Lee Holdsworth has been taken to Royal Darwin Hospital following a crash on the opening lap of Race 13 at Hidden Valley.

The Team 18 Holden made heavy side-on contact with the inside wall at the exit of Turn 1 after a bump from Jason Bright.

Holdsworth was assessed at the circuit’s medical centre before being transferred to hospital with a suspected broken left leg.

Holdsworth’s crash occurred behind a separate multi-car melee that saw heavy damage to Fabian Coulthard’s Ford.

Coulthard was in the middle of a three-wide squeeze with James Moffat and Chaz Mostert.

A touch of wheels with Moffat shot Coulthard into Mostert and eventually into the outside wall.

The damage put Coulthard out of the race on the spot while Mostert dragged his Falcon back to the garage for repairs.

“It was a little bit of wrong place, wrong time,” lamented Coulthard.

“Moff kept coming across and I’m not sure if he knew that Mozzie was next to me as well.

“I felt like I was in the middle of a pinball machine.

“It’s going to be a busy turnaround between now and Townsville.

“I said sorry to all the boys because you don’t want to create work for them.”

Mostert spent several laps in the pits before rejoining the race.

“When you start that far back you’re always going to be in the area where you can get trouble,” he said.

“There weren’t many people giving too much racing room out there, it was very tight.

“I tried to do the right thing by going across the grass (at Turn 4) but got taken out.”