Nissan's GT-R Godzilla supercar has won at Mt Panorama for the first time since taking a 1992 1000km victory, following a frantic two lap sprint to the finish which decided the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12-Hour endurance race today.
The Nismo Nissan GT-R with Japanese driver Kasumasa Chiyo driving the final stintrocketed from third position behind the leading Bentley Continental GT3 of Matt Bell and the chasing Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS of Laurens Vanthoor (Belgium) on the final restart.
Chiyo drove the GT-R past the Audi on the pit straight as the race restarted and then powered past the Bentley on the run up Mountain Straight.
The Japanese, who shared the winning car with Germany's Florian Strauss and Belgium Wolfgang Reip, edged away to win by 2.4secs with the top five finishers - in five different marques of car - finishing within 4.0secs of the winner.
The last lap was a three-way battle with Aston Martin driver Stefan Mucke joining the fight between Vanthoor and Bell and completing a final corner pass that moved the Aston Martin into third position. Fifth went to the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG with Jack Le Brocq.
New Zealand driver Chris Pither teamed with factory Porsche driver Patrick Long (USA) and Australia's Dean Calvert Jones and brought their Porsche 911 GT3-R home in 11th place.
The Kiwi Family Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia of John McIntyre, Jono Lester and Graeme Smyth - which had run in the top-10 before losing a wheel - rejoined the race and finished 32nd.
The multiple incidents and safety car interventions meant the winners completed laps 269 laps, well down from last year's record of 296 laps.
