Valentino Rossi, will compete in LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 o’clock in 2023.
The 43-year-old Italian racer, a seven-time world champion at the highest level of MotoGP competition, will drive a BMW M4 GT3 for Team WRT’s 12 Hours of 2018 victory at the event from 3rd to 5th. February next year.
Rossi will be the highest performing driver to compete in Australia’s International Endurance Race since it relaunched in 2007.
After taking a break from two-wheeler competition after the 2021 season, Rossi turned his attention to circuit racing and this year competed for WRT in the European GT World Challenge Sprint and Endurance Championships, including including participating in the famous 24-hour Spa race.
It will mark Rossi’s debut at Mount Panorama, however, the Italian is accustomed to success in Australia as a record eight-time Australian Motorbike Grand Prix winner at Phillip Island.
His co-drivers will be experienced GT and Endurance specialists, Belgian Maxime Martin and Brazilian Augusto Farfus.
Both have previous Bathurst experience to credit: Martin in 2020 and Farfus on three occasions, in 2018, 19 and 2020 – including finishing fifth in the 2019 race with Chaz Mostert as Chaz Mostert. how to be a co-driver.
Rossi’s car will naturally feature his iconic number 46.
The 2023 LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour will represent the Australian track debut of the all-new BMW M4 GT3. BMW, a brand with a history in Bathurst going back to the early 1980s, has never won a 12-hour race in the current International GT3 era, but nevertheless took first place for the race in 2018.
Belgium-based WRT (W Racing Team) was founded in 2009 and has become one of the most successful GT, Touring Car and Endurance Racing teams in Europe. The team has won over 50 championships and major races including 24 Hours Nürburgring, 24 Hours Dubai and 10 Hours of Suzuka. In 2018, while representing Audi, they won the Mount Panorama during the dramatic 12 Hours of Bathurst.
