Bruising day for Supercars stars at Bathurst 12 Hour

Mount Panorama was not kind to the 11 Supercars drivers taking on the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour, only one of whom claimed silverware.

Five of the Supercars drivers' entries were eliminated by crashes on what was a wild day at Mount Panorama, won by former Supercars full-timer Maro Engel's Mercedes-AMG.

The best performing of the 11 was 2024 Repco Supercars Champion Will Brown, who launched into the fight for the win late after an inspired strategy gamble by his Jamec Racing/Team MPC crew.

The Triple Eight star was handed the duties to take the #55 Audi home, and he held his own to claim fourth outright, with his Audi not quite having the straight line performance to challenge those ahead.

In 10th was Ryan Wood, who got to take home silverware as he claimed third in the Bronze class for Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT in a Ferrari.

After picking up damage before sunrise, the Kiwi took the car all the way back to the class lead before the final Safety Car, which ultimately cruelled their chances of a class win.

Beyond that, it was slim pickings. Zach Bates was 21st on his 12 Hour debut in a Bronze class Mercedes that made several elongated tips to the garage, whilst Kai Allen was 27th for Grove Racing.

After a splitter failure, Allen was then unwillingly involved in the incident that caused a red flag stoppage, before the car once again struck trouble with a wheel wanting to depart company.

They were the only four full-time Supercars drivers to see the chequered flag at the end of a wild day.

Broc Feeney barely settled into the garage by the time HRT Ford Racing co-driver Chris Mies hit a kangaroo on just the fourth lap, cutting the highly-anticipated debut of the Mustang GT3 incredibly short.

Rylan Gray also found the fence to end a miserable day for his Volante Rosso McLaren, getting loose through The Esses and smacking the wall on both sides.

Earlier, Gray's car had picked up several drive through penalties for disobeying blue flags, and a six-minute stop and hold for massively exceeding the maximum drive time of their starting driver.

James Golding also had a bellringer at Sulman Park, when he clipped the wall at The Grate, unsettling his Team BRM Audi at the most unforgiving section of Mount Panorama.

A podium finisher in last year's Repco Bathurst 1000, Golding then made enormous secondary contact after spinning, the car exploding into flames as it was launched airborne.

Fortunately, Golding would climb out under his own power from the destroyed and smouldering Audi, with the race soon brought under red flag conditions after an enormous accident on the ensuing restart.

Before then, Thomas Randle spun the pole-sitting #222 Mercedes out of contention as he attempted to lap slower traffic, however Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert slowly brought the car back into the fight, helped by Safety Car wave bys.

They also rolled the dice on strategy, and were attempting to stretch fuel as far as they could before Mostert came under fire from Jayden Ojeda.

The pair traded blows, before Ojeda slid into the wall at the exit of Griffins Bend, with Mostert an innocent bystander as Ojeda ricocheted out of control with terminal damage. The incident brought out the 10th and final Safety Car of the day.

The 2026 Repco Supercars Championship begins next weekend at the DUNLOP Sydney 500.

Tickets for the event, including DUNLOP Free Friday, are on sale now for all three days from February 20-22.