Aron was the first car to arrive on the scene, followed by Luca Stolz in the 75 Express entry and Engel in the Team GMR car.
Aron smashed into Johannes Zelger’s Tsunami RT Porsche 911 and broke his back while Stolz and Engel escaped without a scratch as they threaded the needle.
Speaking after his breakthrough Bathurst 12 Hour win, Engel recounted the experience from his point of view.
“That was pretty much a centimetre away from being race end for us,” said Engel.
“It was good there was a red flag situation because I probably needed to go and change the underwear,” he added.
“It was totally unexpected. The yellow flag was very late. No real warning for me and I just tried to avoid the cars.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t think that there was a gap – and the gap just appeared in time as I arrived, and I was able to go through the two cars without touching either of them.
“It was definitely one of the closest situations I’ve seen or I’ve experienced in my career.”
Engel finally triumphed at The Mountain in his 10th attempt at the Bathurst 12 Hour, joining Maxime Martin and Mikael Grenier on the podium.
“I’ve been chasing this one for a very long time,” said Engel.
“2014 was my first one, we came close that year, we had a good chance, and ever since I’ve been chasing it, but just didn’t really happen. I never stopped believing it would happen.
“Still starting from where we started today. We were ready for the fight and we were definitely gonna try everything even if it wasn’t the most likely outcome.
“Just super happy that it’s finally come to us.”
It was against the odds too, after an injector failure meant they had to fight through the field from 29th on the grid.
It smashed the previous record. Prior to this year’s race, the lowest any team had come from was 11th when M-Sport won with its Bentley Continental in the hands of Jordan Pepper, Jules Gounon, and Maxime Soulet.
Asked whether he thought the win was achievable from so low on the grid, Engel’s teammate Martin replied, “definitely not, to be honest.”
“When we started the weekend, we were not expecting to be there,” said Martin.
“At the end that’s racing. It has been a great battle. I think it was an intense race for everybody, and I think that’s what we want to see. It’s very nice for us.”
Discussion about this post