Wild Bathurst scenes as venomous brown snake causes absolute havoc

The first day of track action at Mount Panorama descened into chaos as a venomous snake took over the track and sent fans into a spin.

A venomous brown snake sent commentators into a spin as it caused significant delays, while the second Supercars practice session of the day at Bathurst was brought to a close by a heavy crash into a wall which will have huge ramifications.

Scott Pye thankfully walked away okay from the red flag-inducing crash that has left the car of Pye and championship leader Will Brown badly damaged.

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It was an unfortunate end to the session that was also delayed and extended due to an oil spill before the snake incident, but Brown was understanding of his co-driver’s error when speaking on the Fox Sports coverage afterwards.

“It’s an easy mistake to make. Get out of the road before the end of the week,” Brown said.

“It’s one of those things, it’s super easy to do. I’ve done it and everyone’s done. I’m sure Scotty will be a little bit upset with himself but we’ll get him back in some high spirits before the race. I’m going to grab some stuff, we’ll do some repairs and we’ll be right.”

A snake on the track at Bathurst.

Jamie Whincup finished the session with the fastest lap of 2:07.478.

Earlier six-time Bathurst champion Mark Skaife and fellow commentator Neil Crompton were amazed by what the sight of a brown snake holding up proceedings.

“They’re wild. They are wild! They’re one of the venomous snakes in the world,” said Mark Skaife on the Fox Sports coverage.

Crompton added, “We’ve seen some odd things over the years. We had the echidna. I confronted a horse. Larry Perkins and I were hooking over the hill once and a labrador jumped out of nowhere.

“It’s not good,” he said with a laugh. “It wouldn’t be Bathurst without some unusual things unfolding. The echidna crossed the track at The Cutting in 2021.”

Skaife then responded, “That’s not just a little brown snake. Look at the size of it! I tell you what will also be the case, there will be campers looking at their TVs just to make sure it’s not going anywhere near my camp site.”

First crash of Bathurst weekend 2024

‘IS THIS QUALIFYING?’ - STARS PUSH LIMITS IN OPENING PRACTICE

A fast track led to lightning-quick times in the opening Supercars practice session of the Bathurst 1000 which prompted commentator Neil Crompton to exclaim “is this qualifying?”.

Penrite Racing’s Matthew Payne pinched the fastest lap with less than two minutes remaining on the clock with a superb lap of 2:07.294 to eclipse Monster Castrol Racing’s Cam Waters’ previous leading mark of 2:07.33, while Cam Hill of SP Tools Racing was only one millisecond behind Waters in third.

The dramatic finish to the session came about as several of the contenders used the final minutes to push their cars to the limits and six-time Bathurst 1000 champion Mark Skaife could not believe how quick the laps were that he was witnessing.

“Seriously, it was like a qualifying session,” Skaife said on Fox Sports’ coverage. “They had new tires to start with. They put new tires on at the end. There was only two-tenths of a second separating the top eight cars.

“And Cam Hill, if you put all the best sectors together he was actually the fastest car. If he had have optimised the performance of his Camaro, he would have been fastest.

“Matt Payne, very impressive. Cam Waters was very fast all session and that bodes well for him.

“I really enjoyed it. What it did, for me, is it showed us that there a lot of combinations in contention this weekend.”

PRACTICE 1 TOP 5

1. Payne/Tander 2:07.294

2. Waters/Moffat +0.036

3. Brown/Pye +0.037

4. Hill/Crick +0.175

5. Randle/Everingham +0.208

Originally published as Wild Bathurst scenes as venomous brown snake causes absolute havoc