HRT Ford, KTM out of Bathurst 12 Hour in opening minutes

TWO cars, including an outright contender, are already out of the 2026 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour after separate incidents in the first hour of the race.

The HRT Ford Mustang was ruled out after an incident with a kangaroo in the opening minutes race. The #50 KTM is also out of the race, with David Crampton crashing out at Murray’s Corner after a suspected failure.

The first Safety Car was called inside the first 20 minutes of the race after Christopher Mies struck wildlife heading down Conrod Straight.

Mies pulled the #64 entry over on approach to The Chase, with the race quickly neutralised and brought under control of the Safety Car.

The two incidents led to an extended Safety Car period, with a number of cars stopping under yellow.

At the time of the Safety Car, Maximilian Gotz led in the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG ahead of the pole car of Thomas Randle in the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.

“Luckily Miesy’s okay,” co-driver Dennis Olsen said.

"I'm glad he's okay, that's the main thing. Very unfortunate that we cannot show the performance of our car here, but we have to come back next year and try to win.

“It's a shame. We're sorry that we cannot show the car more for all the fans. We're just gonna look ahead and try to come back next year.”