Pole-sitting BMW out of 12 Hour in spectacular crash

Team WRT's hopes of Bathurst 12 Hour victory have been slashed in half after a scary accident for Charles Weerts at The Cutting.

Weerts, driving the pole-sitting #32 WRT BMW, collided with the #56 Ginetta GT4 driven by Colin White as the race approached the five-hour mark.

The leaders fought through traffic, with second-placed Maxime Martin clearing the Ginetta in the sister #46 WRT BMW.

Weerts rounded White through the blind left-hander, but was clipped into a high-speed spin into the concrete wall.

Such was the impact, that a wheel was sheared off the #32, which rode the concrete wall and wiped out a TV broadcast cable.

Fourth-placed Kelvin van der Linde (#22 Wash it Team MPC Audi) narrowly avoided the crashing Weerts, who came to rest midway around the corner.

The incident triggered a fourth Safety Car of the race, which has been dominated by the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche of Matt Campbell/Laurens Vanthoor/Ayhancan Güven.

The Safety Car led to a series of pit stops for the leading GT3 contenders, but the #77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG and #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG initially stayed out.

Vanthoor led the field to green on the restart as the balance of the field completed stops under yellow, with Valentino Rossi behind the wheel of the #46 BMW in second, followed by Kelvin van der Linde, Joel Eriksson (#13 Phanton Global Porsche) and Will Brown (#888 Mercedes-AMG).

The #32 BMW led the opening hour of the race, with Sheldon van der Linde leading the field away under darkness ahead of the #888 National Storage Mercedes-AMG and #130 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG.

The #912 Porsche seized the race lead through the opening round of stops, with the #32 dropping to fifth behind the sister #46.

Courtesy of the Safety Cars and wave-by rule, 15 cars were still on the lead lap following the latest Safety Car period.