The race began with an ugly incident when the #63 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang struck a kangaroo and left Christopher Mies covered in blood.

Mies, who was uninjured, left the circuit but is expected to return later in the day.

At the same time that Mies was in strife, the #50 KTM X-Bow buried itself in the Murray’s Corner gravel trap with a suspected stuck throttle.

The No. 50 KTM is OUT of the 2026 Meguiar’s 12 Hour!#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/KpqDNGVm6W

— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 14, 2026

After being delivered a five-kilogram weight handicap overnight, several Mercedes-AMG entries were beleaguered by a variety of problems in the first few hours.

Sergio Pires brought the #44 Tigani Motorsport car into the pits an hour and a half into the race when it went into limp mode with an alternator issue – losing nine laps.

The #27 Heart of Racing by SPS Mercedes-AMG was reportedly hit from behind and received rear suspension damage that left them seven laps down.

Two-and-a-half hours into the race, the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 received a mechanical black flag for damage to its front splitter.

There was conjecture over what caused the damage, with suspicions that a kangaroo may have been responsible. However, driver Kelvin van der Linde identified the first lap carnage at Hell Corner for the wound.

The three-minute pit stop dropped the van der Linde/Charles Weerts/Jordan Pepper car out of second place and a lap down in 23rd.

Tigani Motorsport’s sister #6 Mercedes-AMG of Jayden Ojeda/Fabian Schiller/Philip Ellis suffered splitter damage early in the race after it hit a kangaroo.

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

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

Can’t park there 🫣#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/YqKpduHgtO

— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 14, 2026

There were three Safety Car interventions in the first three hours. The first was for the Mies incindent and the second for the #268 Team BRM Audi R8 when it crashed out at the top of The Mountain.

The most spectacular incident of all involved Danny Stutterd in the #111 IRC GT when the rear wing broke loose and sent him into a high-speed spin at The Chase. That caused the third Safety Car.

Not where you want your rear wing fall off…#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/d63BUqVEDo

— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) February 14, 2026

With three hours completed, Alexander Sims in the #2 Johor Motorsports Racing Corvette Z06 led Chaz Mostert in the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.

The #46 Team WRT BMW M4 driven by Valentino Rossi led the race after the third safety car before relinquishing the lead. He sits third overall ahead of the #26 Arise Racing Ferrari 296 of Daniel Serra and the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 driven by Bastian Buus.