In a twist of events at the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, both the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche and #46 Team WRT BMW faced penalties, dramatically altering the leaderboard with five hours remaining in the race.
The #912 Manthey EMA Porsche and #46 WRT BMW had been leading the pack as the race approached its halfway mark. However, their fortunes took a turn when penalties were imposed, causing drivers Matt Campbell (#912 Porsche) and Raffaele Marciello (#46 WRT BMW) to slip out of the top 10.
The race dynamics shifted when Ayhancan Guven assumed the lead due to a Safety Car deployment prompted by an accident involving the Invitational class-leading #10 Matt Stone Racing IRC GT driven by John Holinger. As competitors pitted for wet Pirelli tires, Matt Campbell took charge of the lead Porsche. However, the #912 faced a setback with a drive-through penalty for completing a pit stop quicker than the mandated 85-second minimum pit lane time.
Campbell served the penalty during the restart, initially under a Safety Car period, relegating him to sixth place behind the sister Pro-Am Porsche. A subsequent Safety Car was deployed following an incident involving Paul Tracy in the #702 Invitational IRC entry.
In an attempt to contest the penalty, Manthey EMA, including Head of Porsche Motorsport Thomas Laudenbach, pleaded their case in pit lane. However, race officials affirmed that the penalty must be served under race conditions. This controversial decision shuffled the lead to the #13 Phantom Global Racing Porsche driven by Bastian Buus, with the race still under the influence of the Safety Car.
Earlier in the race, the #2 KFC Team MPC Audi faced a two-minute penalty due to contact between Ricardo Feller and the #10 IRC. When the race resumed, Race Control disclosed that the #46 WRT BMW, the only remaining WRT car following Charles Weert’s crash, had crossed the pit blend line.
Ultimately, Matt Campbell emerged ahead of Raffaele Marciello after the latter served his drive-through penalty, adding more drama to the mid-race developments at the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour.
