A “catastrophic” eight-car crash has rocked the opening lap of Race 22 at Supercars’ Gold Coast 500 on Sunday.
Almost half the field is either racing with damages or, in the case of Anton De Pasquale, out of the race.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Chaotic crash rocks first lap of Gold Coast 500.
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De Pasquale nudged Walkinshaw Andretti United rookie Ryan Wood at the Breaker Street turn 11 on lap one, who then cannoned into the wall.
The Shell V-Power Mustang of De Pasquale was then collected by James Courtney, who hammered De Pasquale into the opposite barrier and followed him to a halt in the middle of the track.
It created a bank-up of eight cars that were stuck at turn 11, with only a couple of lucky drivers able to sneak through, like Dave Reynolds who avoided the chaos by the narrowest of margins.
“There’s the usual drama on Breaker Street and we’ve got carmageddon out of turn 11, and the safety car will fly — what a catastrophe,” Neil Crompton said on commentary.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight cars involved.
“Now, Ryan Wood nudged into the Hino barriers, and then I saw one of the Shell cars and I think that was Will (Brown).
“Unfortunately, all sorts of trouble here.”
Mark Skaife added: “Of all the aptly named streets on this layout, Breaker Street has got eight cars.”
It triggered an immediately safety car after Saturday’s race went all 250kms without one.
“Woody was having half a moment with Anton in front of me, we were all there,” Courtney said.
“I could see it all happening, so I’m trying to stop, and I think I had like four cars in the back of me trying to push me through the accident. It was just disappointing.
“We’ve come a long way and had some good car speed this weekend.”
It wasn’t until lap seven that the race restarted, with Percat and Courtney still in pit lane, while De Pasquale’s day was done.
Percat and Courtney eventually jumped back into the race three and nine laps down respectively.
No action was taken on any team for their involvement in the incident after a review by officials.