44 ENTRIES have been received for the 2014 Event at the conclusion of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour’s ‘Early Bird’ entry period on 31 July 2013.

The provisional entry list released today is seven cars larger than at the same period last year, with a capacity field of 55 cars now anticipated by Event organisers following enhanced interest from teams both in Australia and overseas.

49 cars started the 2013 race, won by Erebus Motorsport in a Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3 – a car that is listed as the No.1 entry for the 2014 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

Clearwater Racing, second this year, and VIP Petfoods Racing (Third) also feature on a list that currently includes 16 Class A (GT3 Outright) vehicles and 31 vehicles across the three GT classes in total.

“Interest in the 2014 race was high from the moment entries opened and we received more than 10 on the first day,” Event administrator Alexandra Zylstra said.

“The 44 cars on the provisional list released today is only the beginning. We have had a number of teams not included on the provisional list who are very keen to race, but are not yet ready to commit to the race as they try and finalise their plans.

“A lot of these are international teams who are working on securing sponsors and drivers for a trip down under next February. If interest is anything to go by, there won’t be any problems filling the remaining 11 places on the grid to make it a full field.

“There is a lot of excitement in the Event office now we have confirmed the ‘first 44′ cars. It’s going to be a spectacular event!”

Along with the already-confirmed attack from Nissan Motorsports, the German-based Haribo Racing Team is amongst several new entrants set to tackle the Mountain for the first time next year.

Based in Bonn, Germany, Haribo is a regular front-runner in the Pro/Am class of the Blancpain Endurance Series with their 2013-specification Porsche GT3R. British driver, Richard Westbrook, is among their regular driving squad in the Blancpain series – on which the Bathurst 12 Hour is closely aligned with.

Chinese team, Absolute Racing, has entered an Audi R8 LMS Ultra and will travel from their base at the Zhuhai circuit to compete in the 12 Hour next February, further adding to the growing Asian flavour of the Event.

United Autosport has entered both their regular Audi R8 LMS Ultra and one of their stunning McLaren MP4 12-C entries – having competed with just the Audi across the 2012 and 2013 races.

A packed Class B (GT3) grid is made up by a host of Australian, New Zealand and American-based Porsche GT3 Cup Cars, and several 2010/2011 specification Audi R8’s.

Production regulars Beric Lynton (BMW 1M Coupe), Maximum Motorsport (Subaru Impreza WRX STi) and New Zealand’s Motorsport Services (Seat Leon Supercopa’s) make up a portion of the re-aligned production-based classes D, E and F.

Entries for the 2014 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour close on 13 December 2013, though entries will be frozen until the end of August to allow for potential competitors yet to commit to the Event time to prepare before the ‘cap’ of 55 cars is potentially reached.

“We have received entries from vehicles not currently included on the vehicle eligibility list, which we need to review,” Event Director James O’Brien said.

“Additionally, we have international competitors currently liaising with our freight partner (Gibson Freight) on our entry / freight packages. We also want to ensure we have a balanced field across the class structure.

“For these reasons, we are temporarily halting the acceptance of entry forms until the end of August. We are pretty confident 2014 will see a record field for the Event.”

The 2014 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour will be held on the February 7-9 weekend at the iconic Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales.

For more information head to www.bathurst12hour.com.au