Todd Hazelwood recovering in hospital after Bathurst crash

Supercars driver Todd Hazelwood was taken to hospital after suffering a high-speed crash at the top of Mount Panorama in the back half of today’s Bathurst 1000, undergoing checks to ensure his safety.

The Matt Stone Racing driver was sitting in twelfth place when he went wide at “The Grate”, hitting the wall at Sulman Park and on approach to McPhillamy Park at nearly 200km/h.

With his driver’s door jammed against the wall, Hazelwood was assisted out of the left hand side of the car. Realising that he had neck pains, Hazelwood informed the medical team and was stretchered into an ambulance before being taken to Bathurst hospital.

“As soon as I jumped in the medical car I could feel pain in the left side of my neck and some throbbing of the head,” Hazelwood said.

“So I obviously told the medical staff what my issues were and they just took the safest precaution possible.

“Once I got into the medical room, they assessed what was wrong and then put a neck brace on me and put me in an ambulance to Bathurst in town.

“It all looked very dramatic but fortunately it was just for precautionary reasons.

“There was a few concerns about my spine and stuff so they just wanted to make sure that it was all ok. I got a couple of scans but fortunately it was all ok.

“I got to watch the last few laps of Bathurst in hospital, so certainly not the way we planned today to go.”

Hazelwood was sharing the MSR car with Brad Jones Racing Super2 driver Jack Smith, the pair having to fight from 15th on the grid to get into the mix at the front.

“It was an up-and-down day to be honest,” Hazelwood said.

“We had a good start and were comfortably running 12th.

“We were suffering from a bit of straight-line speed today so it made racing and passing really difficult but we had a really strong chassis.

“The team at MSR did a great job, gave me a fast car, by far the best car I’ve ever had here at Bathurst and really gave me an ability to push and be comfortable, which is what you definitely want around here.

“Unfortunately we just lost a lot of time in the middle of the race there and we went a lap down, so when I got back in the car I had a mission ahead of me.

“The plan was to try to drive as hard as I could to get back in the race, knowing that anything happens towards the end of the race there but unfortunately it was my incident that really set off the sequence of events after that.

“The Mountain certainly bites when you get it wrong across the top.”

Hazelwood is expected to return to the track for the next round at the Gold Coast 600, held from the 25th to 27th of October.