Walkenhorst Motorsport entry hoping for rain after kangaroo incident

Chaz Mostert is hoping forecast afternoon storms can bring his BMW back into contention at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour after it sustained damage in a collision with a kangaroo.

Co-driver Nicky Catsburg was at the wheel of the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport entry when the incident occurred shortly after taking over the car from Mostert in the third hour.

Forced to pit for a new bonnet, the M6 sits two laps down at the halfway mark in 19th position.

The kangaroo incident was revealed by Catsburg on Twitter and follows Saturday morning’s practice session having been red flagged due to roos on the circuit.

“Unfortunately hit a kangaroo (also for the kangaroo) in one of my first laps out,” Catsburg wrote on Twitter.

“The bonnet was slowly giving up and then finally it broke in a slipstream due to all the vibrations.”

Newly crowned Daytona 24 class winner Mostert believes they can still recover ground – especially with a bit of help on the weather front.

“I don’t know the whole story but we got some damage on the car and ended up having to repair the car so we lost a fair bit of time,” he told Supercars.com.

“We don’t have that great performance either,” he added, after qualifying 15th before moving forward in the early stages.

“We’re trying hard, we’re doing everything we can to try to stay in the race and fingers crossed for some weather later, if we can get some Safety Cars to get back into it.

“We’re not out of the race, we’re just a couple of laps down.

“Anything can happen around here, you saw through the practices how wild it got… I hope everyone has a safe race. We’ll see if we can get back in the fight.”

Adding to the Walkinshaw Andretti United Supercars driver’s challenge is some ill-health: “I’m really, really crook. I’m just trying to get through this race.”

Words: Stefan Bartholomaeus, Connor O'Brien, Supercars.com