The Bathurst 12 Hour was rocked by a terrifying crash on Sunday involving race leader Ralf Aron after a Safety Car restart, with one driver describing it as “madness”.
Mercedes-AMG Team GMR (Maxime Martin, Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier) claimed victory but all the talk in the paddock was about the mid-race incident which forced the endurance race’s first red flag in eight years.
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The incident began when the #79 TSUNAMI RT Porsche of Johannes Zelger spun on the kink before Forrest’s Elbow, with the #14 Aston Martin of Damien Hamilton stuck in behind.
That moment, and race control’s actions in not waving the yellow flag sooner, is sure to come under the microscope considering what unfolded.
Although the incident started all the way back at McPhillamy Park, with photos showing Zelger hitting the wall at McPhillamy Park.
The Porsche then limped it’s way down the mountain with damage, and stacked up the field behind, with Hamilton going to one side, and Kai Allen left with nowhere to go in the mad scramble, clipping the back of the Porsche, which was left perpendicular on the racing line.
That collision occurred on a restart lap after the heavy crash for James Golding, with the backmarker group of cars about half a lap ahead of the leaders.
Ralf Aron, who had mistakenly come through pit lane on the previous Safety Car due to issues with pit-to-car communications, was the first car on the scene and had no warning around a blind corner.
Aron piled into the Porsche at near unabated speed, with the front of his #77 Mercedes bursting into flames, with Luca Stolz and Maro Engel diving out of the way in their own Mercedes.
It was the first red flag interruption at the 12 Hour since the race-ending stoppage in 2018.
Aron jumped out his car visibly winded, whilst Zelger also climbed out of his Porsche under his own power.
HOW THE DRIVERS REACTED
Dean Fiore: “It was dangerous…”
“It was crazy. We were obviously on the ‘Lucky Dogs’ so we were going quite hard and then we’ve come through the Dipper and I’m right behind Kai and there was a staggered sort of situation of two cars going slow so Kai had nowhere to sort of go and they were doing 40-50ks. Kai has obviously tagged him, I managed to slip through before he’s rolled back into me. It was dangerous to be fair. I don’t understand how we can be out there going full-blaze and there’s people doing 50-60ks in that tight zone.”
Kai Allen: “A very weird situation…”
“Not really sure to be honest, we obviously got let through on the wave by. Cam managed to get by that really slow Porsche, Dean and I were just trying to get away, and there was an Aston and the Porsche either side going really, really slow.
“I was very concerned about us getting ploughed up the back, because the leaders would be coming through soon. Very unfortunate, I really don’t know what happened.
“I was trying to go around him, went really slow, and he just braked, and I just accidentally hit him.
“I really don’t know, it was a very weird situation, and very unfortunate to see that massive crash. I hope everyone is ok.”
Massive crash shakes Bathurst 12 hour | 00:23
Marcel Zalloua: “That was insane…”
“Madness. I had probably the box seat vision coming down Skyline and getting to the dipper I could see an Aston facing the wrong way and looked in my mirrors and I had probably four or five people hunting me down.
“It was very touchy-touchy on the brakes and being very controlled through the mayhem. I’m not sure what was going on. They do say Safety Cars breed Safety Cars but that was insane.”
Luca Stolz: “I was just lucky…”
“I just saw a car stopping in Forrest’s Elbow and Ralf tried to avoid it but still hit it.
“I just moved left and I guess I was just lucky. I heard that there was a car in Forrest’s Elbow but I took out (the speed) a little bit. Probably not enough, but I was just lucky.”
Jordan Pepper: “He pretty much saved us…”
“It was a bit weird. There were flashing yellows coming through up the hill the from the cutting and then there were green flags, yellow flags, green flags as we came over Skyline and then it was green and then I heard the engineer on the radio. He pretty much saved us because he was screaming, ‘Stop, stop, stop. A big crash ahead’… you could see the car on fire. I hope everyone is OK.”
Jaxon Evans: “Screaming over the radio…”
“Obviously one of those situations it’s a big panic for everyone but to at least get some information over the radio. First it was to exercise caution but then he was screaming over the radio to stop. We were lucky enough to slow down but it’s never nice to see that stuff happen.”
Damien Hamilton: “It looked very tight…”
“Coming over the top the three cars were really close together. It looked very tight and could see they were fighting a lot there. I could see it was a risk so I was trying to make sure I had my bets hedged. When the Porsche spun I was just trying to hold back and see which direction it would go to. I knew I didn’t want to be there on the track, so I had to stop, reverse and get out of there.”
Christopher Haase: “It’s impossible…”
“Luckily I have seen yellow flags far before… so I knew something was going on… I slowed down and was lucky nothing happened… you cannot see a car like that. It’s impossible at that position. Very unfortunate for them.”
‘PROBABLY TOAST’: FIREBALL CRASH EARLIER IN THE RACE
It was the most serious incident in a drama-filled opening to Sunday’s race, with James Golding walking away from a fireball crash earlier in the day.
There were just over four hours left in the event when the Team BRM Audi R8 spun and slammed into the outside wall, going airborne at one point before coming to a stop.
Fortunately, Golding was able to walk away from the incident under his own power and was later taken to the circuit medical centre to be checked out.
Audi on fire after HUGE Bathurst crash | 00:55
“You could see when he dropped into Reid Park he was a little bit wide and you can not get it back,” Garth Tander said in commentary.
“Heavy, heavy impact. Significant damage to the rear of that car. He got the wall on the outside, too, that’s where it’s got away from him.
“Rear-engine car, inertia is taking over and you’re bracing for impact. I’m not sure that chassis will come back.”
The car’s owner Marc Rosser, while obviously stressing that the “main priority” was that Golding was OK, added that the car is “probably toast” and that there could be long-term implications.
“We’ll have to see what we can do for the rest of the year,” he said.
It came after an earlier incident with the car involving Mark Rosser, who crashed over the top of McPhillamy Park and spun into the wall.
On that occasion, the team was able to get the car back on the track; albeit 39 laps behind the leaders.
— with Supercars.com
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