A KANGAROO in pit lane on Wednesday foreshadowed further instances of the animals making their way onto the Mount Panorama circuit.
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Multiple kangaroos saw the final practice for Bathurst 12 Hour cars red-flagged on Saturday, and during Sunday's race the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW collided with a kangaroo around three hours in.
The BMW was later retired from the race due to ongoing issues related to the damage that it sustained in the collision.
The weekend served as further evidence to councillor Warren Aubin that the track needs to be fully fenced for both the safety of the drivers and the wildlife.
"Obviously to me it means that the temporary fencing is not working. The track needs to be fenced, fully fenced right around the track on both sides," he said.
"It's a very, very serious situation. And I have said it before, someone will be killed."
He plans to bring up the issue at Bathurst Regional Council's first meeting of the year on Wednesday night.
Cr Aubin has already spoken to several of his colleagues and is confident the majority will support his request for the track to be fully fenced in the next financial year.
On top of the risk of injury and death to both the drivers and the kangaroos, Cr Aubin said teams didn't deserve to come all the way to Bathurst and have their races ruined by something that could have been prevented.
In the case of the BMW, the car was fielded by a German team and driven by two international drivers, from Brazil and the Netherlands, and Australia's Chaz Mostert.
"I would be absolutely livid if I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a car in the race to have that happen. I would be beside myself," Cr Aubin said.
He said incidents like what was seen over the weekend could lead to some people reconsidering their entries in future years.
If a collision with a kangaroo causes serious injury or leads to a death, Bathurst could stand to lose millions of dollars each year.
Cr Aubin said, from four events, the Bathurst economy seeings an $85 million injection each year.
With a fifth event being added, that figure would increase to over $100 million.
Cr Aubin said serious incidents could deter teams from coming or potentially see events cancelled.
"It's a $100 million a year industry that could be absolutely brought to its knees by one kangaroo," he said.
