Walkinshaw prodigy recounts brutal Bathurst smash

WALKINSHAW Andretti United young gun Matt Hillyer came crashing back to earth in a hurry at Mount Panorama.

Hillyer, the 2023 Australian Formula Ford champion, entered the penultimate round of the TGRA GR Cup season with a shot at breaking the category’s record winning streak.

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He’d swept the Sydney Motorsport Park and Sandown rounds to be at six races on the trot, and got off to a flyer at Bathurst when he led the 35-car field through Practice 1 with a handsome 0.7550s buffer.

But motorsport has a way of mixing in some lows between the highs, and Hillyer sure experienced that, failing to finish any of the three Bathurst races.

Worst of all was a mammoth crash in the Sunday morning encounter, which Hillyer admits was lucky to stay a single-car incident.

“As soon as I turned in to the Grate, I felt a little bit of a slide,” he explained to V8 Sleuth.

“I gathered it up a little bit and then as soon as I hit the inside kerb that just unsettled it again.

“I was just trying to get the car as straight as much as I could before hitting the wall, which obviously I didn’t manage to do.

“As soon as I got the wall, it snapped the rear control arm and I was pretty much a passenger from then on, I couldn’t do anything.”

Matt Hillyer. Pic: Supplied/Jack Martin Photography

The Morris-branded #2 machine careered across the track to slap the inside wall, before bouncing back to once more find the concrete on drivers’ right.

“It was probably the slowest 10 seconds of my life,” Hillyer said of his hasty exit from the wreckage.

“I was getting out pretty quick just because I knew I hit the wall pretty hard and there was smoke, so I thought I would just get out of there before anything happens.

“Obviously I was still in a little bit of shock from what had happened, but first instinct was to get out of the car because I knew that I was in a safe spot and I was able to just go over to the marshals.”

Hillyer is now fourth in the standings entering next week’s Gold Coast finale.

A decision is to be made on whether his battered car can be rebuilt in time, or whether sourcing another Toyota 86 is a possibility.

Eggleston Motorsport/Super2-bound Bradi Owen is now the points leader from Max Geoghegan and James Lodge.

2024 TGRA GR Cup standings after Bathurst (top 10)

RankDriverPoints1Bradi Owen10002Max Geoghegan9743James Lodge8744Matt Hillyer8425Brock Stinson8086Clay Richards7927Hayden Hume7608Ben Gomersall7429Ryan Tomsett69210Lachlan Gibbons650