THE most diverse field in Australian Motorsport will showcase some serious aussie-built ingenuity at the 2014 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

The February 7-9 event at Mount Panorama will see the global debut of a brand new ‘all-aussie’ endurance racing car that is set to take on the world this year, with the 12-hour the only race in Australia able to field the inventive new cars.

Though primarily a race for GT3-specification entrants, three ‘invitational’ classes allow a wide breadth of additional machinery into the grid – making the field a diverse mixture of cars of all shapes and sizes.

Three MARC Focus racers have been entered in a project headed up by noted engineer and driver, Ryan McLeod. The cars will be steered by their respective owners – Keith Kassulke, Mick Benton and Jake Camilleri – plus a squad of yet-to-be announced drivers.

The first two cars have been completed at the outfit’s Gold Coast base, with the third not far from race ready status.

The MARC Focus’ racers have been designed around a Global Touring Car concept with a purpose-built chassis and suspension platform and an adaptable body that can take any mid-sized vehicle’s form – in this case, the team has elected to use the popular Ford Focus shape.

“We chose this body because it is perhaps one of the most successful “world car” designs, and is available affordably in almost every corner of the globe,” McLeod said.

Construction of the cars has taken more than eight months but includes some of the best all-aussie engineering available, with a large percentage of each cars construction and technology having been designed and developed in Australia – and much of that on the Gold Coast and its surrounding areas.

“The South-East Queensland corner, in particular the Gold Coast, really is the motorsport capital of the Southern Hemisphere,” McLeod confirms.

“I’ve spent the last ten years travelling the world trading in motorsport parts and dealing with many of the top international teams and I can say with certainty that there are few places in the world where you can achieve the sort of industry leading productivity you can on the Gold Coast.

“Quite literally all of the suppliers of the major components are at arm’s reach and all are producing industry leading parts.”

The list of Australian supplied or engineered components is significant and shows the strength of the Australian motorsport industry (full list provided below).

Following the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 hour, McLeod plans to take the cars to Europe where they will tackle a series of 24-hour races at circuits in Belgium (Spa Francorchamps), Spain, the United Kingdom and Hungary, before returning home to Australia in early 2015, via the Dubai 24 hour.

Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Event Director James O’Brien says the addition of the MARC Focus racers adds another dimension to the already exciting field.

“The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour is geared towards the GT vehicles that make up an increasingly large portion of the field, but one of the great strengths of the Race is the broad spectrum of vehicles competing.

“We added an invitational class to cater for these new cars as they fit the existing philosophy of the Event and should add something to the Race. The Bathurst 12 Hour showcases the massively popular GT vehicles, alongside invitational vehicles at one of the iconic circuits in the world.

“Bathurst was born on class racing and independent teams innovating at the toughest proving ground available to them. We are pleased to be able accommodate the international debut of this ambitious Australian product.”

The MARC Focuses are entered in the third Invitational class and will run to a ‘benchmark’ lap time that the cars will not be permitted to exceed during qualifying or the Race.