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B12Hr: Race Red-Flagged After Huge Shunt For Aron & Zelger

Leading #77 Craft Bamboo AMG suffers heavy impact with stopped car on circuit, drivers ok.

The 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour has been red-flagged after a severe two-car shunt involving the race-leading #77 Craft Bambo Racing Mercedes-AMG of Ralf Aron and the #79 Tsunami RT Porsche of Johannes Zelger.

The incident happened on the first lap after a safety-car restart for an earlier incident. The Tsunami RT Porsche was one of the cars granted a wave-by, which saw it and all other cars any laps down the chance to pass the safety car train ahead of the restart.

The #79 Tsunami RT car was seen to be slow on the way down the Mountain after making contact with the wall on the approach to McPhillamy Park. The following pack caught up to the Porsche on the approach to the dipper, which checked the field up behind the Porsche.

Light contact to the rear spun the #79 on the entry to Forest Elbow, with the group of wave-by runners threading their way past it on driver’s left.

The #79 then stopped on the right-hand side of the track, concealed behind the wall and elevation on approach to the elbow.

The lead pack was then approaching the site of the stopped car, with Ralf Aron leading the pack in the #77 Craft Bamboo AMG. The #77 had just taken the lead during the previous safety car period due to electing to go through the pit lane without pitting, instead of taking a pit stop like the other cars in its group.

The #77 cycled through the pit lane because the car had been suffering radio issues. Aron had brought the car down the lane just in case the team decided to pit, but the team waved him through.

By the time the #77 AMG approached the scene of the accident, there was no chance for Aron to avoid the stranded #79 Tsunami Porsche. Despite double-waved yellow flags at the preceding marshal post, Aron was already committed to his braking point and line, and collected the Porsche head-on.

Thankfully, Aron and Zelger were able to exit their cars under their own steam after the impact. They are both being evaluated at the circuit medical centre.

The rest of the field managed to navigate their way through the incident, with no other cars making contact.

With a debris field spanning the full width of the circuit, race control elected to suspend the race with three hours, and 40 minutes remaining.

The race has been suspended, with the remaining time stopped. It is expected that the remaining time will be corrected to finish at the listed end time, with an adjustment to driver times due to the stoppage.

The Race Director has allowed teams to change tyres under the race suspension, due to the number of cars suffering tyre damage as a result of driving through the debris field from the incident.

The race had just gotten restarted after a truncated afternoon stint, with multiple small incidents and two further safety cars. After recovery of the #15 Volante Rosso McLaren just before half race, the race ran green for almost a full stint, with the leading group of 8 cars all aggressively fuel saving.

The race then ignited with a string of incidents in short order. First, the #222 STM Mercedes spun on the exit of The Cutting while trying to pass lapped traffic, with Thomas Randle at the wheel, nudging the front of the Mercedes-AMG into the wall on the driver’s right. While the damage wasn’t severe, it resulted in a long pit stop to repair front and rear bodywork, as well as removing the #222 as a top challenger for the race.

The spin for Randle was immediately before the pit sequence, which saw another Safety Car fall right in the middle of the pit stops. The reason this time? The pit exit marker cone, which had been dragged onto the centre of the circuit by Valentino Rossi in the #46 WRT BMW.

As most pit stops were completed, the #75 Express Mercedes and the #2 JMR Corvette were the only cars to take advantage of the yellow-flag pit stop. They both cycled to the head of the field, while Rossi escaped sanctioning as it was determined that, despite hitting the cone, the tyres of the BMW didn’t cross the white line at the pit exit.

As the race prepared to go green again, a weird moment for Nicky Catsburg in the #2 JMR Corvette saw that car given a drive-through penalty. Catsburg got caught up in cars proceeding with the Wave-By procedure, and mistakenly passed the #75 Express Mercedes and the Safety Car, before realising his error and slotting back into line. Despite redressing his mistake, the stewards administered a drive-through for the breach.

The race got back underway with the 75 Express AMG leading the field before another incident 20 minutes later brought out the 6th Safety Car of the race.

After repairing the car earlier in the race, the #268 Team BRM Audi was spectacularly eliminated in a fiery accident at McPhillamy. James Golding was just out of the tram tracks on the approach to The Grate, tagging the wall at Reid Park and spinning into the wall, rear-first. The rear of the car burst into flames as the Audi crossed the circuit and came to a rest on the inside of the track at the Vista.

Golding was able to step from the car unharmed, but the Audi would go no further.

This incident caused a 36-minute Safety Car to recover the car and remove debris, with a significant amount of kitty litter placed on the track to absorb fluids from the Audi R8. It is not known whether or not this contributed to the #79 Porsche’s incident.

At this stage, Luca Stolz leads in the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG, followed by the #888 GMR AMG. The #95 Optimum McLaren is third, with the #46 WRT BMW and #911 Absolute Racing Porsche in the top five.

The top 15 cars are on the lead lap, including the Bronze leading #21 Herberth Porsche in ninth, and the Pro-Am leader, the #45 RAM/GWR Mercedes in 14th.

As this story went live, race control was preparing for the race to go green once again, with the field up and running under safety car after a 55-minute stoppage.

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