A chaotic day on the mountain has forced two Canberra drivers into a scramble to save their Bathurst hopes this weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cameron Hill and Zane Morse both crashed in different categories, leaving them to race the clock to get their cars ready to compete on one of Australian motor sport's biggest stage.
Hill hit the wall in the opening race of the Porsche Carrera Cup round while Morse did the same in the Toyota 86 series, which halted his brilliant start to the weekend.
Morse's team was expecting to spend all of Friday night and most of Saturday morning rebuilding his car for an 8am race after the incident at turns three and four
"He went into the Cutting a little bit too tight, clipped the inside wall and it spat him across. It destroyed the car," said Andre Morse.
"We've got the car in now, it's going to be an all-nighter. Because he caused the red flag he [qualifies] with his second best time, so at position 19.
"It's going to be a long, hard road forward from here. The whole front end, the timing case is off the motor ... we've got a lot of work to do. We'll reset the whole front end and have to rebuild overnight to see if we can come back through."
Hill qualified fifth and was hoping to start his weekend in perfect style, but he was taken out on lap three of the first race. His car, however, is expected to be ready to race again on Saturday.
The Mt Panorama track is the fastest race of the season for Hill, who hit 290 kilometres per hour on Conrod Straight as he aims to rise up the standings with just two rounds left in the campaign.
Hill is sixth overall after the first six rounds and broke through for his first win in Darwin in June.
"This year has been really good for us, we've definitely made some gains on last year and started to put the pieces together," Hill said.
"Getting my first win was really cool. We qualified fifth for the first race, but I had some dramas with a vibration and had to pit right when everyone was in the flurry of doing their fast laps.
"So we might have a bit more up our sleeve. This is definitely the biggest event on our calendar, so you want to do well.
"The atmosphere is pretty unique and special. By far it's the most challenging track we have in Australia ... it takes a lot of commitment and definitely one of the weekends you look forward to."
Hill is driving a new-look car this weekend after having a fresh paint job finished in time for the marquee round.
The 22-year-old Canberran is racing at Bathurst for the sixth time over various categories and the corresponding round 12 months ago was the best of his season.
He finished on the podium for the first time in the Porsche category at the iconic race last year and is hoping to repeat the effort in the final two races over the weekend.
"These cars, we're only two or three seconds off the V8 Supercars pace so we're going pretty quick," Hill said.
"Down Conrod we're going at about 290 kilometres per hour and you feel like you're moving then.
"You've got to be looking where you're going to be in 500 or 600 metres because you're moving pretty quickly.
"It takes time to get used to that sensation. But the more you expose yourself to it, the more comfortable you become.
"I feel a lot more comfortable this year being the second season, but I still feel pretty green.
"I've been in the [Porsche] car for less than two years and there are some guys who have been doing for more than a decade. It's tough competition, that's for sure."
Race one was a 16-lap event, with races two and three to be run over nine laps each.