Bathurst 12H: Simonsen, Bright & Zukanovic to share Shelby Mustang

V8 Supercar racer Jason Bright will join GT racing star Allan Simonsen and former V8 Ute champion Marcus Zukanovic at this month’s Bathurst 12 Hours.

The trio will share a Team Action Racing-run Shelby Mustang GT owned by Zukanovic’s father Michael in the endurance race at Mount Panorama on 12-14 February.

“I think the Bathurst 12 hour is a really good production car event and when you’ve got a car like I’ve got to drive around there for 12 hours,” Bright said. “I think it could be a really great day; I’m looking forward to the challenge.

“Obviously this is a very different mindset to the sprint races I’m more used to; you do have to nurse the car along a lot more. Also I haven’t done a race in a production-based car before so there’s probably as much for me to learn as anything. We’re certainly a bit of a dark horse. I think the car has lots of potential but we’ll have minimal track time before we go to the Event so we’re going in a little bit blind, however I am looking forward to working with Marcus and Allan.”

A Shelby Mustang has never raced the 12 Hours before, but Zukanovic is hoping that the supercharged 5.4 litre machine can challenge for honours with its all-star driver line-up.

“Since we received the car we’ve focused on building a really strong outright package,” he said. We’re hoping it will deliver the goods. I also wanted a draw-card lineup and we’ve got that with Allan and Jason. It was really important for me to have guys like that along. They will be super quick and have significant experience with enduro events and the strategy thereof.

“Personally, as a driver, I need to re-launch myself into the sport and what better way of doing it than benchmarking yourself against top professionals. We believe the Mustang has the potential to put those turbo 4WD cars back in their box and entertain the crowds.”

Watch Bathurst 12 Hour highlights on Motors TV (Sky Channel 414, Virgin Media 545).


Andy Wilkinson