Instead it led to drivers sitting on the grid for an hour yesterday while crews repaired a patch of new tarmac at turn two that had broken up, causing a number of accidents.

One driver described the loose bits of asphalt as “marbles”.

“As soon as I was on those marbles, I was just a passenger,” said Nissan co-driver Taz Douglas, who twice went into the wall at Griffins Bend.

Paul Morris and Scott Pye also crashed at the same spot.

Bathurst mayor Gary Rush defended the work on the track, which quickly attracted satirists on social media sites.

He said the majority of the resurfaced track held up to the punishing 1000-kilometre race well.

“The people of Bathurst shouldn’t feel any less proud or any less confident of our ability to put this race on,” he said.         

Cr Rush said the Bathurst 1000 had had its fair share of incidents over the years, and the track’s resurfacing failure yesterday was just another piece of the circuit’s story.

“This is a race that’s had everything. It’s had boulders and kangaroos and in some ways, while it’s not ideal, it’s a part of the history of the race,” he said.

“It’s 1000 kilometres; whether it’s man-made or machine there’s a chance that something might go wrong.”

While the section of track at Griffins Bend was patched to allow the race to continue, Cr Rush said more permanent repairs will be conducted in the future.

Council spent $2 million of its $6 million upgrade budget resurfacing the 6.2 kilometre track, a project that is only completed on average every 12 years.

The upgrade was funded jointly by council and the federal government.

The resurfacing is part of council’s requirements as circuit manager to meet Federation Internationale de l’Automobile licensing standards.

When officials red-flagged yesterday’s race with 100 laps to go, it was the first time the race had been red-flagged for this reason.

The area was filled and sealed with resin before the race resumed.

Craig Lowndes had earlier predicted plenty of carnage in the Great Race, which he said he rated as one of his toughest in 20 years.

The grippy new track surface had already caused trouble for cars in practice and qualifying across Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“The track being resurfaced, it’s got great grip levels,” the veteran said.

“But by the same token, it’s a fine line. When you step over the line, it’s almost like a cliff. As soon as you take a foot over, bang, it’s into the wall.

“You would expect with the new grippy surface that you wouldn’t have this much damage.

“But it’s caught Garth [Tander] out, ourselves out, so it’s really a bit of an unknown.

“If you go on what qualifying and practice is all about, yeah I reckon we’ll probably have some [race] accidents.”