Pole-sitting BMW crashes out of Bathurst 12 Hour

TEAM WRT's hopes of Bathurst 12 Hour victory have been slashed in half after a scary accident for Charles Weerts at The Cutting.

Weerts, driving the pole-sitting #32 WRT BMW, collided with the #56 Ginetta GT4 driven by Colin White as the race approached the five-hour mark.

The leaders fought through traffic, with second-placed Maxime Martin clearing the Ginetta in the sister #46 WRT BMW.

Weerts rounded White through the blind left-hander, but was clipped into a high-speed spin into the concrete wall.

Such was the impact, that a wheel was sheared off the #32, which rode the concrete wall and wiped out a TV broadcast cable.

Fourth-placed Kelvin van der Linde (#22 Wash it Team MPC Audi) narrowly avoided the crashing Weerts, who came to rest midway around the corner.

The incident triggered a fourth Safety Car of the race, which has been dominated by the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche of Matt Campbell/Laurens Vanthoor/Ayhancan Güven.

The Safety Car led to a series of pit stops for the leading GT3 contenders, but the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG and #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG initially stayed out.

Vanthoor led to green on the restart as the balance of the field completed stops under yellow, with Valentino Rossi behind the wheel of the #46 BMW in second, followed by Kelvin van der Linde, Joel Eriksson (#13 Phanton Global Porsche) and Will Brown (#888 Mercedes-AMG).

The #32 BMW led the opening hour of the race, with Sheldon van der Linde leading the field away under darkness ahead of the #888 National Storage Mercedes-AMG and #130 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG.

The #912 Porsche seized the race lead through the opening round of stops, with the #32 dropping to fifth behind the sister #46.

Courtesy of the Safety Cars and wave-by rule, 15 cars were still on the lead lap following the latest Safety Car period.