Reigning Carrera Cup Australia Champion Dylan O’Keeffe will chase his third class win in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, signing on to drive the GWR Australia/RAM Motorsport Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the 2026 edition of the event alongside Garth Walden and Brett Hobson.
It will be O’Keeffe’s first start in the Mercedes product, after his previous five starts came in Porsche, MARC Car and Audi machinery. He won his class on debut in 2017 (in a Porsche GT3 Cup car with Dean Grant, Xavier West and David Wall), and scored another class win in 2023 aboard an Audi R8, sharing with Andrew Fawcet and Daniel Gaunt.
O’Keeffe completed a two-day test aboard the Mercedes at Sydney Motorsport Park during the week, and said it took some time to get used to it.
“Compared to the other GT3 cars I’ve driven, the weight distribution, power delivery and handling characteristics are different – it’s a lot more nose-heavy than the Audi R8, for example.
“On the first day, it took me some time to get my head around it but I was feeling more comfortable on the second day.”
O’Keeffe, Walden and Hobson will compete in the Silver Class, and O’Keeffe strongly rates their chances of victory in the class.
“Garth and Brett might be classified as “Am” drivers, but they both have plenty of experience on the Mountain and they’re very fast,” he said.
“As always in such a long race, the key will be staying out of trouble for the first 10 hours and putting ourselves in a position to attack for the final sprint to the line in the last two hours.”
Practice for the Bathurst 12 Hour gets underway on Friday, 13 February.
Bathurst 12 Hour Event Schedule
All times are AEDT
Friday, 13 February
8:45am – Practice 1 (40 min)
11:00am – Practice 2 Bronze Drivers (40 min)
2:10pm – Practice 3 (40 min)
4:40pm – Practice 4 Bronze Drivers (40 min)
Saturday, 14 February
8:05am – Practice 5 (60 min)
10:05am – Practice 6 (60 min)
1:05pm – Qualifying (75 min)
4:15pm – Pirelli Pole Battle (15 min)
Sunday, 15 February
5:45am – Race (12 hours)
