THE top three finishers in the 2024 Supercars Championship opener at Bathurst endured a scary late-race moment courtesy of a stray wheel.
Cam Waters’ Monster Mustang shed its left-front wheel at the exit of Griffins Bend on lap 33 of 40, leading to the heart-in-mouth moment for the pursuing front-runners.
The rogue wheel rolled down the hill and bounced off the outside wall at Griffins as the Triple Eight Camaros of Broc Feeney and Will Brown passed by.
THE WHEEEEEEEEEL#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/pVDiYeZegI
— Supercars (@supercars) February 24, 2024
That defection meant it bounced towards the racing line – forcing next-on-the-scene Chaz Mostert to climb over the inside kerb.
The wheel eventually came to rest against the fence and was retrieved under a Full Course Yellow.
“It was pretty scary,” said Feeney after winning the race.
“They (the team) came across the radio, and it was only a few laps to go and obviously I wanted nothing to go wrong in the race.
“They said there was a wheel there, they said it was on the outside, but it was coming down at a very fast rate.
“I had a little bit of a margin, so I slowed down to be extra cautious through there. I’m glad everyone is OK and all good after that.”
The moment had Mostert fearing a repeat of a famous incident during the 2005 Bathurst 1000 in which Craig Lowndes’ Falcon was struck by a flying wheel at the same point of the circuit.
“I came through Turn 2 and there was this wheel bouncing down from The Cutting,” he said.
“My engineer said, ‘stay inside, stay inside’, I felt like it was a bit NASCAR-esq out there, and then it darted towards me, and I had to go up on the kerb.
“I kind of might have screamed in my helmet there, I said ‘no Lowndesy, no’, just remembering all those years ago when he hit one.
“I was lucky enough to dodge it and I’m glad no one hit it, but it was a bit of a hard one to see.”
