Having displayed great pace and helped Eurasia Motorsport secure two podiums from two starts in the Asian Le Mans Series, Nick Foster returns to GT3 machinery with Triple Eight Race Engineering later this month (31 January – 2 February) as he competes in the legendary Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hours.
It will be his third start at the circuit and Nick will race ‘The Bend’ liveried #777 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo alongside fellow Australians Anton de Pasquale, Yasser Shahin and brother Sam in what will be a Pro-Am driver line-up. The team has also confirmed Shane van Gisbergen, Jamie Whincup and Maximilian Götz in the sister #888 Pro entry.
“It’s a four-driver line-up for us at Bathurst,” Nick began, “I’m really looking forward to it and it’s going to be a lot of fun. Yes, we have two Bronze drivers in Yasser and Sam but we’re all very confident that they can do the job; they’re both very capable drivers. It’s Anton’s first time in GT3, but he knows Bathurst really well and has always shown great pace in Supercars around this amazing circuit.
“Having finished runner-up at The Bend last weekend, it’s a pleasure to run the circuit’s branding on our #777 car,” Nick continued. “We all know the job that Triple Eight Race Engineering does week in week out, so it will be an exciting event and we will be aiming to put on a great show and take home some trophies!”
Bathurst will be the second race on the trot where Nick has competed against van Gisbergen from within the same team, the latter showing well in the #1 Ligier last time out at The Bend. While Nick finished second and van Gisbergen was cruelly robbed of a potential victory, it really was a bitter-sweet event for the Australian racer who was left wanting for more.
“It wasn’t an ideal weekend through no fault of our own,” he explained. “We were a bit unlucky and we had the pace to win but we missed Lady Luck. We’ll keep pushing and I’m sure we’ll get our break and be in championship contention heading to the season finale. Together with this upcoming Bathurst weekend, it will be busy, and we’ll be pushing for victories.”
The Bathurst 12 Hours, round one of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, gets underway on Friday 32 January with four practice sessions, followed by qualifying on the Saturday. It’s an early start Sunday as the 12 Hour race gets underway at 05:45 local time.