Mies was travelling at an estimated 250km/h on Conrod Straight when a kangaroo appeared out of the darkness, striking the top left corner of the Haupt Racing Team Mustang’s windscreen.

The 36-year-old German was uninjured in the impact but left to deal with an ugly aftermath – seen vomiting beside the circuit before being taken to the medical centre for compulsory checks.

Mies, who was due to share the car with Supercars star Broc Feeney and fellow Ford factory driver Dennis Olsen, said he only saw the rogue ‘roo at the last possible moment.

“We were all in line and basically within a thousandths of a second, a millisecond, the kangaroo showed up on the left, obviously at a very high speed,” Mies recounted to Speedcafe.

“So the moment I saw it was the impact. It was very unfortunate and it was quite a big one, but honestly, I’m glad that we have such a safe race car, it could have been much worse.

“If I can just imagine the whole kangaroo would have come inside. I mean, half of it was inside, so I’m glad I’m standing here now.”

Confirmation that the Mustang hit a kangaroo on Conrod Straight. Mies appears shaken – as you would be – but ok.

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The gruesome nature of the incident meant Mies was disorientated as he attempted to slow the car and pull off to the side of the circuit.

“The issue was, I couldn’t see anything anymore, the windshield was fully smashed. Obviously, I was covered in blood and whatever is inside a kangaroo,” he said.

“My eyes were full of blood and, how you call it, the guts from the kangaroo, so I had to clean them first because I had no idea where I was.

“I looked through the side window, saw a wall and tried to go as close as possible to the wall on the left side.

“I still saw the cars coming from the rear, so I wanted to be in a safe place as much as possible, not that someone doesn’t see me or whatever and hits me again. So I just tried to make it the safe way.”

Mies vomited beside the circuit before being taken to medical, where he was offered a shower. He later had a second shower at his hotel before returning to the circuit.

Kangaroo strike takes Feeney Mustang out of Bathurst 12 Hour

“I just had to throw up, I had to vomit,” he said of his earlier reaction.

“The smell was incredible. I already had two showers. I still have the smell in my nose. I can tell you the inside of a kangaroo doesn’t smell very nice.”

Kangaroos have been a particular issue at the Bathurst 12 Hour this year, with last year’s winners – the #32 Team WRT BMW – also clipping one of the Aussie animals in the early stages.

Mies has called for organisers to take action.

“Every year the kangaroos are around the track, we already had like a couple of safety cars for kangaroos,” he said.

“I don’t know where this one came from. It must have been very quick and just sudden because there was no pre-warning, no yellow flags or nothing, no radio message that there’s a kangaroo near the track.

“To be honest, I think we should think about maybe having a later race start, maybe instead of 5:50 in the morning, maybe something like 7-ish or 8 o’clock and finish later or put up some big fence.

“In the end, we all want to race, right? And if we crash, we crash, the race is over. But to end the race because you hit an animal on track is never nice, especially in the first 10 minutes.”

Before leaving the track for a hotel shower, Mies was seen at the back of the Ford garage donning medical gloves as he attempted to clean out the inside of his race helmet.

“It’s bloody expensive, so I’m trying to save it!” he explained.

“Dennis [Olsen], my teammate, helped me actually a lot to get it done. Obviously, I took out the interior completely because that was all covered in blood and we cut the chin strap.

“So I need to get it to sent to [manufacturer] Stilo to hopefully fix it and give me a new interior, and then it’s hopefully good to go and be used in Sebring.”