Race Tasmania: Crash chaos as Hazelwood dominates

Some crash carnage dominated the day, but it was Todd Hazelwood who stayed in front out of harm’s way to get his Trans Am Series off to a dream start at Race Tasmania.

Todd Hazelwood celebrates his Trico Trans Am Series race win on Saturday at Race Tasmania. Picture: Supplied

It wasn’t as dramatic as the infamous Supercars ‘Tassie Tangle’ eight years ago, but the Trico Trans Am Series was thrown into chaos after a multi car pile-up headlined a dramatic day at Symmons Plains on Sunday.

In an incident which rival driver Ben Grice later described as “pretty bloody silly”, contact between the cars of Nash Morris and James Golding sparked a chain reaction which sent around a dozen cars crashing into each other.

The race was red carded, and a later yellow flag issued after rookie Blake Tracey’s car caught on fire.

It meant the race only started just in time for Todd Hazelwood to win his third of four straight races this weekend to get his title defence off to a dream start.

No one was hurt in the incident and damage to cars were minimal, with only five of the record 32-car field failing to make the restart.

After wining the sole race of the opening round of the series on Saturday and last year’s Bathurst 1000 victor continued his dominance with three straight victories on Sunday.

The Trans Am Series grid in action on Sunday. Picture: Australian Racing Group

Interviewed on Kayo as cars waited to restart after the race three crash, Grice made his feelings known about the crash before he went on to finish second behind Hazelwood.

“It was pretty bloody silly, two blokes who should know better arguing over how to wreck the field,” Grice said.

“It’s a real shame for everyone who got caught up behind it. You hate to see it and right now I should be racing, that’s what I love doing.

“Thankfully 42 (Tom Davies) has got a brain on him and gave us a bit of room, and we both navigated the wreck.

“It’s pretty silly these guys are getting caught up in this.”

After the race Grice later revealed he may have been forced to pull out of the rest of the season had he not avoided the crash and his car suffered significant damage.

Golding didn’t want to expand on the incident until he had a chance to view it again.

“I was looking forward and next minute I was hard into the fence. Obviously there was some sort of overlap there, but I was looking forward on the race line,” he said.

“I can’t really comment, I was looking forward and until I see a replay it’s hard to tell.”

Morris also wanted to analyse the incident against before expanding.

A multi-car pile-up caused havoc in a Trico Trans Am Series race at Race Tasmania on Sunday. Picture: Fox Sports

“I was up a little beside Jimmy (Golding),” he said.

“These cars are hard to see out of when you don’t have heaps of overlap. It’s probably a bit of my fault, I don’t know to be honest.”

One of Hazelwood’s key rivals, 2023 series winner James Moffat, endured a terribly unlucky weekend.

He was leading race one on Saturday before a broken left axle put paid to his race. He started from 26th on the grid for the first race on Sunday as a result, but made his way through the field to finish tenth.

Hazelwood was happy to take the victory in the crash-marred race.

“A win’s a win. Obviously it’s never nice seeing crashed cars in that first lap melee but I had my hands full with Gricey, he was quick,” Hazelwood said.

“We’re a tyre down and it started to show, we’re just hanging on to be honest.

“We’re already at the point where we’re stating to get compromised. If that safety car didn’t come out I might have had my hands full.”

His tyre issues didn’t prove a concern after he completed the round clean sweep