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Hadrian Morrall crashed heavily at The Chase during the opening 30-minute practice session for the Meguiar’s Australian Production Cars.
Early reports suggest there was oil on the track, with Morrell’s Mustang hitting the wall and sustaining serious front-end damage.
Morrall emerged from the wreck sore but without any serious injuries, however the damage to the Mustang is bad enough that the weekend is over for him and co-driver Tyler Meckem.
Recalling the crash, Morrall said he was confused about how it had played out, amid conjecture over whether there were flags out to warn about oil on the circuit.
“I’m a bit bewildered, to be honest,” Morall told Speedcafe.
“I think there was oil down coming into The Chase there. I was a little bit tighter than my normal line because we had a couple of Mazdas on the outside, so I just had a bit of a tighter line and put my foot on the brake, which you don’t normally do there because you roll through it.
“[It was] just a light bit of pressure, but as soon as I did that the back end stepped out.
“From then on I was a passenger and hit the wall on the inside and then the sand trap. I think there was something funny down there because another competitor spun as well, [Paul] Buccini went off, [Mick] Rowell went off. So I don’t know why there wasn’t a flag out there or something.
“It’s got me bewildered. I really want to look at the footage because I said when I got out of the car, I’m at a bit of a loss to think what happened.
“Unfortunately, that’s our day done. The car is wrecked, which is a shame. Last time we were here, poor old Tyler had the bad luck. He crashed up the top of the mountain. Now we’ve got one each.
“It’s such a shame. We’ve won our class a couple times in the car this year. We won outright in Queensland. We beat the BMWs. The car is good at the right circuit.
“We were hoping to have a good showing here. We’ve had some really highs and lows, like I say, winning outright in an A2 car up in Queensland was a real highlight for us. Poor old Bathurst bites again.
“I’m a bit sore around the ribs, but other than that I’m okay. Just disappointing for the effort and work that the crew and everybody has put in to get it here.
“First session of the day to be going home early is very disappointing. I think this is the earliest we’ve ever gone home.”
Simon Hodges topped the session in his BMW M2.
