‘WTF’: Viewers stunned by wild ‘plane crash’ at Bathurst 1000

The Bathurst 1000 has witnessed some truly bizarre scenes, with a pre-race plane landing going awry on the track, leaving viewers lost for words.

Well that didn’t quite go to plan.

Motorsport fans tuning into to the pre-race coverage of the Bathurst 1000 were given a bit of a fright when the plane delivering the trophy had a slight mishap.

The Peter Brock trophy, named after the King of the Mountain who won at Bathurst a record nine times, was delivered to the track via a small plane with Repco emblazoned on the wings.

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Pilot Hayden Pullen landed the plane in windy conditions and delivered the trophy, which was passed around to several legends of Australian motorsport including Dick Johnson and John Goss.

But eagled eyed viewers noticed Pullen had got into some trouble after landing the plane.

After successfully landing on the track, he turned the plane around. But the U-turn went awry when the right wing clipped the concrete wall, with some large chunks of debris from the plane falling to the ground.

Once he’d dropped off the trophy, Pullen flew back into the air and over a grandstand full of spectators.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but viewers couldn’t believe their eyes as the wild scenes unfolded.

Watch the plane crash and fly away in the video player above

Debris from the plane went flying after hitting the wall. Photo: Fox Sports.

One person wrote on X: “Did he just hit the wall with that plane?!? #Bathurst.”

A second said: “Dude in the plane collected the wall and just took off again with bits hanging off like it aint no thang. Thats bathurst for ya.”

A third commented: “The Repco plane delivering the Bathurst Cup to Steve Richards inadvertently landed on the grass, bounced twice, hit the concrete divider when doing a U-turn. Was the pilot pissed? WTF.”

A fourth quipped: “I thought we were about to see air crash investigations after that horizontal stabiliser hit the wall.”

He was coming in hot, and sideways. Photo: Fox Sports.

Then took off after the U-turn mishap. Photo: Fox Sports.

A fifth said: “Dude who delivered Bathurst Trophy smacked his tail into the wall. Is that considered a plane crash? He took off afterwards with obvious damage to the tail..”

Another added: “He flew off with damage on that plane with thousands of people under neath wtf … #bathurst1000.”

Fox Sports host Jess Yates said: “The Bathurst trophy incoming now with Hayden Pullen, he is the pilot delivering the Peter Brock trophy.

It was a tough landing on Mount Panorama. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

“It’s made the journey from Penrite Racing to Sandown, up to Queensland and now it’s landed in its spiritual home of Bathurst.

“Our pilot Hayden has been flying for 25 years. The plane is purpose built aerobatic aircraft with a custom performance engine, making it the fastest plane of its type in Australia and possibly the world.

“That’s pretty fitting, isn’t it. To deliver the Peter Brock trophy on the mountain.”

Some viewers loved what they were seeing, with one viewer commenting: “Trophy delivered by aircraft which uses the track as a runway. Very cool!”

The race itself got away without any major incident or crashes as pole sitter Brodie Kostecki maintained a slender lead over Broc Feeney in the first half of the race.

All eyes were on championship rivals Will Brown and Chaz Mostert, with Brown holding a 198-point lead in the standings over Mostert.

Originally published as ‘WTF’: Viewers stunned by wild ‘plane crash’ at Bathurst 1000