decided to go into the race as a two-man squad, were able to get a solid start into race in their Porsche 992 GT3 machine. In the first hours they suffered unavoidable early damage but fought to stay near the Top 20 nevertheless. Meanwhile in the other split, CoRe SimRacing Orange had a promising start into the pouring rain but was caught in a catastrophic crash at Sulman Park in the early stages of the race when an out-of-control car left them no escape. Forced into extensive repairs in the pits due to that, they rejoined past P30 and kept pushing despite the setback. Unfortunately, another unavoidable major crash at Skyline sealed their fate, forcing a late retirement of the CoRe Mustang from the endurance event.
In the 08:00 GMT timeslot, CoRe SimRacing Silver faced rain at the start only and managed to get through the first stint cleanly. However, a careless rejoin by Fast Repair Motorsports at The Dipper led to a massive crash where Thomas could not get past safely, heavily damaging the Silver Porsche car and affecting its power output for upcoming stints. Despite the setback and the frustrating time lost in the pits due to needed repairs, the team pressed on, getting their car fixed with about 4-5 hours to go in race distance. Their perseverance paid off making up ground on track, securing a respectable P15 finish in the morning top split by the end of the race. In the 13:00 GMT timeslot the rain finally moved on in the late stages of the race, too – allowing Sven and Tom to safely finish the CoRe SimRacing White entry in P18, too.
Due to the unpredictable weather, relentless traffic, and the ever-present danger of rain puddles sending your car into the unforgiving Bathurst walls, the race was a true test of endurance, adaptability and perserverance. CoRe SimRacing’s participation in the event showcased the team’s commitment to high-level competition, overcoming obstacles and coming back from frustrating incidents, once again. Despite the difficulties and without result the teams were actually hoping for, the CoRe SimRacing Silver & White teams saw the finish in respectable positions after 12h at the mountain to conclude their journey. In that case, onto another one – next stop is an iRacing special event classic : The iRacing 12h of Sebring end of March 2025.