Bentley Motorsport has finished in third place in the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Bathurst 12 Hours, in a race that was packed with dramatic action from the outset. The #17 Continental GT3 piloted by the all-British trio of Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Oliver Jarvis rose from 22nd on the grid to finish on the podium in Bentley's first race of 2017.
Australia's largest and highest-profile endurance race began at 5:45am on Sunday morning, and it was the #8 Continental GT3 piloted by Maxime Soulet (Belgium) that was gaining the most attention as it climbed from fifth to third on the opening two laps. However, as the sun began to rise over New South Wales and the more-than-50 cars made their way over the tight and twisty Mount Panorama track, a punctured tyre preceded a brush with Mount Panorama's unforgiving concrete walls and forced the #8 to pit.
Meanwhile, the #17 Continental GT3 was climbing through the pack, picking off competitors and taking advantage of numerous safety car interventions. After two hours, Guy Smith (Great Britain) had moved the car inside the top 10 and, by the time he handed the car to Steven Kane 40 minutes later, the #17 car was sitting in second place. Steven, Olly and Guy maintained their pace for the remainder of the race and, after 12 hours of racing that saw seven different GT3s lead, including the #17 Bentley, the chequered flag fell with Steven bringing the car home in third place.
