Hardened former Supercars racer Russell Ingall is bracing for a bruising battle in his maiden Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

Describing the traffic as ‘insane’, Ingall has already had some words with Driving Standards Observer Greg Crick over slower and seemingly unpredictable traffic across the top of Mount Panorama.

Ingall has shown pace in the #7 Castrol/Vodafone-backed BMW M6 GT3 he is sharing with Mark Skaife, Tony Longhurst and Timo Glock.

The double Bathurst 1000 champion paced the field in the non-Platinum and Gold seeded opening practice session, before the machine finished the day seventh in the fourth practice run.

“The traffic is insane, incredible in fact. I was just talking to Greg Crick about a couple of individuals,” Ingall said.

“The whole thing might be way above their capability and he might need to have a gentle word to them, but we always knew it was going to be like that.

“Look, 99 percent of the drivers out there have been really good and I realise it is going to be a challenge.

“I think there are going to be quite a few wrecked cars by the end of this weekend from what I’ve seen in the practice sessions.

“It is just incredible the amount of traffic and there’s a reasonable difference in all the speeds.

“It’s going to be so hectic, it it is almost going to be a fight for survival throughout the race.”

The sister #60 M6 driven by double DTM champion Marco Wittmann cracked the fastest time of the day when it ended P4 on top with a 2:03.21s lap.

Improvements to the large BMW coupes since upgrades were added recently have seen the factory supported effort rocket into calculations for the once-around-the-clock classic.

Practice 5 starts at 0800 ahead of the opening qualifying session at 1040am, followed by a Class A-only qualifying run at 1150 which will decide the top 10 shootout at 1540.