Waters on top in red-flagged Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 6

CAM Waters topped the final practice session before qualifying at the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour as Mount Panorama claimed its first victim for the weekend.

The red flags flew with 37 minutes remaining in the session when Adam Hargraves crashed the #20 IRC GT at the top of the Mountain.

SPOTTER GUIDE: Photos of every car in the 2024 Bathurst 12 Hour

Replays showed that Hargraves ran wide at Sulman Park and swiped the wall, breaking the right-rear suspension and spinning across the track before backing heavily into the wall on the inside. The car eventually came to rest on the grass verge near the apex of McPhillamy Park.

Hargraves hopped out of the car under his own steam and walked to the medical car, but the accident puts the #20 entry in severe doubt for this afternoon’s qualifying session, with work beginning before the end of the session to have the car repaired in time to start Sunday’s race.

Mercedes-AMG locked out the top four spots with Waters on top with a 2m02.9190s aboard the #222 Mercedes-AMG, heading Broc Feeney in the #888 Triple Eight entry, Jordan Love in the sister #88 car and Ross Gunn in the #27 Heart of Racing machine.

But the big battle was for 15^th place.

The session determine the seeding for the upcoming qualifying, where the field will be split into a faster-50% and slower-50%.

Reigning polesitter Maro Engel looked at risk of missing the cut, sitting on the bubble in 15^th as the final minute began, before bumping his way to 12^th with his penultimate lap.

That moved Riccardo Feller onto the bubble, but and he failed to improve on his penultimate lap, leaving him at risk of being bumped by the #13 Phantom Global Porsche of Bastian Buus or the #47 Mercedes-AMG with David Russell aboard.

However, a crash at Forrest’s Elbow for Trent Harrison in the #50 KTM ended the chances of anyone improving.

The opening minutes of the session also featured a test of the Full Course Yellow procedure, which will be used in competition for the first time in Australia at the 12 Hour prior to its introduction to this year’s Repco Supercars Championship, and also included another appearance of the Circuit Safari van.

The two segments of qualifying begin at 12:40pm AEDT and the combined results will determine grid positions 11-30 for Sunday’s race, as well as the 10 contenders that will take part in this afternoon’s Shootout for the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Trophy.

RESULTS: Practice 6, 2024 Repco Bathurst 12 Hour (60min)