Major accident hits Bathurst as 2026 12 Hour approaches crunch time
4h
A heavy crash for James Golding has brought the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour under control of the BMW M Safety Car for the sixth time today, as Mercedes-AMG place themselves in a strong position.
Mercedes' lock out the top three under yellow with four hours to go, Ralf Aron leading in #77 Craft-Bamboo entry ahead of Luca Stolz in the #75 75 Express car and the #888 Team GMR entry of Maro Engel.
The top seven cars were all line astern for the majority of the stint following the fourth Safety Car restart, however the star of the stint was Bastian Buus, who used the most of his clear circuit heading the wave around group to chew into the gap to the lead group.
The leaders all held sway in their position as there was an element of fuel saving for some, however with another round of stops right around the corner, there was drama to come.
A big twist in the outcome of the race came on lap 167, when Thomas Randle attempted to put a lap on Kerong Li in the #86 High Class Racing Porsche on the run up to Reid Park.
Randle got all crossed up as he exited the Cutting on the run to Turn 5, and looped the #222 Mercedes gently into the wall on drivers' right.
However, that was enough to damage the front splitter, and drag the left rear corner into the wall, with the damage ultimately forcing car the back into the garage after Chaz Mostert attempted to soldier on for a single lap.
A contender all day after starting from pole position, the Scott Taylor Motorsport entry lost three laps repairing the damage.
That set off a busy chain of events for the leaders, as there were several twists affecting leading contenders throughout the next pit stop cycle.
The #32 Team WRT BMW almost found the wall at the exit of The Chase avoiding the #14 Volante Rosso Aston Martin, whilst the #888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR entry suffered a slow pit stop with rattle gun issues.
Then, Valentino Rossi drifted wide on pit exit with cold tyres on the #46 BMW and clobbered the pit exit marker, which was launched onto the racing surface at the exit of Hell Corner, bringing out the fifth BMW M Safety Car appearance.
The only two cars that hadn't stopped before the Safety Car was called were the #75 Mercedes and the #2 Corvette, who once again both got a free kick, as did the #95 McLaren, which cycled up to third after a fuel saving stint from Ben Barnicoat.
The Safety Car restart also proved a hurdle for another lead contender, as Nicky Catsburg mistakenly joined the queue of drivers in the wave by line, before slamming on the brakes.
That left Mostert with no option but to dive to the grass to avoid the Dutchman, who also overtook leader Jules Gounon before attempting to redress. A pit lane penalty for the Corvette was inevitiable.
However, the Corvette was brought back into the lead pack when the Safety Car was called for a sixth time when the Mountain bit hard.
Golding brushed the wall at The Grate in the #268 Team BRM Audi, which tipped the Bathurst 1000 podium finisher into a frightening collision with the wall on the run to McPhillamy Park.
The car burst into flames and went airborne in a heavy collision with the concrete, before coming to rest with flames still licking out of the left rear corner of the R8.
After collecting the wall earlier in the day at Skyline, the car was finished off in the second incident. Golding fortunately climbed out under his own power.
There is an extensive clean up of both debris and fluid on top of the mountain as of time of publication with the #95 McLaren the lead non-Mercedes in fourth, and the #46 BMW rounding out the top five.
