Skaife and Ingall team up for Bathurst 12 Hour

Skaife and Ingall will team up with Tony Longhurst in a factory-supported BMW M6 GT3, one of two to the be run out of the BMW Team SRM stable.

Between the three drivers there is 10 Bathurst 1000 wins, six to Skaife, two to Ingall, and two to Longhurst (one of which came alongside Skaife on a Holden Racing Team Commodore).

Longhurst, who ran BMWs in the Australian Touring Car Championship and Super Tourers in the 1980s and ‘90s, is also a Bathurst 12 Hour winner, taking victory when it was still a production car race in 2009.

For Skaife and Ingall, it is a case of rivalries being put aside as the pair look to win at Mount Panorama 14 years after their famous clash at Eastern Creek.

“Who would have thought that myself and Mark Skaife would be pairing up together to do an endurance race? I would say nobody,” said Ingall.

“And when you look at someone like Tony Longhurst, who has been integral in putting this whole programme together, and you look at the Bathurst wins between the three of us, this is people who know how to win Bathurst and are very passionate about racing. It’s going to be fantastic.

“Make no mistake, we are taking this seriously. We’re going there to try and win the race.”

“It’s a very exciting project,” added Skaife. “It’s one of those things that came out of nowhere, really. Who would have thought I’d have a teammate like Russell Ingall at some stage, and to be re- joining Tony Longhurst after winning in 2001 is fantastic.

“We want to go there and do a good solid job. You can’t go to a place like Bathurst and not feel comfortable, you have to go there and be able to drive the car well. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think we would enjoy the experience and be able to do it properly.”

A BMW factory driver from Europe is also likely to be added to the line-up before the event.

The car will be backed by Castrol and Vodafone, with the team having already began testing with a couple of outings at Phillip Island.