Race-winning car's remarkable journey to Bathurst
Bathurst 12 Hour
15 Feb
SunEnergy1 Racing cranes car out of museum
Mercedes-AMG chassis won 2022, 2023 races
Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz aiming for three straight wins
SunEnergy1 Racing has taken an unorthodox route to returning to Bathurst glory, with the winning car craned out of a museum en route to the Mountain.
Kenny Habul’s team has won the last two Bathurst 12 Hours with the Bathurst local, Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz behind the wheel.
The team has reverted to last year’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo chassis, which was in Habul’s Connecticut museum.
As reported by Sportscar365, in order to make the trek to Australia, the car had to be craned out of the sixth-floor museum.
The car has touched down in Australia, with Habul driving the #75 AMG into the Bathurst CBD for the Town to Track festivities.
"This is last year’s winning car. We love this car. A lot of time and effort went into this car," Habul said.
“It was in my museum, which is on the sixth floor of a building. We craned it in there, so we had to crane it back out and take it out.
“We couldn’t get any new cars right now from AMG. There’s a shortage of cars and engines and I didn’t really want to use it.
“We took it out but you know, it won last year, so I’m happy to use it. It’s special to me. We’ll see.”
The car is two from two at Mount Panorama, with Habul, Gounon, Stolz and Martin Konrad winning in 2022.
Mercedes-AMG is aiming for its third straight Bathurst 12 Hour win and record-equalling fourth overall, tying Mazda's outright record.
Mercedes-AMG and Audi have won three times in the GT3 era, which began in 2011. The Mazda RX-7 was driven to four straight wins in the early 1990s in the production car era.
Track action at the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour will commence on Friday. Tickets for the February 16-18 event on sale now.
