Team Redline dominated the 2024 iRacing Bathurst 12 Hour race in impressive fashion, leading to them being the undisputed ‘Kings of the mountain’ in the GT3 special event. It could well have been a 4 car lockout, but the #44 was involved in incident whilst leading and had to retire the car^[i].

This race was the second endurance race in the iRacing Special Events calendar for 2024, and the 4^th event overall and despite worries of typical carnage in the opening stanza of the race, attrition was surprisingly low with 39 out of the 49 registered teams still running at the finish. In fact, there was not a single retirement in the first hour, highlighting a degree of both fuel saving and caution throughout the field. Especially as the sun is effectively rising at the start of the race, this could go down as one of the most successful racing hours in iRacing Endurance racing recent memory.

It was the #20 Redline car starting on Pole Position, with Luke Bennett a full two tenths faster than the rest of the field. Bennett has a reputation of being able to turn in clutch laps under pressure in big events, and this was no exception. Although the rear of the field were barely out of the chase when the green flag fell, early racing was competitive yet clean. One team didn’t take the green, this being the #43 Altus Esports car whom ironically at some point in their history could have called this their ‘home’ race.

The early casualty in the race was the #16 BS+ Competition car, who lost 4 laps after an incident with an Apex Racing academy car. Just at the top of the first hour, it was the turn of Sontek’s #11 and Team PGZ’s #119 to come together, putting both out of the race. Whilst this was going on, the #7 and #20 Team Redline cars were working together to try and pull out a gap to the rest of the field. This is easier said than done in a one class endurance event as there’s less traffic to help in terms of gap management, but the teams had a strategy locked down which would work throughout the race.

Apex Racing Team fell out of contention early thanks to speeding on Pit Lane. This is is a slightly rare occurrence, but still possible especially with the tight entry onto the lane itself. Aside from this, there was a period in the race where everything was almost going too smoothly; to put it in the words of the commentary team: “Is this even Bathurst?!”. In typical fashion, the curse of the commentators^TM fashion, two big names would come together to add an adrenaline shot to the excitement. This was the race leading #44 Team Redline car, who made contact with an Apex car coming out of Skyline. This typically is one of the toughest sections of track, and follow up contact with a Williams Academy car halted the potential for a full Team Redline lockout; they did however have the Top 3 still under control, which looked almost unbeatable throughout the event.

In terms of other racing points to note, the Mouz Stream Team (Famous across Esports and in ESL R1 in 2023 in particular) had a spin at Forrest’s Elbow, which caused a slight concertina effect with cars behind deciding that they wanted their ‘Darlington Stipes’ on a road course rather than an oval. SimRC also cement themselves with the #1 spot in the next iRacing Top 10 moments, and potentially have secured the title of ‘Save of the year’ the next time someone comes up with such a category (Here’s looking at you VCO!) with four and a quarter hours to go. Starting at the rear of the field, they managed 37^th overall which is uncharacteristic for such a well-established GT team, but such was the level of competition on display today.

This is now just one of a number of GT Class dominant displays by Team Redline, who keep trying to add more weight to their claim of being ‘The World’s Best Sim Racing Team’. After 12 hours of racing, their nearest rival was over a minute behind the race winning #20 being driven home to the flag in typical fashion by Chris Lulham. With the next iRacing Endurance Special Event being at Sebring in 4 weeks time, the question will be if Redline try to continue their GT dominance, or seek the trifecta as we return to Multi-Class IMSA style racing.

Missed the race? We have you covered.

Don’t forget that the Sebring 12 Hours (Powered by VCO) will be broadcast by RaceSpot TV, as well as being available on iRacing’s YouTube. Until then, many many sim racing teams will be thinking about how to ascend to the top of the iRacing Endurance Special Event mountain (Which apparently is different to the mountain at Mount Panorama), and unseat Redline.

Race Results

^[i] With Team Redline having Max Verstappen on their roster, is it perhaps surprising that there’s a #44 Team Redline car considering how that number in F1 is tied to Lewis Hamilton.

^{[Main Image h/t Team Redline Twitter]}

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