Kiwi Richie Stanaway and two other drivers have emerged worse for wear, after mayhem forced an early end to qualifying at the Supercars Adelaide 500.
Five minutes into the 15-minute qualifying window, Stanaway made heavy contract with the wall on the notorious turn eight on the street circuit, but was able to continue away from the point of contact and to the pits.
Twenty-four seconds later, Cameron Hill repeated the dose, completely demolishing his Camaro and coming to rest in the middle of the track. Close behind, David Reynolds also hit the same wall, sliding sideways into the rear of Hill's car.
"There were yellow flags and I tried to lose a bit of speed, but probably stayed on the brakes a bit too long, and turned myself into the fence and had a crash myself," said Reynolds. "I was over-committed to be fair, just a stupid mistake.
"There were definitely some shadows across [the track], but that's not my excuse at all."
All three drivers emerged shaken, but physically unscathed, but teams faced a race against time overnight to get their cars back on the track for the main event — the last stop in the Aussie championship schedule.
The session was immediately postponed and eventually called off altogether, with damage to the concrete barriers proving too much to repair within the time limit for racing.
"Near enough wasn't good enough," said race director James Taylor. "It'd be similar circumstances if we had a sudden downpour halfway through, you can see if everyone is settled up, because under the rules, we have a 15-minute extension for qualifying and we used all that and some.
"We exercised every avenue to resume and make sure it's in the safest possible manner, but the fairness for the sport, in general, is the way it's gone now."
Chaz Mostert and James Golding had not had a chance to set qualifying times, while everyone else in the field were ranked on their initial efforts, led by championship leader Will Brown. Matt Payne was the leading Kiwi in sixth, with Stanaway 11th, Andrew Heimgartner 13th and Ryan Wood 16th.
Brown has a 180-point lead over Broc Feeney and needs to finish at least 14th in both Adelaide races to clinch the crown. Mostert currently sits third, with Payne fifth.
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