David Bailey has scored his second-consecutive Bathurst 6 Hour podium, bringing the Sparesbox Toyota 86 home third in Class D alongside Matt Thewlis in today’s race.
Bailey and Thewlis finished the race 29th outright after a consistent, trouble-free run across the entire journey, and were elated with the result.
“To be honest, the most satisfying thing about this result is the fact I’ve achieved it in a car I built and prepared myself,” Bailey said.
“It just kept running all day and never missed a beat, and Matt did a stunning job in both of his stints.
“We had a slight steering issue in the second half of the race but we were both able to drive around it.”
Thewlis, competing in his first race at Bathurst, said traffic management was a challenging but reward aspect of the race.
“There were a lot of faster cars and some slower cars, so we really had to keep our wits about us today,” Thewlis said.
“In my first stint, I avoided a couple of moments with faster cars that were coming past, but by the second stint it seemed most drivers had become accustomed to the number of cars on the track.
“To get a podium in my very first race at Bathurst is an awesome result and I’m stoked!”
Bailey and Thewlis are planning to compete in the entire 2017 Australian Production Car Series, and Bailey said today’s result is a valuable points haul.
“With so many points on the line this weekend, it was important to come home with a strong result and today sets us up nicely for the rest of the year,” Bailey said.
The next round of the Australian Production Car Series is at Winton on 9-11 June.
