Drivers slam safety standards after horror collision brings Bathurst 12 Hour to a halt
Updated . First published at
Supercars stars have hit out at race officials following a frightening collision at the Bathurst 12 Hour on Sunday.
The chaos erupted during a safety car restart when race leader Ralf Aron was left stranded at the top of Mount Panorama, triggering a pile-up that the drivers say was entirely avoidable.
The incident forced a red flag with just over three hours remaining. Once play resumed, the Mercedes-AMG Team GMR trio of Maxime Martin, Maro Engel, and Mikael Grenier charged forward to claim a historic victory from 29th on the grid.
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Members of the Mercedes-AMG Team GMR celebrate their historic Bathurst 12 Hour victory on the podium. Getty
The chaos began when Tsunami RT's Johannes Zelger clipped the wall at McPhillamy Park.
Limping down the mountain with heavy damage, his Porsche caused the field to stack up behind him.
While Damien Hamilton's Aston Martin managed to swerve clear, Kai Allen was left with nowhere to go, clipping the Porsche and spinning it perpendicular across the racing line at the entry to Forrest's Elbow.
As the first car on the scene, Aron rounded the blind corner with zero warning.
His Mercedes slammed into the stationary Porsche at near-unabated speed, the impact causing the front of the Mercedes to burst into flames.
Miraculously, both drivers escaped their wreckage unaided — Aron was seen crawling from his car shortly before Zelger also climbed out under his own power.
Aron was subsequently transferred to Orange Hospital for further evaluation.
The aftermath of the crash. Twitter
It marked the second major incident in an hour following James Golding's earlier heavy crash at Reid Park.
Supercars driver Scott Pye slammed race control's response time on Instagram, claiming the Porsche "was parked for ages" and arguing that track safety "needs to be talked about".
"There was plenty of time for officials to know that car's not going anywhere," he said in a video posted to his Instagram Story.
"There was no time for the drivers to react... I feel like the drivers need more warning; this is one of the riskiest tracks in the world.
"Seriously, we could have done better here."
Despite narrowly escaping the crash, Engel also argued there was inadequate warning of the disaster unfolding ahead.
"The yellow flag was very late; there was no pre-warning for me," he said.
"I did think there wasn't a gap; the gap appeared just as I arrived."
Technical gremlins had plagued Aron throughout the race, including a mid-race communication breakdown that saw him mistakenly enter the pit lane during an earlier safety car.
It remains unclear if those same radio issues played a role in the collision as he rounded the blind corner.
The incident triggered the first red flag at the event since the race-ending stoppage in 2018.
The race resumed at 3pm AEDT after a 60-minute red-flag period, though the restart brought little relief from the day's mounting chaos.
With less than an hour on the clock, a battle for 13th ended in disaster when Chaz Mostert and Jayden Ojeda collided at Griffin's Bend.
The impact broke Ojeda's suspension and sent him spinning into Mostert, forcing the Safety Car out once more.
When the green flag finally flew, the chaos continued with a Turn One clash between Jules Gounon and Kelvin van der Linde.
The Mercedes victory shattered the previous record for the lowest starting position by a winner, eclipsing Bentley's 2020 triumph from 11th on the grid.
