Bathurst 1000 suspended for an hour over damage to the track

THE 1000km classic was suspended for an hour after a patch of new tarmac started breaking up, causing a number of accidents.

General view of the cars on the grid after the race was red flagged.

THE Bathurst 1000 was suspended for a hour today with 100 laps to go, after a section of the Mount Panorama circuit broke up.

In a first for the 1000 km classic, a patch of new tarmac at turn two started breaking up heavily around 1 pm, causing a number of accidents at the high-speed corner.

Nissan co-driver Taz Douglas twice went into the wall at Griffins Bend, with the Fords of Paul Morris and Scott Pye also crashing at the same spot.

Engineers called to assess the damage patched the areas with resin, while teams were allowed to work on their cars under a new rule introduced this year.

Douglas said he lost control after missing the corner’s apex and sliding onto the loose pieces of asphalt.

“As soon as I was on those marbles, I was just a passenger,” he said.

“I knew that I was going to be a little bit off line, so I slowed right down, and even on the marbles there’s nothing you can do.

“I was actually out there in my stint thinking `Geez, I’m glad I won’t be driving the car at the end because it’s going to be a handful’.”

Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin was leading the race before the stoppage after 61 laps.

McLaughlin was third on the grid but got the jump on Holden’s pole sitter Shane van Gisbergen and defending champion Mark Winterbottom of Ford.

Volvo hasn’t contested the 1000km classic since 1998, when Jim Richards and Rickard Rydell won as part of the two-litre series. It was V8 Supercars championship leader Jamie Whincup who produced the drive of the opening stint, sprinting from 23rd to fourth in just 15 laps.

Along the way he shaved nearly half-a-second off his own lap record, set in 2007 when he won with Craig Lowndes.

No-one has been victorious in the 161-lap epic from further back than 19th — a feat achieved by the late great Peter Brock, David Parsons and Peter McLeod in 1987.

Whincup had been suspected of a false start and was investigated by stewards, but was later cleared.

His Red Bull Racing teammate Craig Lowndes had predicted plenty of carnage in the Great Race, which he said was one of his toughest in 20 years.

The multi-million dollar new track surface had already bit several cars in nearly every practice and qualifying session on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and Warren Luff were the biggest casualties, forced out of the race with irreparable damage to their No. 2 Commodore.

A brake failure sent the car into the wall with Luff behind the wheel in Saturday practice, flipping it on its roof after colliding with the rear of Lowndes’ car which also crashed.

Despite a bright and clear start, a thunderstorm has been forecast for late Sunday afternoon.