Supercars legend Mark Skaife fires up after 'completely ridiculous' crash in Darwin

Five-time Supercars champion Mark Skaife has fired up over driving standards after several drivers were caught up in a messy crash in the opening race of the weekend in Darwin.

As the green flag flew to restart the race after an early safety car, the engine on Ryan Wood's Mustang failed, triggering several drivers behind him to check up.

Unsighted, drivers behind continued full throttle down the long straight. In the resulting kerfuffle, Erebus driver Jack Le Brocq was punted into the concrete wall on drivers' left.

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The hit ripped the front-left wheel assembly from Le Brocq's car. It bounced down the track and then eventually hopped the wall into the adjacent drag strip.

"How the f--k do you crash on a straight?" he raged over team radio.

"Every single year we come here, those stupid f---ing restart ... " he continued before the radio was muted from the broadcast.

Restart rules forbid drivers from overtaking before the start/finish line, which at Hidden Valley is about half way down the 1.1km main straight.

Wood pulled over to the left of the track after his engine failure, but several drivers behind him either braked or lifted off the throttle in an effort not to pass him before the line, which could have earned them a penalty.

"Seriously, that crash on the straight is completely ridiculous," Skaife said.

"... You can't overtake before the control line, so you've got guys braking on the straight. You can't do that – everyone should be accelerating at that point."

Wood parked his car up at the end of the straight, and Le Brocq battled his to a stop just behind him. The pair shared a brief exchange at the side of the track.

The collision triggered the second safety car of the race, the first having been called for a first-lap crash for Jaxon Evans.

Speaking to the broadcast a short time later, Wood acknowledged his car's failure "wouldn't have helped" the situation, but suggested leader Broc Feeney had gone against a pre-race agreement.

It's usually up to the lead car to decide when to begin accelerating on a restart, but Wood suggested the drivers had agreed the leader would accelerate out of the final corner to avoid congestion and potential collisions further down the field.

"We changed the safety car restart to go out of the last corner, and we still didn't go out of the last corner, so it was still a nightmare for everyone," he said.

"Now there's a car that's got a tyre missing off the front of it, so that's not good for them.

"If we keep doing the same shit on the restart, the same results will keep happening."

Feeney went on to comfortably win the race from Cam Waters and Matt Payne. Home hero Bryce Fullwood, who grew up only a 10-minute drive from the Hidden Valley circuit, finished fourth.