AN AMAZING sequence of photos of Friday’s high-speed Bathurst 12 Hour crash at the Chase has emerged showing the moment MARC Cars driver Keith Kassulke smashed head-on into a trackside wall at well over 200km/h.
Kassulke was cleared of serious injury after the crash that occurred during the final practice session on Friday afternoon.
The accident occurred just after the halfway mark of the session, which was not restarted.
As these photos exclusively obtained by V8 Sleuth show, his #52 MARC II V8 ran off at high speed before smashing into the outside tyre barrier and coming to rest upside down in the sand trap.
The photo sequence, captured by spectator David Jowett, sees the car disappear in a plume of sand as various pieces of the MARC II fly through the air.
As the photos below show, guests at the nearby Rydges Hotel watched on as Kassulke’s car flew through the sand trap and came to rest in the sand.
The long-time Touring Car Masters driver has been a Bathurst 12 Hour regular and was competing in his eighth Bathurst 12 Hour event.
He first competed in the race in a Racer Industries HSV VXR Turbo in 2013 and has run at the event six times since with MARC Cars in a variety of its Mazda and Focus V8 cars and the MARC II V8 model.
He drove with former Indycar ace Paul Tracy, Paul Morris and Anton De Pasquale in 2019 and finished 17th outright in the race in 2017 in a MARC Focus V8 sharing with Will Brown and Rod Salmon.
In response to yesterday’s accident, event organisers have overnight installed additional fencing on the grass verge behind the concrete wall.
A spectator leapt the smaller trackside fence to go to Kassulke’s aid after yesterday’s accident.
Today sees a multi-part qualifying session for the Bathurst 12 Hour cars with a Top 10 Shootout run in two parts from 4.10pm local time this afternoon.
The lower 50% of cars in the session will run for 15 minutes, followed by another 15-minute session for cars in the upper 50%.
The Bathurst 12 Hour race on Sunday starts at 5.45am local time.
