Townsville Porsche race abandoned after pile-up blocks track

The one-make second-tier Porsche series is a support category at the Townsville 500 in Far North Queensland.

Mid-field contact between Am drivers Eric Constantinidis and Lachlan Harburg after the kink on the main straight just after the start triggered the incident that took as many as 10 cars out of the race.

Many were left with nowhere to go as Harburg was spun across the track. Those involved in the incident included Marc Cini, Harry Walker, John Papantoniou, Tim Farrell, David Greig and Kent Leicester.

Also caught up were Pro drivers Tyler Greenbury and New Zealand’s William Exton. Usually front-runners, both were non-finishers from Race 1 on Saturday due to damage.

The surviving cars were shepherded to the pit lane as the red flag was drawn while the track was cleared with the hope that the race – the 45-minute Jim Richards Enduro – would be restarted over a shorter distance. However, the contest was ultimately abandoned.

“I’m fine,” said Harburg after the crash.

“It’s a pretty strong thing, that Porsche. An unfortunate incident. I got a ripper start and made a few places up, but I got contact down the outside of Turn 1 there, and when you get tapped like that, it’s the scariest moment of your life because you’re just waiting – ‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’ – got hit quite a few times.

“It’s really, really sad to see half the field in that incident. Pretty average morning.

“You want it to be over as soon as possible because I’m wary of where I am on the grid, and you just know you’re going to get smashed.

“There’s nowhere for anyone to go with the concrete walls. Yeah, it’s average mate.”

An ambulance was sent to the scene of the crash after reports of a potential injury for David Greig.

“David Greig’s is probably one of the bad ones. He was a little but hurt. He had to go off in the ambulance, but I hope he’s okay.

“That’s the worst thing to see, especially for us Am [drivers] because we don’t do it for our careers, we do it for the love and you don’t want to have results like that.”