'I've seen this movie before': Drivers shocked by Turn 1 Melbourne mayhem
Incident took three cars, including championship leader Broc Feeney, out
Feeney, Cooper Murray and Zach Bates cars heavily damaged in crash
David Reynolds also involved, said it was a "bad movie I've been in before"
Drivers inside the Turn 1 chaos in Melbourne have shared their views — or lack thereof — of the incident that took three cars, including championship leader Broc Feeney, out on the spot.
Contact between Kai Allen and Macauley Jones heading into Turn 1 sent the former into Feeney, who spun in front of the field. Feeney spun his rear wheels, and spun towards the grass.
Cooper Murray and Zach Bates were defenceless to avoid Feeney, with all three cars out immediately. Feeney's car sustained severe front and rear damage, with the Murray and Bates Camaros copping big front end hits.
Behind them, David Reynolds copped a series of hits and was turned into the infield, with Jackson Walls also spinning off. Andre Heimgartner and Rylan Gray collided, with the latter hitting Reynolds towards the infield.
Heimgartner then pinballed off Reynolds and Declan Fraser, narrowly missing Feeney's Ford as it ricocheted across the track.
The incident could have had additional repercussions down the line, with Blanchard Racing Team driver Aaron Cameron sustaining a puncture after the clean-up.
Speaking on Supercars' Cool Down Lap presented by Equip Super podcast, Feeney said he was simply trying to get out of the way: "So in hindsight, I probably would've been better stopping, but I was just trying to spin back out of the way. I think I spun good one way, but then it looped me back around into the other guys.
"I mean, in those situations it's so hard. I still had 15 cars behind me. I don't know if I could have done anything different... I was just trying to spin it and get off the track, to be honest.
“It was sort of the worst thing, because the guys that stayed on the track slowed down, the guys that went off the track were going quick.”
Erebus Motorsport driver Murray's weekend was a shocker, twice being taken out at Turn 11 before Sunday's chaos.
His response was short and sweet on social media: “A disaster of a way to end our weekend, yet again caught up in someone else’s incident.”
Matt Stone Racing rookie Bates, who has also been a magnet for drama this season, said he had little time to avoid the incident once he followed Murray through the tyre smoke.
“Didn't see too much, obviously. That's why I ploughed into the side of Broc and Cooper," Bates told the Cool Down Lap presented by Equip Super podcast.
“I knew something was happening in front of me. I could see some smoke and whatnot and I kind of was veering as far left, nearly onto the grass as I could and I slowed it right up.
“But unfortunately, yeah, Broc kept spinning. Cooper got him first and then I came in. Very disappointing.”
Cameron Hill was one of the lucky ones, being near Murray and Bates as they hit Feeney: "Managed to survive the first lap shenanigans and move up from 19th to 13th, so not a bad outcome considering where we started."
Reynolds was able to rejoin the race after rapid repairs, and finished 17th. The Snowy River Caravans Camaro had nowhere to go, but the Heimgartner/Gray clash finished Reynolds off towards the grass.
A veteran of nearly 500 races, Reynolds knew the three-into-one scenario ahead of him wouldn't work.
“A bit of a hard one, Turn 1, because it's just really wide into this narrow window that you fit two cars through," the 2017 Bathurst winner said on the Cool Down Lap presented by Equip Super podcast.
"They always try and fit four in for some reason. And when I was in school, four doesn't really fit into two that well.
"I saw like a big cloud of smoke in front of me, so I'm like, 'oh, this is a bad movie I've been in. I've seen this movie before. I'm gonna slow down and try and avoid it and see what's gonna happen’.
"But then someone drilled me and made me involved in the movie and I was somewhat the main character.
"I don't really know what happened, but then someone smashed into me twice and then my car was all destroyed and I got back going again."
The 2026 Repco Supercars Championship resumes across the Tasman, with the ITM NZ Doubleheader kicking off in Taupō on April 10-12. Tickets are on sale now.
