Bathurst 12 Hour race driver Stephen Grove is lucky to be in one piece after crashing his car in frightening scenes at the top of the famous Mount Panorama track on Sunday morning. He was running eighth in the endurance event when an attempted overtake by his Mercedes teammate Kenny Habul went horribly wrong at Skyline, the highest point of the track. The two cars struck each other side-on, with that impact slamming Grove's car hard to the left, straight into the concrete wall and sending him flying through the air at high speed.

Grove's car came perilously close to clearing the wall. Had it done so, given the size of the drop on the other side, the result could have cost him his life. Although the owner of the Grove Racing Supercars team was seen moving straight after his vehicle came to a rest, and he exited the wreckage soon after, he was heard moaning in distress immediately afterwards and was taken to Orange Hospital to be assessed.

'That's the closest a car has ever gone to going over the wall there,' commentator Richard Craill said after the crash. The Mercedes AMG driven by Stephen Grove almost flew over the wall at the highest point of the Mount Panorama track during the Bathurst 12 Hour race on Sunday morning. Had the car cleared the barrier, the result could have been fatal due to the size of the drop down the mountain on the other side.

Grove is pictured left being attended to by a race marshal after he was heard moaning in distress in the cockpit following the savage impact. 'A fair bit of shock in the cockpit there.'. Stewards found neither Habul or Grove were to blame for the incident and they will not be penalised. However, some race fans went online to call for Habul to be black flagged over his attempted pass, which would mean instant disqualification from the event.

Grove - who had his son Brenton and Fabian Schiller as his co-drivers - had also crashed at the circuit in last year's 12 Hour race. Earlier on Sunday morning, Supercars legend Craig Lowndes was forced out of the event just 90 minutes after it started. Lowndes broke the drive shaft of the #222 Mercedes-AMG GT3 car after hitting the wall inside the Dipper section of the iconic track. The three-time Supercars champion tried to cruise back to pit lane but could only make it down Conrod Strait before driving off into the grass.

Lowndes was sharing the Scott Taylor Motorsport car with current Supercars drivers, Tickford duo Cam Waters and Thomas Randle. He was running 10th in the 22-car field at the time of the incident, chasing a third 12-hour victory to go with his seven Bathurst 1000 wins. Credit to Billy Boye on FB for this insane footage of Stephen Grove’s big crash on The Mountain. #B12Hr #Bathurst @RSL_Studio @specutainment @Craillsy pic.twitter.com/9UG3blNakI.

Grove is pictured behind the wheel during preparations for the endurance race on Friday. 'I'm actually gutted for Cam, he didn't get a chance to drive,' Lowndes said. 'It was my mistake and this place can bite. It's pretty cruel at times. 'As I was about to go tip right into the Dipper, I just clipped that right wall, and it spat me across. 'I thought I'd saved it.'. Bathurst 12-hour debutant Ryan Sorenson got his own taste of the unrelenting nature of the Mount Panorama circuit just moments after Lowndes's exit.