Just moments into the race, Kelvin van der Linde found himself mired in the Hell Corner melee that resulted in damage to the right front corner.

He copped another whack when he struck a kangaroo in a separate incident to the one Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang driver Christopher Mies struck.

Team WRT found remains of the kangaroo in the front splitter of the BMW M4 after it was replaced when the tema was eventually given a mechanical black flag when it began littering debris.

Three-wide up Mountain Straight for the second year running!

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— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) February 14, 2026

After van der Linde handed the #32 over to co-driver Charles Weerts, the South African driver explained the first lap incident.

“So early in the race, it was a bit unnecessary,” said van der Linde.

“I saw a couple of guys go super hot into Turn 1 and didn’t have the Lamborghini on my radar that probably went a little bit off track.

“As he came across, everyone just kind of drove into the middle of the track, and that’s where I was.

“Unfortunately we have a lot of damage, but the car felt okay through the stint. We were able to get on and move up.

“Hopefully it doesn’t mean too much of a disadvantage later on.”

“If we want to fix it, we need to bring the car into the garage. That’s the only thing we can’t do outside. We’re going to try stay out as long as we can and hopefully it holds up.”

The van der Linde/Charles Weerts/Jordan Pepper car was not the only one to be damaged in the kangaroo clash.

The #6 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG driven by Philip Ellis at the time hit the kangaroo carcass and damaged the front splitter.

“We tagged that kangaroo from the BMW earlier on and it sort of rearranged the front of our beautiful Mercedes-AMG,” said Ellis’ co-driver Ojeda.

“Now we’re just trying to make sure we have a decent car for the next 10 hours of the race.”

Repairs to the Tigani Mercedes dropped Ellis, Ojeda, and Fabian Schiller down a lap.

After an hour and a half, the race was brought under the control of the Safety Car when the #268 Team BRM Audi R8 driven by Mark Rosser crashed at Brock’s Skyline.

The #32 BMW M4 started from 12th, and once the first round of pit stops were completed was second behind the sister #46 car.