Supercars veteran Mark Winterbottom was left distinctly unimpressed as he exited his crumpled ZB Commodore following a high-speed incident with Todd Hazelwood at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The pair had been jostling for the final position during Race 2 of the Sydney SuperNight. Hazelwood crossed the line just behind Winterbottom before the Matt Stone Racing driver’s car aquaplaned, sending both entries into the Turn 1 gravel trap.
Aquaplaning occurs when a layer of water builds between a vehicle’s tyres and the road surface, leading to a loss of traction and control.
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Recounting the incident to Motorsport.com, Hazelwood said his car aquaplaned on a puddle or a wet line on the left-hand side of the front straight, where he was trying to beat Winterbottom to the chequered flag
“On the final lap, I came out of the final corner. He got really crossed up on the yellow line and I had a good run and overlap,” he said.
“We went across the start/finish line side-by-side and Frosty (Winterbottom) squeezed me all the way to the left-hand wall, which was fine. I’ve got no problem with racing hard.
“But when I got to the inside part of the circuit the car took off on me and aquaplaned. I was a passenger from the start/finish line all the way to Turn 1. I had all four wheels locked up, trying to avoid contact with Frosty. But I hit him and we ended up in the sand trap.
Hazelwood was quick to apologise after the collision, running across the sand to his competitor to explain what had caused the bizarre crash.
“I unplugged and ran over to his car as fast as I could because I knew he’d be thinking, ‘what the hell?’. So I wanted to explain what had happened and apologise because it’s never a good look when you’ve got cars crashing after the start/finish line.
“It was crazy conditions. It was either wreckers or chequers, NASCAR style. It’s not a nice feeling when the car is fully out of control at those speeds.
Television footage captured the somewhat heated exchange that followed as Winterbottom tried to wrap his head around what had just occurred.
The incident was no doubt harder to swallow with the #18 Irwin team having to repair the damage overnight ahead of a sponsor ride event today.
“What do you do, when someone does something dumb and they come up and say sorry? What do you do?” the 2015 Supercars champion told Supercars Trackside.
“That’s the biggest crash I have had in my career – after the flag. I actually can’t believe it.
“He’s hit me at 240 [km/h] in the back at Turn 1 which is about 200-300m after the flag.
“He apologised. I don’t know what to say.”
The accident wasn’t the only one to occur during the in-lap with third-placed finisher Anton De Pasquale hitting the wall near the pit entry while trying to put on a drifting show on his way back to the garage.
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