Turner bitten by the Bathurst bug
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Darren Turner made his long-awaited debut at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour race this weekend and in the process ticked the legendary Mount Panorama circuit off his racing bucket list.
Driving the #76 R-Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT8, alongside Florian Kamelger and Markus Lungstrass, Turner finished the race in fifth place in the invitational class for production cars.
“Mount Panorama certainly lived up to all of my expectations,” said Turner after the race. “It is such a cool racing circuit! I completed quite a few hours in the simulator before coming here so it didn’t take long for me to get dialed in. The circuit is completely unforgiving; it only takes one small mistake to put you in the wall here.”
It was Turner who took the start of the 12-hour race and he soon moved from eighth in class up to sixth place. All three R-Motorsport drivers had clean runs, quickly getting into the groove of the circuit and avoiding any unnecessary trouble.
“Florian (Kamelger) got hit by a Porsche at one point but that didn’t cause a problem,” said Turner. “We also had three punctures during the race but the GT8 is a strong car.”
The Vantage GT8 ran in the invitational class, which featured a wide range of cars so the fifth place finish was a great result for the team.
“Considering that the GT8 is a production car it was an impressive run,” said Turner. “This circuit is brutal on cars but the GT8 ran like clockwork. I’d like to say ‘get well soon’ to a rather battered and bruised Jan Struve who had an accident in the sister GT4 R-Motorsport car.
“Bathurst has been on my list for a long time and now I fully understand why it has the reputation that it does,” he continued. “I loved every second. Great event, great people, great circuit and now I just need to make sure that I can come back again next year.”
Source material - Darren Turner
