Rain that won’t go away; in fact, rain that keeps coming on stronger—that has been the story of the first half of the Bathurst 12 Hours.
After a blazing first two hours, when Allan Simonsen in the Maranello Racing Ferrari 458 set six fastest-lap records, the next four hours was a mix of rain, light rain, heavy rain and more rain, with impending heavy rain and fog in the forecast.
The rain changed the complexion of the race entirely. The Ferraris were set up for a dry race on a hot day—they severely lacked grip, and their performance showed it. One Mercedes crashed in the rain; the other, the #20 Erebus Racing SLS AMG, worked amazingly in the light rain in the hands of Jeroen Bleekemolen and later Peter Hackett, but when the rain slacked off or got much heavier, the Mercs couldn’t match the pace of the cars which basically took over the race: the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMSs.
The #1 Audi, with Christopher Mies, Christer Joens, and Darryl O'Young, started from the pole, lost the lead after three laps, and got it back after the Maranello Ferrari succumbed to electrical problems and the Erebus Mercedes couldn’t quite manage the grip levels of the R8s.
After its amazing first stint, the Maranello Ferrari had nothing but bad luck. Its ECU shut the engine down while the car was leading the race, then again after a pit stop; the traction control failed (in the rain,) then the car shut off again on lap 114. Driver Dominik Farnbacher tried to reset the ECU, but the inside fire extinguisher fired, filling the car with foam.
There were no cautions in the first two hours; the field ran a record pace. Once the clouds broke, another half-dozen caution periods ensued. Several cars spun or slid into the barriers, including the #23 JBS Lamborghini, and the #21 Black Falcon Mercedes, leaving only three cars on the lead lap.
The final caution period of the first half of the race was called on lap 126 when the #68 Motorsports Services BMW nosed into the wall. During this caution, Mark Eddy took over from Warren Luff in the leading #2 Audi. Eddy was starting his first stint of the race, in the wet, halfway through the race, facing drivers who were fully accustomed to the conditions, and it was not an auspicious debut.
After the restart, five hours, fifty-five minutes into the race, Jeroen Bleekemolen in the #20 Mercedes out-braked Mark Eddy in the #2 Audi, taking the lead of the race.
Christopher Mies in the #1 Audi squeezed past his teammate and took off after Bleekemolen. Mies made short work of the Mercedes driver, trying him on the inside before passing on the outside under braking. On the next lap, Eddy spun off but managed to get back on track without losing much time.
