Racing star takes violent bath in kangaroo blood at iconic race

Bathurst 12 Hour

Racing star takes violent bath in kangaroo blood at iconic race

Chris Mies had to take multiple showers after the incident

Chris Deeley

Sunday 15 February 2026 11:54 Updated: 14:30

What's worse than crashing early in a 12-hour race? Crashing into a kangaroo early in a 12-hour race.

Unfortunately, that's the fate that two-time Bathurst 12-Hour winner Chris Mies endured at this year's event, being wiped out of the race within 20 minutes by one of the many, many members of Australia's baffling fauna.

As badly as that ended for Mies and his Ford Mustang, things ended significantly worse for the kangaroo – some of which ended up sprayed around the inside of Mies' cockpit, some of which ended up sprayed around the outside of the car, and the rest of which...wasn't particularly recognisable as a kangaroo.

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Mies later revealed that he got no warning before the massive thud caved in his windscreen, delivering a massive dose of Liquid Skippy into his helmet, through his visor and right into his eyes, effectively blinding him and leaving him understandably disorientated.

Chris Mies: The inside of a kangaroo doesn’t smell very nice

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the German driver was spotted throwing up at trackside in his heavily bloodstained race suit. Multiple showers later, he returned to the paddock to deliver possibly the most surreal post-race interview of his career.

“The issue was," he said, in the early contender for understatement of 2026, "I couldn’t see anything anymore, the windshield was fully smashed. Obviously, I was covered in blood and whatever is inside a kangaroo.

“My eyes were full of blood and, how you call it, the guts from the kangaroo, so I had to clean them first because I had no idea where I was.

“I looked through the side window, saw a wall and tried to go as close as possible to the wall on the left side. I still saw the cars coming from the rear, so I wanted to be in a safe place as much as possible, not that someone doesn’t see me or whatever and hits me again. So I just tried to make it the safe way.”

He added: “I just had to throw up, I had to vomit. The smell was incredible. I already had two showers. I still have the smell in my nose. I can tell you the inside of a kangaroo doesn’t smell very nice.”

While the race suit and some of the inside of the car might well be a write-off (there are some pictures, but we recommend discretion and/or a strong stomach while considering opening the links) Mies is still trying to clean the literal blood and guts out of his race helmet. We're not sure that any amount of Dettol could ever stop the lid from being forever unclear, he admitted: “It’s bloody expensive, so I’m trying to save it!

“Dennis [Olsen], my teammate, helped me actually a lot to get it done. Obviously, I took out the interior completely because that was all covered in blood and we cut the chin strap. So I need to get it to sent to [manufacturer] Stilo to hopefully fix it and give me a new interior, and then it’s hopefully good to go and be used in Sebring.”

The race – which was red flagged for a time after a terrifying crash which saw a stationary car hit by another driver at full speed coming over a blind bend/crest – was won by the Mercedes-AMG Team GMR crew of Maro Engel/Mikael Grenier/Maxime Martin, smashing a Bathurst record by recovering from a 29th place start.

Former Ferrari F1 test driver Valentino Rossi (who apparently rides motorbikes in his free time?) made it onto the podium in third place, teamed up with Augusto Farfus and Raffaele Marciello.

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Valentino Rossi