After days of rain caused chaos at the Bathurst 1000, it was water from another source that wreaked havoc just seconds into the 161-lap race.
A burst water pipe on the morning of Sunday’s race at Mount Panorama spewed liquid onto Mountain Straight and down to Hell Corner just in time for the Great Race.
Drivers were warned of the impending threat, but when the endurance race began all hell broke loose.
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Lee Holdsworth in the No.10 Grove Racing Ford Mustang led the field into the first turn and swiftly swerved across the track to avoid the water.
Behind last year’s Bathurst 1000 winner, cars slid on the slippery asphalt on the run up the straight.
In a split second, seven-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup (No.88 Triple Eight Race Engineering) got loose as did Jack Perkins (No.9 Erebus Motorsprot) who looked to have copped a hit from Dale Wood.
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Whincup and Perkins simultaneously spun. That caused the No.9 Commodore to hit the right front corner of Tony D’Alberto (No.100 Dick Johnson Racing) and bent the steering on his Mustang.
As Whincup and Perkins spun out of control, Zak Best (No.55 Tickford Racing) took evasive action and slid onto the grass. However, his Ford Mustang just clipped Perkins.
That caused damage to the right rear of Perkins’ car, which necessitated it to return to the pit lane for repairs.
Best, meanwhile, slapped the concrete wall and did enough damage to his car that he was brought back to the pits on a flatbed truck.
Behind the spinning cars, the rest of the field had to check up. Mark Winterbottom slammed his No.18 Commodore into the back of Team 18 stablemate Tyler Everinghmam in the No.20 entry. Meanwhile, Jaxon Evans rear-ended the Matt Stone Racing No.34 of Jack Le Brocq.
Despite being among those to spin, Whincup’s Commodore came away unscathed.
Nasty’ crash wipes out three frontrunners
The race resumed just a few laps later, though it wasn’t long before the chaos kicked off again.
James Courtney’s co-driver Zane Goddard (No.5 Tickford Racing) sought to put a pass on Greg Murphy (No.51 Erebus Motorsport) at The Chase, only to lock up his front tyres and spear off the road.
On the muddied grass, the Goddard Mustang slid out of control and speared back onto the track at speed.
With nowhere to go, Wood ploughed into Goddard and was swiftly followed in by David Reynolds’ co-driver Matt Campbell (No.26 Grove Racing).
The drama continued as De Pasquale got into the side of Winterbottom trying to avoid Heimgartner, sending the No.18 into a spin.
The incident forced several retirements, including Courtney/Goddard, Reynolds/Campbell, and Heimgartner/Wood.
Heimgartner, who was among the hopefuls heading into the Great Race, expressed his frustration.
“It’s like these guys don’t realise it’s 161 laps and they’re driving like absolute losers,” said the Kiwi.
“Hopefully they get their shit together and we don’t have more safety cars and don’t ruin more cars because Tickford, us [Brad Jones Racing], put in so much effort and then for everyone to take everyone out like that, especially that last one was pretty wild.
“I’d be pretty surprised if my car isn’t seriously damaged and will need to be rebuilt on the jig. It’s not what anyone needs and we’re only on lap bloody four.”
Holdsworth led when the race restarted on lap 10 ahead of Fabian Coulthard (with Chaz Mostert) and Warren Luff (with Nick Percat).
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Bathurst 1000: Memorable moments from Mount Panorama
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