Tony’s 12 Hour lesson learnt
GOLD Coast motorsport veteran Tony Longhurst will take lessons learnt from his heavy shunt at Mount Panorama last year into the Bathurst 12 Hour tomorrow.
Longhurst is part of an allstar BMW team, joining forces with former Supercars champions Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall and ex-Formula One racer Timo Glock.
The 59-year-old returned to racing at the famous 6.2km circuit last October in the Porsche Carrera Cup, as part of the Supercars undercard, but had his weekend cut short by a brutal high-speed crash.
Longhurst is determined not to make the same mistake twice.
“You have got to try to (put it in the past),” he told the Bulletin.
“I was probably too keen, I was trying to get pole position in the Porsche.
“I had only had probably less than an hour in the car and was going along as hard as I could, came over Skyline and just touched the kerb … one second I am in control and a millisecond later I’m a passenger doing a spin at 180km/h.
“I was pushing as hard as I could. In hindsight I should have come back a bit and I’ll be a bit more careful this weekend.”
Longhurst won the 12 Hour on his last attempt in 2009, codriving a Mitsubishi with Rod Salmon and Damien White.
However, he admits the booming event is a completely different ballgame these days, with “monster” cars up to 30 seconds a lap faster and a wide range of manufacturers involved.
“Seriously there are 30 cars and teams that could win this one,” he said.
Longhurst said he, Skaife and Ingall had put together a combined 2500km of testing into the car, which will be put on display at Gold Coast BMW post-event.
He praised the commitment of his former on-track rivals, revealing Skaife had shed 10kg preparing for the race, but believes it will be their German star Glock who could make the difference.
“If we can get our car through until mid-afternoon and then let him go, he’ll be our ace, we hope,” said Longhurst, who last weekend teamed up with Olympian Mat Belcher to win the Surf to City Yacht Race.
He met Glock on Wednesday night and while he found him to be a relaxed character, noted “you can just tell he is a fierce competitor”.
Grids spots for the 12 Hour will be sorted today in qualifying and top 10 shootout sessions before the race gets under way at 4.45am ( Qld time) tomorrow.