Rogue echidna causes chaos at Bathurst 1000 by scurrying on to the track and almost being squished by multiple cars - forcing the race to be stopped Kangaroos and horses have previously interrupted car races at Bathurst An echidna stopping a race may be the most Australian reason ever A golf tournament in New Orleans was visited by a three-legged alligator By Padraig Collins For Daily Mail Australia Published: 07:27 GMT, 5 December 2021 | Updated: 07:27 GMT, 5 December 2021 Viewcomments A curious echidna caused chaos at the Bathurst 1000 by wandering on to the track and shutting down the race. The spiky native animal was close to being squashed by a car hurtling around a track at 300km/h in a situation Supercars legend Mark Skaife said was 'just madness'. The famous race on Mount Panorama on Sunday was yellow flagged and a safety car deployed after the echidna picked a very bad, and almost fatal, time to cross. An echinda picked a very bad time to cross the road at the Bathurst 1000 at Mt Panorama Luckily, the critter was spotted in time and its waddling did not end up with it becoming road kill, but not before several cars came came very close to it. The crowd and drivers breathed a sigh of relief when the echidna made it to the other side and was picked up by a safety marshall. 'In my experience we've seen kangaroos, we've seen horses, we've seen trees and water and bits of cars. We have never seen an echidna,' Skaife said. 'This place is just madness'. 'What an Australian reason for a safety car,' said Channel Nine commentator Neil Crompton. 'There's an echidna on the edge of the racetrack, which we've got to look after. An echidna, pictured between the red and yellow cars, picked a bad time to see what was on the other side of the road 'The poor little thing can't find its way out. We need to get the cars under control and just help that little critter off the race track.' 'This is going to change the game.' Though an echidna stopping a car race is very unusual and very Australian, it is far from the fist time an animal has delayed a sporting event. In April 2014, a Major League Baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Colorado Rockies was interrupted by an eastern gray squirrel. A year earlier, in April 2013, a three-legged alligator that goes by the name Stumpy, interrupted the Zurich Classic golf tournament in New Orleans. Echidnas don't usually have to deal with cars travelling at 300km/h Stumpy wandered around, seeming to smile for the camera, while the players kept on playing, possibly assuming a golf club would be enough to fend off an attack by an alligator one leg shy of a full quota. Tennis, too, is sometimes beset with creature problems. About a decade ago, pigeons became such a problem at Wimbledon that they employed a falconer with a hawk named Rufus to keep order on court. Rufus did his best, but was unable to stop a pigeon dive-bombing Roberto Bautista Agut mid-serve during a match against Andy Murray. Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility