Scott Taylor Motorsport matches the world’s best at Bathurst

Scott Taylor Motorsport has once again demonstrated it can take on the world’s best GT teams in Australia’s premier sportscar race at the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Although the result in Sunday’s main event didn’t fall STM’s way, the Mercedes-AMG team proved Australia’s great hope against one of the most competitive and professional fields assembled for the one-around-the-clock enduro.

Star Supercars drivers Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters and Thomas Randle proved fast in all practice and qualifying sessions, culminating in Waters’ provisional pole on Saturday, setting a stunning time of 2m01.563s.

Waters made that Saturday very special, trumping the best international drivers to claim the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy and take the Pirelli Pole – STM’s first-ever Bathurst 12 Hour pole.

It was a rapid lap, with Waters’ time of 2m 01.079s falling just short of the qualifying record by 0.2s.

Come Sunday morning, Randle started the race from pole and was immediately three-wide with two other Mercedes-AMG GT3 along Mountain Straight before the first safety car came out due to another competitor colliding with a kangaroo.

From there, the race settled in as Mostert and Waters both completed stints during the morning to ensure the STM Mercedes-AMG was within touch of the leaders.

The first sign of trouble came when Randle was baulked by a competitor approaching Reid Park and nudged the wall with both ends of his car.

While the damage was minor, it required two pit stops to correct get the car right, falling three laps off the lead.

Demonstrating how good this driver line-up was, and some neat strategy calls, the #222 was back on the lead lap after a red flag halted the race after a major incident at Forrest’s Elbow.

When the race restarted with two and a half hours left, STM rolled the dice with fuel strategy, but would never see if their risk would reap a reward.

In the final hour, Mostert sat just outside the top 10 and was battling with Supercars rival Jayden Ojeda who was defending aggressively. Ojeda made an error at Griffin’s Bend, bouncing off the wall and into Mostert’s path, ruling both cars out.

The 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour will go down as a missed opportunity for STM, but there was no doubt that STM, its drivers, crew and support staff proved its prowess against the best in the world.

QUOTES

Cameron Waters
#222 Scott Taylor Motorsport

“We had heaps of pace across the weekend,” said Waters.

“The team did an amazing job preparing the car. Chaz and Tom were awesome, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

“It was really cool to qualify on pole, but that wasn’t what we came for. We have unfinished business in this race – I know how much Scott and his team want to win this race.”

Thomas Randle
#222 Scott Taylor Motorsport

“The start of the race was pretty intense. I had a couple of good stints and I felt we were all on track,” said Randle.

“The spin I had was not ideal. The Porsche propped in front of me. I thought it was going to go right, but it went left. I got off the throttle, tapped the back of it and I spun around.

“It made our day challenging, but after all the dramas, we went into the final 40 minutes as a contender. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.”

Chaz Mostert
#222 Scott Taylor Motorsport

“We had a really fast race car today,” said Mostert.

“Both Cam and Tom were very fast. The team was great and did everything right – we had all of the ingredients to get a decent result.

“My incident at the end was a shame. I hate that we’ve brought home a damaged car. Scott, Ash and the team did not deserve that, but I know that we did everything to win today.

“I really enjoyed the weekend and can’t thank Scott for the opportunity to be a part of his team.”

Scott Taylor
Team owner, Scott Taylor Motorsport

“It’s ended how we didn’t want to end it,” said Taylor.

“We’re gutted, because we had a quick car. We put it on pole on Saturday, we won a pretty special trophy for doing that, and after we got through those first three hours of the race in a good spot, we knew that we were a contender.

“But it just wasn’t to be for us, and when we get to the end of it all, you realise how hard it is to win and how special it is.

“It’s was a frustrating day. There’s a few things that we could have done differently, and there’s things that I feel that other drivers could have done differently.

“This is a hard race to win. We’ve had a few goes at it now, but I know that the team we put together was outstanding. Everyone played their part.”