The event was conceived by Vincent Tesoriero, a race promoter and former Bathurst 1000 competitor, who identified an opportunity to stage a long-distance race for production cars at Mount Panorama following the decline of Group A touring cars in Australia. Tesoriero secured sponsorship from James Hardie — a long-established Bathurst 1000 backer — for an inaugural running over Easter weekend 1991. Regulations were based on the Group 3E Series Production Car rules then in use in the Australian Production Car Championship, covering naturally aspirated four- and six-cylinder sedans but also permitting turbocharged and V8-engined cars that had been excluded from the Production Car Championship from 1990.
The first race ran from 5:15 am to 5:15 pm after the local council prohibited a 9 am–9 pm format, with the final two hours televised by Network 10. Twenty-four cars started and twenty finished, with Allan Grice, Peter Fitzgerald and Nigel Arkell taking victory in a Toyota Supra.
Through the early 1990s manufacturer-backed teams from Mazda, Holden, Citroën, Peugeot, Porsche, Honda and Nissan all appeared at the event. The Mazda RX-7 proved dominant, winning three consecutive races. Facing rising costs, the 1995 edition was relocated from Bathurst to Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney and moved from Easter to August. The race was then discontinued after that year.
The race returned in 2007 as part of the Bathurst Motorsport Festival, maintaining its original production-car concept. Garry Holt, Paul Morris and Craig Baird won in a BMW 335i. Mitsubishi dominated the 2008 and 2009 editions, with Rod Salmon and Damien White featuring prominently, and the Mitsubishi marque claimed the first four positions in 2009. Holt, Morris and John Bowe won again in 2010, a race briefly halted when a tree fell across Conrod Straight. Entry numbers peaked at 48 cars in 2009.
In 2011 GT3-specification cars were admitted for the first time, transforming the event's character. The German Joest Racing squad dominated with Audi R8 LMS GT3 machinery. With increasing focus on GT machinery and dwindling production car numbers, separate organisers established the Bathurst 6 Hour from 2016 to preserve a Bathurst endurance race for the production category.
Significant victories in the GT era include Erebus Motorsport's 2013 win with Bernd Schneider, Thomas Jäger and Alexander Roloff in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG — the first Australian team win under GT regulations — and Maranello Motorsport's 2014 triumph with Craig Lowndes driving a Ferrari, a result carrying particular poignancy as the team had lost former driver Allan Simonsen in a crash at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. Katsumasa Chiyo handed Nissan its first major Mount Panorama victory in 2015, overtaking the lead with two laps remaining.
From 2016 the Bathurst 12 Hour became the opening round of the newly formed Intercontinental GT Challenge, managed by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation, alongside the Sepang 12 Hours and Spa 24 Hours. Shane van Gisbergen won the inaugural IGTC Bathurst in a McLaren 650S GT3 for Tekno Autosports. Maranello Motorsport repeated in 2017 with Toni Vilander, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.
The 2018 race was stopped early after a multi-car accident at Sulman Park injured several drivers, with Robin Frijns, Stuart Leonard and Dries Vanthoor taking the result for Audi Sport Team WRT. The 2019 race produced a distance record during extended green-flag running, with Matt Campbell completing three late overtakes to win for Porsche alongside Dennis Olsen and Dirk Werner. Bentley took their first victory in 2020, again setting a distance record.
The 2021 race was cancelled due to international travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Supercars, part-owners of the event, ran the Mount Panorama 500 in its place as the opening round of the 2021 Supercars Championship. The 2022 edition was delayed from February to May and saw Kenny Habul's SunEnergy1 Racing team win, with Jules Gounon — who had also been part of the victorious Bentley crew in 2020 — achieving consecutive Bathurst 12 Hour wins.
A qualifying trophy named after Allan Simonsen was introduced in 2014, coinciding with the removal of minimum lap time restrictions that had previously constrained qualifying pace. Laurens Vanthoor set the fastest ever recorded Mount Panorama time in 2015, only for Shane van Gisbergen to beat it by over a second in 2016. Chaz Mostert became the first Australian to win the trophy in 2018 and won it for a second time in 2022, the smallest margin in the event's history.
The Bathurst 12 Hour stands as one of the most internationally significant GT races held outside Europe, drawing factory-supported teams from Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG, Nissan, Porsche and Bentley. Broadcast across more than 150 countries and watched by an estimated audience of over half a million people in 2014, it is recognised as a centrepiece of the summer Australian racing calendar alongside the Bathurst 1000 and the Australian Grand Prix.
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