Skaife’s Commodore lives to fight another day
November 2nd 2007 06:35
Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team have stated that following the traffic accident yesterday when four V8 Supercars were damaged, Skaife’s car will be fit to race at Bahrain this weekend.
The Holden Commodore was badly damaged requiring many parts to be replaced and an emergency shipment of spare parts to be sent from the headquarters in Melbourne, which will arrive in Bahrain in time for Saturday’s races, if required. Skaife’s car was hit hard from behind by Winterbottom’s Falcon, smashing it forward into the cabin of the truck.
Unfortunately, we can’t expect Winterbottom to pick up a drive-through penalty for that one since he wasn’t actually behind the wheel at the time!
Team Manager, Rob Starr, has confirmed that although the damage is mainly superficial, repairs are time-consuming. “The accident has put us a day behind – we’ve been repairing the car instead of preparing it for racing as planned,” said Starr.
“It bent and smashed a lot of parts – bumpers, bonnet, headlights, taillights, fuel tank, boot, wing mounts, radiator, rear quarter panels, roof … just about everything.
“We have replaced a lot of parts, but not everything; this event making it more difficult as there are restrictions to the amount of spares you are allowed to bring with you.”
Winterbottom has recovered from the accident in fine style, setting the fastest time on the Bahrain track in practise today after repairs were also made to his Ford Falcon by Ford Performance Racing. Steve Richards has also put it all behind him setting the third fastest time of the day, just a whisker slower than Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup in second.
“It’s amazing what you can find on the back of a truck these days,” Winterbottom said.
“Maybe that’s all of our bad luck gone for the year, we can only hope. We didn’t really see the full extent of the damage which was all fixed when we arrived. The team told us not to worry about it and that they would take care of it.”
“It’s interesting coming from Indy to here,” said Championship leader Jamie Whincup.
“It’s an engineering challenge to go from a tight, winding track to the wide open spaces of Bahrain. It’s a big challenge to get the car to go well in these conditions.”
The Holden Commodore was badly damaged requiring many parts to be replaced and an emergency shipment of spare parts to be sent from the headquarters in Melbourne, which will arrive in Bahrain in time for Saturday’s races, if required. Skaife’s car was hit hard from behind by Winterbottom’s Falcon, smashing it forward into the cabin of the truck.
Unfortunately, we can’t expect Winterbottom to pick up a drive-through penalty for that one since he wasn’t actually behind the wheel at the time!
Team Manager, Rob Starr, has confirmed that although the damage is mainly superficial, repairs are time-consuming. “The accident has put us a day behind – we’ve been repairing the car instead of preparing it for racing as planned,” said Starr.
“It bent and smashed a lot of parts – bumpers, bonnet, headlights, taillights, fuel tank, boot, wing mounts, radiator, rear quarter panels, roof … just about everything.
“We have replaced a lot of parts, but not everything; this event making it more difficult as there are restrictions to the amount of spares you are allowed to bring with you.”
Winterbottom has recovered from the accident in fine style, setting the fastest time on the Bahrain track in practise today after repairs were also made to his Ford Falcon by Ford Performance Racing. Steve Richards has also put it all behind him setting the third fastest time of the day, just a whisker slower than Team Vodafone’s Jamie Whincup in second.
“It’s amazing what you can find on the back of a truck these days,” Winterbottom said.
“Maybe that’s all of our bad luck gone for the year, we can only hope. We didn’t really see the full extent of the damage which was all fixed when we arrived. The team told us not to worry about it and that they would take care of it.”
“It’s interesting coming from Indy to here,” said Championship leader Jamie Whincup.
“It’s an engineering challenge to go from a tight, winding track to the wide open spaces of Bahrain. It’s a big challenge to get the car to go well in these conditions.”
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