Mayhem and danger were apparent at the Bathurst 1000 qualifying at the famous Mt Panorama circuit, with defending champion Chaz Mostert airlifted to hospital in Orange after fracturing both his left femur and left wrist.
Qualifying was suspended and the schedule re-shuffled, with the rest of qualifying taking place instead of an autograph session on Saturday.
Mostert hit the barrier at a reported 170 kilometres per hour in a freak accident resulting from driver error.
Yet the way the V8 cars are made means accidents like these rarely lead to death.
The driver is seated further to the centre, rather than to to the left side like in a normal car. This leaves more room between the car’s sides and the driver when impact is made with barriers or other obstacles, preventing harsh, brutal crashes.
As well, fuel tanks are positioned closer to the centre, compared to commercial cars that tend to have the tanks at the rear, preventing explosions from rear crashes.
If Mostert was racing in a commercial car at those speeds, rather than his Prodrive Racing Australia car, his injuries may have been much worse. He may even have been killed.
Safe to say, the V8 race cars are the safest they’ve ever been.
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