There were scenes reminiscent of the 2017 Supercars race as cars piled into each other on the chute between Turn 2 and Turn 3.
The carnage kicked off when Nash Morris and James Golding tangled out of the right-hander, setting off a chain reaction.
Morris was on Golding’s outside with a small overlap before the Supercars star came across the Super2 driver’s nose.
Golding’s car piled into the guardrail before Morris got out of the throttle and the Supercars star got his car pointed in the right direction.
Moments later, the carnage kicked off in earnest. As the field tried to avoid the slow Golding and Morris cars, Adam Garwood tipped Mark Bailey into a spin.
Bailey’s car spun around and several more cars got caught in the melee.
Golding was left bemused by the crash but wouldn’t lay the blame on Morris.
“I was looking forward, next minute I’m hard into the fence,” said the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver.
“Obviously there was some sort of overlap there but I was looking forward on the race line and the next minute I’m in the fence, so I can’t really comment.
“Until I see a replay, it’s pretty hard to tell.”
While Golding was unsure, Morris attributed some of the blame to himself.
“It’s a bit hard. I felt like I was up a little bit alongside Jimmy, but I don’t know, these cars a little bit hard to see out of too and you don’t have heaps of overlap.
“It’s one of those things. It’s hard to put blame. It’s probably a bit of my fault. I don’t know, to be honest.”
If Golding and Morris were split on who was to blame, Ben Grice was more forthright in his assessment of the crash.
“I felt like Moses in the Red Sea. It just parted for me and I was up the centre. But it was pretty bloody silly,” he said.
“Those two blokes should know better than arguing over how to wreck the field.
“It’s a real shame for everyone that got caught up behind it. Thankfully the #42 car had some good awareness and we both got around.
“It’s just a bummer for everyone behind it. You hate to see it and right now we should be racing and that’s what I love doing. It’s nice to see us get through that.”
After a lengthy delay, the race resumed with just over 10 minutes on the clock with Todd Hazelwood at the head of the field.
Despite so many cars finding themselves in the melee, only five cars did not take the restart.
