It was one of the wettest and most wonderful sessions in recent Bathurst memory. After rain had held off for Thursday’s two practice sessions and Friday morning’s hour-long stint remained dry, the forecast storm struck Mount Panorama – and created absolute mayhem.
When the drivers took to the track for Friday afternoon’s practice session, the rain was still belting down, causing rivers of water to flow across the road at several places around the track.
“Conditions are diabolical out there at the moment on Mount Panorama,” Mark Skaife said on Fox Sports.
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Rain causes CHAOS at Mount Panorama | 01:07
Todd Hazelwood, third on the timesheets at that point, crashed early in the session at Griffin’s Bend, though he wasn’t the first to run into trouble. Andre Heimgartner had already ran wide at The Chase but managed to escape being beached in the mud. Tim Slade also found the wall on his way up the mountain.
After Hazelwood’s damaged drive was towed back to the pits and action resumed on track, the crashes quickly began to pile up.
Standing water at the end of the lap, from The Chase to the pit entry road, meant drivers lost control again and again and were sent skidding over the water.
Tony D’Alberto (Anton de Pasquale’s co-driver) lost control trying to enter the pits. Cameron Hill (co-driver for Chris Pither), Macauley Jones, Brodie Kostecki and Jake Kostecki all were sent skidding out, but it was Jones’ crash into the wall that drew the second red flag of the session.
When the action resumed once more, Jake Kostecki sent his Tickford Racing Mustang wide of the Chase again, with the usually pristine grass quickly being churned into mud by the rogue racers.
Returning veteran Craig Lowndes turned his wildcard entry intro a submarine when he tried to enter pit lane and found the stream of water. Water went shooting in all directions as Lowndes burst across the grass and then over Murray’s Corner to the escape road – luckily not colliding with any other drivers as he did so.
Lowndes even lost his front grill as he smashed through the water.
“It was literally just this massive wall of water,” he said. “I’m amazed there’s not more dirt in that than what it is.”
On his way up the mountain, young gun Will Brown smashed into the wall after his rear tyre just clipped a white line of paint and lost grip.
As he came to a stop, the session was red flagged for a third time and subsequently concluded early.
Lucky for Brown, his team was able to repair the vehicle ahead of qualifying in a rapid turnaround.
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Will Brown’s team told Fox Sports: “The whole front end had to be taken out … it broke the suspension but it didn’t do any rail damage. We’re very lucky.”
The best time of the session was Shane van Gisbergen’s 2:30.292s, a marker well in front of James Whincup’s 2:31.296s. But most of the runners were significantly further back than that.
Indeed, the pace was reminiscent of back in 1995: when the fastest time for the Sunday morning warm-up for the main race was a 2:34s.
“It’s so treacherous out there,” Thomas Randle said.
