Goetz Leads Opening Hour; Mustang Out After Kangaroo Hit

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Maxi Goetz led the opening hour of the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, which largely ran behind the safety car after Chris Mies’ Ford Mustang GT3 struck a kangaroo.

Goetz, who started second in the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, got around the pole-sitting No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport entry of Thomas Randle in a three-wide battle for the lead on the first green flag lap after the 5:45 a.m. start.

The German driver held the lead until the safety car was deployed when Mies’ No. 64 HRT Ford Racing entry, which was running inside the top-ten in the car’s highly anticipated race debut, pulled off on the left-side of Conrod Straight with heavy front-end damage, including to its windshield on the left-hand side.

Mies climbed from the wrecked car under his own power, although appeared to be covered with dark fluids on his face and firesuit.

Race control confirmed that Mies hit a kangaroo.

A second car was taken out of the race while under the safety car when David Crampton had an apparent mechanical failure in his Invitational class Vantage Racing KTM X-Bow GT2 in the final corner.

The race restarted at the 45-minute mark after several contending cars, including the then-third placed No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alessio Picariello, pitted during the yellow.

The 75 Express Mercedes-AMG also pitted for a driver change from Luca Stolz to team owner/driver Kenny Habul.

Christopher Haase ran third at the one-hour mark in the No. 55 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II, with Augusto Farfus and Marco Mapelli completing the top-five for Team WRT and Wall Racing, respectively.

The No. 61 EBM Porsche, which started from the rear of the 34-car field due to a technical infringement in qualifying, has moved up to 19th in the hands of Ricardo Feller.

Source: Sports Car 365