MOTORSPORT: Audi claims crash-marred Bathurst 12 Hour

Audi has earned a breakthrough win at the 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour, securing victory after a horror crash ended Sunday’s race 20 minutes early.

The #37 WRT Audi trio of Robin Frijns, Stuart Leonard and Dries Vanthoor was declared the winner during the international GT endurance event at Mount Panorama. It was Audi’s third victory at Bathurst, and its first since 2012.

Frinjns was leading the event when a Mercedes-AMG GT driven by Kiwi Johnny Reid ploughed into former Supercars driver Ash Walsh’s Audi atop The Mountain, causing the race to be red-flagged with 20 minutes remaining.

Walsh was sitting helplessly in his car across the track following an earlier incident, when Reid unknowingly arrived from a blind corner, clipping the R8 LMS and causing debris to explode across the circuit.

With insufficient time to clean up the debris and return to a green flag, officials were forced to call the race off.

For Frijns, the incident was pivotal.

"I was pushing but also trying to save as much fuel as I could," Frijns revealed afterwards.

"I don't think we could have made it without a safety car. We are really happy, we didn't expect it from the start when we had issues all the way through. But from halfway to the end everything went fluently."

The 11th-hour incident saw Frijns finish ahead of Supercars champion Jamie Whincup, who was in hot pursuit aboard the Mercedes-AMG entry driven with teammates Kenny Habul, Tristiant Vautier and Raffaele Marciello.

Tim Pappas, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Luca Stolz and Marc Lieb were third in a Porsche 911 GT3.

"We couldn't be happier, we certainly maximised," said Whincup, who won the race on debut in 2017. "I am a big believer that the team who does the best job should win and these guys (Audi) did an awesome job.

"We were tight on fuel as well, but hey what's Bathurst without a fuel race? We were hanging in there. We wouldn't have made it to the end but we got lucky."

Audi’s victory was just one facet of a drama-filled race in which the safety car was called on 16 separate occasions.

Earlier, the McLaren driven by Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen and Come Ledogar suffered a DNF due to heat issues, while Steven Richard’s in-form BMW M6 GT3 suffered brake issues.

New Zealand driver Andrew Bagnall was transferred to hospital after a big smash at the top of the mountain where he was rear-ended.

The 70-year-old, competing in the Pro-Am class, sustained several broken ribs on his right side and a broken right pelvis.

Sunday’s race wrote another chapter in Chaz Mostert’s tumultuous history at Mt Panorama. Having tasted success in the Supercars format at Bathurst in 2014, Mostert sustained significant injuries including a broken leg after a monster crash at the same venue in 2015.

Ironically, it was on same section of the circuit as Mostert’s horror incident – Forrest’s Elbow – where the Aussie’s Schnitzer BMW ended the race prematurely on Sunday after a run-in with a lapped car during a battle for third place.

Having taken out the pole position and dominated the early stages of the race, Mostert was in a strong position with 2.5 hours remaining before a desperate overtaking move forced significant contact with Kevin Estre’s Craft Bamboo Porsche and Steven Kane’s Bentley on the outside of Forrest’s Elbow.

The incident occurred when the trio rushed up on the slower Class B Porsche of Kean Booker, forcing Mostert’s rapid BMW out of the race. Mostert was docked $2000, with $1000 suspended, following an investigation.