A major crash two-and-a-half hours into the Bathurst Twelve Hours has taken two of the favorites out of the race, but luckily no one was hurt.
Hiroshi Hamaguachi in the #33 Clearwater Racing Ferrari F458 Italia GT3 lost control cresting Mount Panorama, hitting the wall, breaking the front suspension and radiator before skidding to a halt facing backwards on the right side of the track.
Several cars came upon the blinding dust cloud, illuminated from behind by the mid-morning sun, and managed to squeeze by the Ferrari either on the track on the left or through the dirt on the right.
Katsumasa Cyio in the #32 #32 Nismo Athlete Global Team Nissan GT‐R tried to pass on the right but skidded sideways in the fluid on the track, and slammed the Ferrari’s right front hood and fender with Nissan’s right rear corner at 135 mph.
Luckily the collision was not straight on as the accident between Memo Gidley and Matteo Malucelli at the Rolex 24 at the end of January—the Nissan struck the Ferrari well off-center, so the force was not transmitted directly.
It took perhaps 30 seconds for the dust to clear, then another several tense seconds Hiroshi Hamaguachi opened the left-hand door of the smashed Ferrari and climbed out. The ruined Nissan came to rest several hundred yards further up the track; after another minute or so, safety officials helped driver Katsumasa Cyio out of the car.
The Nismo Nissan had been running in the top three; the Clearwater Ferrari was further back, because of the team’s strategy of using its slower drivers first to save its stars for later in the race.
