{"id":482467,"date":"2026-02-15T22:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:54:16","slug":"bathurst-12-hour-news-valentino-rossi-reveals-close-call-with-kangaroo-at-bathurst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482467\/","title":{"rendered":"Bathurst 12 Hour news: Valentino Rossi reveals close call with kangaroo at Bathurst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IGTC126_021409055320013TU_TU.jpg\" alt=\"Valentino Rossi reveals close call with kangaroo at Bathurst\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tValentino Rossi during the 2026 Meguiar&#8217;s Bathurst 12 Hour. Image: Gruppe C Photography<\/p>\n<p>The first half hour of the race was blighted by two incidents, <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/bathurst-12-hour-news-2026-kangaroo-crash-mercedes-tigani-philip-ellis-comments-exclusive-reaction\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the first involving the #32 Team WRT BMW M4, which hit a small kangaroo that ricocheted into the #6 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The second incident was far more spectacular, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/bathurst-12-hour-ford-mustang-kangaroo-crash-chris-mies-comments-reaction\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">when a roo went through #64 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang that showered Christopher Mies in blood.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speaking after he claimed third place with Augusto Farfus and Raffaele Marciello, Rossi revealed his close encounter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw a kangaroo, yes, in the second hour and another one in the track,\u201d said Rossi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe jumped from the wall and jumped to the second corner and after I came back he was in front of me, yes \u2013 but fortunately he\u2019s alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mies suggested some safety measures were needed for the kangaroo problem, though Rossi said it is a unique aspect of the event that should not change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery year we speak about the kangaroos, a lot, to keep attention, but this year, this year happened,\u201d said Rossi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, this is a special place, it\u2019s a special track, and they use this track just five times in one year. This is the rule of the game if you come at the Mount Panorama.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that it is difficult to try to fix this problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end, he\u2019s very, very lucky,\u201d said Rossi of Mies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s okay. It was a big crash, and this is a danger that you have if you race here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1020267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IGTC126_021408075511443SVS_SVS-3.jpg\" alt=\"The #46 Team WRT BMW M4 ahead of the sister #32 car. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The #46 Team WRT BMW M4 ahead of the sister #32 car. Image: Gruppe C Photography<\/p>\n<p>For Rossi, his return to Mount Panorama brought a second straight podium finish, though the win remained elusive.<\/p>\n<p>Though his focus remains on racing in Europe, the Bathurst 12 Hour remains a race he would like to be a regular haunt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that we had more chance to win last year,\u201d said Rossi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year is more difficult, but, also if we don\u2019t win, I\u2019m very happy to arrive on the podium also because this race, year by year, becomes better.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe level increases. You have a lot of factory cars, a lot of great, line-ups. So I\u2019m very happy, very proud to be here on the podium and we continue to try \u2013 and maybe one year we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/285241\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/285241.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valentino Rossi during the 2026 Meguiar&#8217;s Bathurst 12 Hour. Image: Gruppe C Photography The first half hour of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,190013,806,805,803,804,7499,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-482467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bathurst-12-hour","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-slot4","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}