Just one week after competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, four BMW M Motorsport drivers got on a plane and took a long flight to Australia to compete in the Bathurst 12 Hour. Three of them were rewarded with a victory, while the fourth ended up next to them on the podium in second. It was the third significant endurance race win for the M4 GT3 EVO in 2025.
The Bathurst 12 Hour was the opening round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge series (IGTC), a five-race series sanctioned by the SRO that also includes the Nürburgring 24 Hour, the Spa 24 Hour, the Suzuka 1000km and the Indianapolis 8 Hour. The two M4 GT3 EVOs at Bathurst were entered by BMW M Team WRT, with brothers Sheldon and Kelvin van der Linde in the #32 car with Augusto Farfus and Raffaele Marciello, Charles Weerts and Valentino Rossi in the #46. Kelvin van der Linde and Farfus drove in Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVOs the week before at Daytona, while Sheldon van der Linde and Marciello both drove the BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8s in the GTP class.
In combined qualifying (with each driver getting a turn at the wheel), the pair of M4 GT3 EVOs were fourth (#32) and 12th (#46) on the grid, with the pole going to the #77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. We’ve seen time and again that the BMW’s race is better than the qualifying, and this race was no exception.
Over the course of the race, the BMWs proved to be fast but also more fuel-efficient than their competitors. That advantage was enough that by the end of the race, the BMWs had to stop one less time for fuel than the other cars, which all had to pit for fuel before the end. The BMWs also ran trouble-free for nearly the entire race. The only snafu was when the #46 fell to eighth after a penalty. Still, through speed and strategy, it came back, with Marciello making a dramatic pass on Jules Gounon in a Mercedes in the final ten minutes to take second behind the winning #32 BMW.
The Bathurst win made it three for BMW M Team WRT in 2025, as they had already won the Dubai 24-Hour and the Abu-Dhabi 6-Hour races (both part of the 24H series) with the M4 GT3 EVO. The win was also the first for Kelvin van der Linde in only his second race as a BMW driver after coming over from Audi, and the first win for brothers since 1997 when David and Geoff Brabham won, which also happened to be in a BMW (an E36 320i). Three races, three wins,” said Team Principal Vincent Vosse. “What an amazing start of the season! We tried to win at Bathurst with BMW M Motorsport for the last two years, but it never worked out. This time, everything was just spot on. This is a big race everyone wants to win, so I could not be happier. A special congrats goes to Kelvin van der Linde, who, in only his second race with BMW M Motorsport, achieved maybe his biggest win yet together with his brother. The #46 crew also did an excellent job returning in the race and finishing just ten seconds behind.”
BMW drivers celebrate the 1-2 finish. Left to right: Sheldon van der Linde, Augusto Farfus, Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts, Valentino Rossi, Raffaele Marciello.
The next race for BMW M Team WRT will be the season opener of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Qatar on the last weekend of February, where the team will have BMW entries in both the Hypercar and GT classes. The next round of the ICGTC series is the Nürburgring 24 Hour in June.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy SRO/Gruppe C Photography]
