Rising star Harry King maintained his impressive record at the famous Bathurst circuit after helping the Manthey EMA team to Pro-Am class victory in the Bathurst 12 Hours.

Harry made his return to Australian soil having scored a stunning clean-sweep of wins with the EMA Racing squad in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia event at the New South Wales circuit back in October

The talented Briton was named a part of a three-strong line-up in the #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R, being entered into the Pro-Am class under the 'The Bend Manthey EMA' name thanks to a partnership with The Bend Motorsport Park and running in iconic Shell V-Power colours.

Partnered with fellow 12 Hour debutant Alessio Picariello and local racer Yasser Shahin, Harry showed impressive pace across the various free practice sessions, headlined by going second quickest overall in session five.

After Picariello qualified at the front of the Pro-Am class in ninth overall, Harry was given the honour of taking the start of the race under the cover of darkness and maintained his advantage at the head of the class from the Triple Eight-run Mercedes of multiple Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, with the pair rarely split by more than a second during the opening hour as the sun rose.

A fine first stint saw Harry climb up into second spot as others came in to make their first stops, and a storming few laps just before he pitted to hand the car over to Shahin allowed the Australian racer to rejoin in second overall.

Although he would quickly be shuffled down the order on his out lap whilst getting heat into the tyres on the Porsche, Shahin continued to head the Pro-Am field through the second hour before Supercars racer Jack Le Brocq finally managed to find away ahead of the Porsche shortly before the second round of stops, where Picariello climbed aboard for his first stint.

The Belgian driver rejoined in second spot behind the Mercedes, now in the hands of Garth Walden, and chased down the leader before diving down the inside at the Chase to retake the Pro-Am lead prior to handing the car back to Shahin for his second stint.

Things went wrong just before the end of the fourth hour when an opportunistic lunge from Glenn Wood at the top of the Mountain saw Shahin pitched off into the gravel from the lead, dropping him back to fourth in class and more than 90 seconds away from the Pro-Am lead with damage to the rear of the car.

Harry climbed back aboard with just over seven hours to go for his second stint, rejoining in fourth spot before another caution period closed up the field ahead. The Briton would heap pressure on Jordan Love in the Triple Eight Mercedes before another caution period, and when the race resumed just before the half-way mark, he took advantage of traffic ahead to not only pass Love, but also clear the car of Ross Gunn to take second going through turn one.

That put him right on the tail of Walden in the class lead and by the end of the lap, Harry had swept ahead - going from fourth to first across one tour of the mountain.

It was at this point that the weather threw a curveball as rain started to fall, with Harry coming in under caution to hand the car back to Picariello, who resumed third in class and eighth overall with five hours and 20 minutes left on the clock.

Picariello quickly took second from Supercars star Jack Le Brocq and then the lead of the class from Ian James at the Cutting, with the Porsche moving up the overall order to climb into the top four overall - finding itself in the mix for the race lead after another caution period backed up the field.

Picariello cleared Maro Engel’s Mercedes for third overall and had just moved into the race lead as others pitted to switch back to slick tyres when the safety car came back out, allowing him to pit and hand the car back to Shahin in top spot.

Rain started to fall again as the race restarted, with Shahin making the correct call to focus on the class battle as a number of the quicker Pro drivers immediately fought their way ahead before the field was forced to return to the pits for wet tyres as conditions worsened.

Despite slipping back to third in class, Shahin was able to stay out of trouble through the remainder of his stint before pitting to hand the car back to Harry, who benefitted from another safety car to close in on the class leaders as the race headed towards the ten-hour mark.

Moving up into second spot, Harry then brought the car back to pits to hand over to Picariello, who found himself moving to the head of the Pro-Am pack lead as the cars ahead came in for stops going into the final hour

With 50 minutes left on the clock, Picariello pitted for the final time just moments before a safety car closed up the battle for the class lead to leave the top three running together.

Picariello passed Whincup for second spot and then claimed the class lead with less than 20 minutes to go when Ross Gunn was forced to pit and serve a penalty, with the Belgian racer staying out front to the finish to cap a fine recovery from the earlier dramas and secure the class victory and ninth overall.

It ensured a double success for the Manthey EMA squad as it also grabbed overall victory with the #912 entry, and means Harry scored another Bathurst victory to add to his successes at the circuit last year.

"Getting the chance to return to Bathurst as part of the Manthey EMA team, and particularly in the Porsche GT3 R, was a fantastic experience," Harry said afterwards.

"The event itself turned out to be a real rollercoaster of emotions, and I didn’t think it was possible to feel so high and so low in the space of a single race. We showed fantastic pace throughout but when Yasser was hit off into the gravel and we were left to deal with pretty big damage to the rear of the car, it looked like any chance of taking the win was gone

"However, we never gave up and fought hard as a team, which allowed us to battle our way back to the front. To take the class win is absolutely brilliant and this is a race that I’ll never, ever forget."