Motorsport: McIntyre fired up for Bathurst endurance race

The Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari in action on the Bathurst course. Photo / Supplied

The Bathurst experience of former NZ V8 Touring Car champion John McIntyre will lead New Zealand's Trass Family Motorsport into the Liqui-Moly 12-Hour Endurance race today.

McIntyre and co-drivers Jono Lester and Graeme Smyth have qualified the TFM Ferrari 458 Italia in 16th position for the Mt Panorama enduro.

"We have an incredibly good car in the Ferrari and a very strong driver line-up,'' said McIntyre after qualifying.

"We are doing the basics and haven't even changed the set-up on the car.''

The team is being guided by two engineers from Michelotto - the Italian firm which builds the Ferrari racers - with car set-up while McIntyre has a mentoring role for the two Bathurst rookies in the team.

McIntyre set the qualifying time of 2m 05.0043secs which will see the team start 16th on the grid. That time is 3.5secs quicker than the best lap McIntyre has achieved in his V8 Supercar appearances at Bathurst.

"It's a very different car and they don't move around like a V8 Supercar,'' he said.

"It's a bit like driving a simulator and you have to have confidence to use the downforce.''

McIntyre says the Balance of Performance rules which govern the FIA GT3 class will work to Ferrari's advantage more so in the race rather than qualifying.

"We've seen the Ferrari isn't the fastest car over one lap but it is very easy on its tyres. We didn't even run of soft tyres in qualifying.''

McIntyre said with three competitive drivers and a car that should show consistent race pace that a strong result is possible.

"Our tactics will be to thread the needle through the traffic and take no risks. You can't knock these cars around because it will spoil your whole day.''

The 12-Hour enduro starts before daybreak at 5.50am (Australian time) and should see the leading cars complete nearly 300 laps of the 6.2km circuit.

The top qualifier for the race was Belgian Laurens Vanthoor for Germany's Phoenix Racing in the Audi R8 LMS he'll share with Italian Marco Mapelli and German Markus Winkelhock.

Vanthoor was more than a second under Shane van Gisbergen's lap record in qualifying and a convincing 0.62secs quicker than the Lamborghini Gallardo of David Russell, Roger Lago and Steve Owen.

In a field of 49 qualifiers the second row comprises the sole Nissan GT-R (Florian Strauss, Katsmasa Chiyo and Wolfgang Riep) and the leading Ferrari of Italy's AF Corse squad driven by Steve Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Davide Rigon.