THE profile of the Liqui-Moly 12-hour sports GT race at Bathurst on February 8 next year has been well and truly ensured with the organisers announcing last week that they have a maximum grid of 55 cars entered for the event.
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In the outright Class A there are 30 entries including Ferrari 458, Audi R8, Mercedes Benz SLS, Lamborghini Gallardo, Aston Martin, Porsche GT3R, McLaren, Nissan GTR and Bentley.
All these cars are purpose built but based on the production car and have proved to be very popular in the five-round, European-based Blancpain endurance series.
As an example, the Bentley is based on the two-door Continental coupe with a 4.0 litre twin turbocharged V8 engine but it weighs in at approximately half the weight of the road car, which is two tonnes.
The entries come from nine different countries including Australia, Germany, Italy, Britain, Malaysia, Japan, US, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
The remaining 25 cars will compete in four different classes and will include an eclectic range of cars including Porsche GT3 Cup, Lotus Exige, Ginetta, BMW, Daytona, Subaru, and the purpose-built MARC cars which are a space frame chassis, V8-powered car with Ford Focus bodywork.
At this early stage the respective driver line-ups in most cases have yet to be finalised but two of last year's winning drivers, John Bowe and Peter Edwards, will again join forces but this time in a Bentley instead of the Ferrari 458.
An interesting aside will be the battle of the television networks for ratings with outgoing V8 Supercar telecaster, the Seven Network, committed to cover the Bathurst race while the incoming telecaster for the V8 Supercars, the Ten Network, committed to cover the two-day compulsory preseason V8 test at Sydney Motor Sport Park.
Button gets nod
AFTER what must have been an agonising wait 2009 world F1 champion Jensen Button has been advised by McLaren that he will race alongside the incoming Fernando Alonso for season 2015.
There had been much speculation that Button would be forced into retirement to allow young gun Kevin Magnussen to stay but after delaying the decision McLaren team boss Ron Dennis confirmed that Button would line up with Alonso.
The 34-year-old Button has contested 268 GP races scoring 15 wins and a total of 50 podiums in a GP career that started in 2000.
Magnussen meanwhile, has been confirmed as test and reserve driver for McLaren, which will move to Honda power next season with the Japanese manufacturer returning to the sport as an engine supplier.
Ambrose solo
FOLLOWING on from last week's column it's now been confirmed that Marcos Ambrose will be the sole runner for the revamped Queensland-based team, ending speculation regarding a second entry for the 2015 series.
Young Scott Pye had done a very good job for the Dick Johnson racing team this year but it was unclear whether he would even have a drive next season.
While he has missed out on a full-time drive in the series, the good news is that the team has signed him up as co-driver for Ambrose for the Sandown, Bathurst and Gold Coast endurance races.
While some may suggest that there are disadvantages in running a single car entry it should be noted that the single car Tekno Motorsports team finished second in this year's championship with Shane Van Gisbergen.