The Bathurst 1000 start has been marred by two massive crashes that has ended the day of several teams inside the opening six laps.
Half the field was caught up in a crash just 10 seconds into the race, but the worst was still to come when Zane Goddard slid off the track at the Chase and then rejoined by slamming into the Matt Campbell entry, creating absolute chaos.
“A bad re-join and another huge incident of the exit of The Chase,” commentator Neil Crompton said.
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“This is going to be a disaster. Zane Goddard has driven back onto the road with dirty tyres and clean-bowled a heap of cars, including Winterbottom, Dale Wood and one of the Penrite cars. It’s an unbelievable scene.”
Replays showed Goddard lost control as he tried to rejoin the race and Campbell was left with nowhere to go.
“That is deadset ordinary. We talked earlier in the day about the fact if you went off the race track it’s going to be wet, muddy and horrible,” Crompton said.
“It’s proving to be the case. A big lock-up here from Goddard. He drives off the road, picks up the throttle to try scramble on but look how wet and muddy he is and now he can’t steer so he steers straight into the rear of Heimgartner and straight into Matt Campbell. The track is covered in mud.”
Commentator Mark Skaife was filthy with Goddard’s actions to rejoin.
“Seriously. You can’t re-join out of control,” he said.
“He out-braked himself slightly and then wants to get back onto the track. Now, when you’re there, you’re out of control. He had nowhere to go. Dale Wood had nowhere to go. Matt Campbell had nowhere to go.”
Mark Winterbottom, who was tangled up in the Goddard crash as he tried to slide by, was also involved in the lap one incident.
Half the Bathurst 1000 field was caught up in a massive spin just 10 seconds into the opening lap, with the crash labelled a “disaster” for a host of teams.
One of the Red Bull Racing entries with Jamie Whincup was caught in the thick of the action, with at least eight cars damaged in the chaos.
Whincup’s car completed two and a half turns, such was the pace he was travelling when nudged.
“Whincup is in that water, Perkins is in the middle and he gets a whack from behind from Dale Wood,” commentator Neil Crompton said.
“You had D’Alberto on the grass on the left with two wheels, Whincup on the extreme right, basically in the river and he’s trying to get left to get out of it. hen they lift the throttle, (Dale) Wood goes into back of Jack Perkins.”
David Russell’s Boost Mobile entry completely spun out of control, while Jack Perkins suffered heavy damage when he was speared into.
“There was nose to tail contact, they were three wide, there was instability,” commentator Neil Crompton said.
“Clearly a mid-pack jostle. And they’ve bumped and ground off the edges of the road.”
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“Whincup gets crossed up. There’s actually nose to tail contact. Dale Wood in it.
“Tyler Everingham gets a massive whack.
“What a disaster, they’ve deployed the safety car already on lap one.
“I’m betting we’re going to see a lot of them today.”
Mark Winterbottom in car number 18 was forced into the pits with severe damage to the front end while Jack Smith was in a similar boat.
“Bent and broken. What a disaster bringing that thing back in with a busted snout.”
Will Brown looked devastated watching on in the pits as his car 9 limped around the track.
“The look of disbelief on Will Brown’s face tells the story. They might get that car out – maybe. But it’ll be a long way down the road before they can rectify it.”
Brown tried to remain positive after the crash.
“Bathurst isn’t very kind to us the last three years,” he said.
“It’s obviously wet out of there. I think it was just everyone crossing the water tangling together.”
Zak Best was clearly disappointed his race ended so early.
“A few cars leaning on each other at the start. Just backed off, seen they were going to the right and tried to hang to the left but tagged the back of the Boost Mobile,” he said.
“From there I was just a passenger.”
