The race got underway at 6:15 am with the sun just peeking over the horizon.
It was fast and furious stuff right from the off with a fairly even split of unseeded and seeded drivers starting the race, with many teams wanting to get their slower driver’s time done early.
Nico Bastian took the lead from the off in the polesetting #1 Erebus Mercedes and looked in control.
Roger Lago though was soon left wondering if his luck will change at Bathurst anytime soon after a kangaroo jumped into his Lamborghini that was being driving by Peter Kox at the time, the impact bent the chassis, the car making it back to the pits but going no further.
The incident brought out the Safety car with just 18 minutes completed.
After significant damage kept him out of last year’s race, poor luck has again seen his team retire. Kox was also very irate that a roll of gaffer tape had been left in his car prior to the race start, apparently by a TV engineer. His pace was affected by the tape bouncing around the footwell as he was going down the Chase and Kox believed that had he been fully up to speed he’d never have been at the wrong place at the wrong time!
It was very disappointing for Lago as he believed he had a car that had a good chance of winning. The kangaroo was also clipped by Jack Le Brocq’s Mercedes causing minor damage to the front splitter.
The first hour also saw a spin for the Motionsport Lotus at the Chase. The same car also spinning in same place in the second hour, that second, dramatic enough to get the Safety Car scrambled once again.
The HTP Mercedes meanwhile had had a brush with Rick Kelly in the Nissan GT-R which saw both cars bearing a few racing scars, the Nissan bumped into a slower BMW too.
The Mercedes would pit some time later, apparently with a brake pad dislodged, this after a fine run from Thomas Jager, the car trailing smoke and displaying large amounts of metallic debris on the front right hand wheel. It would cost the car a couple of laps to the leaders.
Oliver Gavin was enjoying a fine run in the Rotek Audi in Class B, the Chevy factory stalwart up as high as 6th overall on pace.
Several of the Porsches would, most unusually, hit trouble in the opening hour with the #35 first to see an issue emerge, the gar needing a flatbed to get back to the pits.
There was drama too for the #50 MARC Focus V8, the car spinning as the leaders made their way by, eventually reversing part way down the hill before rejoining, no Safety Car required this time.
The third hour though would see a potentially much worse incident that would take two further Class A cars out of the running as the Clearwater Ferrari and the Nismo Nissan were involved in a heavy incident just before Skyline.
The Ferrari, driven by Hiroshi Hamaguachi had spun earlier but then impacted the wall making its way past a slower car after getting on the marbles before spinning on its own coolant from the subsequent damage.
Stranded in the middle of the track, the Ferrari was powerless do anything as a stream of cars jinked left and right to avoid him. One Audi touched the inside wall but without major issue. But as Katsumasa Cyio came around in the Nissan, unsighted by the dust of several cars and with a large amount of fluid on the racing line he hit the front of the Ferrari with the right rear of the Nissan, the impact tearing off the rear corner of the GT-R and doing grave damage to the nose of the 458.
Both cars were out more or less on the spot but mercifully both drivers were OK.
Wolfgang Reip was disappointed for the Nissan team but was glad that Cyio was ok.
“It was not expected. That is part of the game – it is racing. Better luck next time.
“Cyio is fine. Luckily for him the contact was sideways in the rear and he was in the front so it was lucky for him.
“Everything was going as planned. We weren’t the fastest but we had a good lineup and a reliable car so we were expecting a good result.`
The tactical game was also alive in the opening three hours. The Erebus cars pitted without driver changes or taking on tyres. Meanwhile the Maranello team put John Bowe in the car in a longer pitstop that cost the team 10 seconds and a number of positions.
The McLaren team started with Klark Quinn and swapped to Shane van Gisbergen during the opening hours of the race to put them in a battle for the race lead coming into the second quarter of the race. van Gisbergen almost immediately into the battle for the lead with Schneider in the #1 Mercedes.
Sam Tickell/ GG
Pics from Andrew ‘Skippy’ Hall (Clearwater Ferrari pic from Sam Tickell)
