Bathurst 1000 champion Chaz Mostert will not get to defend his title after suffering severe injuries in a huge qualifying crash at Mount Panorama on Friday.
Mostert fractured his left leg and wrist when his Ford Falcon V8 Supercar clipped a concrete safety barrier at the top of the treacherous hillside circuit and was flung across the track as it bounced off the walls.
In its final impact, his car rode up on a barrier and leapt into the air before landing amid strewn wreckage, hitting the mesh safety fence that protects trackside officials from flying debris.
Seven flag marshals were injured in the accident – with one hurt seriously – while Mostert was airlifted to Orange Hospital with a fractured femur in his left leg and also a fracture to his left wrist.
Four of the marshals suffered minor injuries, while another reportedly suffered chest injuries and was transferred to nearby Bathurst Hospital in a stable condition.
Mostert, 23, won last year's chaotic Bathurst 1000 in a remarkable drive from last to first place, grabbing the lead late on the last lap when V8 champion Jamie Whincup ran out of fuel almost in sight of the finiHe was one of the pre-race favourites after being among the pacesetters in Thursday's and Friday's practice sessions.
He will not be able to compete in Sunday's big race because of his injuries, but even if he hadn't been hurt, his Prodrive Racing-run Falcon FG X was too badly damaged in the heavy crash to be repaired in time.
The purpose-built V8 racer had most of its body panels torn from the frame and at least one wheel was torn off, ending up about 100 metres further down the track.
Mostert lost control at around 170 km/h at the start of the twisting esses section of the 6.2 km Mount Panorma track, a few corners past the highest point of the hillside course.
His car clipped an inside concrete safety barrier, ricocheted across the track into another wall and then bounced back to the barrier on the other side, launching briefly into the air as it rode along the top of a wall.
On the way through, it clipped the raised protective steel mesh barrier shielding a flag marshals' post from debris.
He force of the impacts thrust Mostert's left leg against the gear lever, while his left wrist was wrenched as he hung on to the steering wheel.
Mostert's accident happened just nine minutes into the official qualifying time trials to decide starting positions from 11-27 and the starters in Saturday's Top 10 Shootout for pole position.
Race officials abandoned the qualifying session after 38 minutes because the track was blocked by wreckage and also to allow police and V8 Supercars officials to investigate the accident.
Qualifying was rescheduled to 12.30pm Saturday, with the one-car-at-a-time Top 10 Shootout going ahead at 5.10pm.
Mostert's big shunt – his second major crash in his three attempts at the Bathurst 1000 – has ruled him out of the Gold Coast 600 in two weeks and he may be in doubt for the rest of the season.
Missing the Bathurst 1000 will also cost him his shot at the V8 Supercars championship, in which he trailed his Prodrive Racing teammate Mark Winterbottom by 198 points.
Mostert has been the fastest V8 driver this season, winning 10 pole positions – more than twice the number of his nearest rival in qualifying.
He has also won five races – second only to Winterbottom's season-high nine victories.
Mostert and other leading contenders were on their first flying qualifying lap when he crashed, causing the session to be red-flagged before anyone set a meaningful lap time.
In the final practice session earlier on Friday, Whincup set the fastest lap ever recorded in a V8 Supercar, stopping the clocks at two minutes 4.9097 seconds.
A string of record laps were expected in qualifying and times should still tumble in Saturday's delayed qualifying and the Top 10 Shootout.
In a statement, Prodrive Racing Australia said Mostert was "receiving pain relief, but is otherwise okay".
The team bulletin added: "He did not lose consciousness and has been talking to family and teammates in the circuit medical centre. The V8 Supercars medical team, led by Doctor Carl Le, is treating him ahead of Chaz being airlifted to hospital."
V8 veteran Craig Lowndes said: "This place has bitten me before, but not in the way it has for Chaz. That was a shocking reminder of what motor racing is all about. I'd hate to think what that was like."
Lowndes's Red Bull Racing Australia teammate Whincup was also shaken by the incident.
"You never want to see anything like that," he said. "It looks like a pretty bad broken leg. You go to every race meeting ready for battle to take everyone on, but an incident like that unites everyone.
"The sports much bigger than the competition. We're lucky he's all right."
With David McCowen
