Schwerkolt details all-night repair heroics
Supercars
11 Oct
Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt details Bathurst repair heroics
Team 18 mechanics "went home at 6:00am and had a shower"
David Reynolds, Will Davison cars set for Saturday practice
Team 18 owner Charlie Schwerkolt has hailed his squad's efforts in a painstaking overnight rebuild, following David Reynolds' major qualifying crash.
Team 18 and Dick Johnson Racing burned the midnight oil to repair two heavily damaged Supercars following incidents in Boost Mobile Qualifying.
The Will Davison car appeared in doubt for the race after it returned to the paddock, with the two-time Bathurst winner's car picking up left- and right-hand side damage.
Reynolds, meanwhile, was "bitten hard" after hitting the concrete head-on at The Dipper early in the session, with the TRADIE Beer Chevrolet sustaining major front-end damage.
Come Saturday morning, and both teams were putting the final touches on both cars, with Schwerkolt overwhelmed by his crew's remarkable turnaround.
"They didn't finish. It's still going. They went home at 6:00am and had a shower," Schwerkolt told Supercars.com.
"It was a pretty big hit. It was bigger than we thought. It twisted the whole car around 25mm.
"It needed a lot of bar work repairs, so we needed to get it all properly straight and all done professionally. But we've got a great team of guys and girls, and they just did an incredible job here."
Schwerkolt is hoping for a fairytale for his team, given how Bathurst left the team heartbroken 12 months ago after Mark Winterbottom was a shock last-lap DNF.
Crucially, because both cars missed the Shootout, Schwerkolt is hopeful of giving his hard-working mechanics an early-mark after their all-night heroics.
"It's cruel. It's so cruel here. But, it's a team effort for everyone. They'll get ready for practice at 10:00am. We've just got to make it a really good race car for Dave," Schwerkolt continued.
"The crazy thing about it is he should have been in the Shootout very easy. He was really, really super quick. But, he was trying hard.
"It's a great team here. There's no 'I' team as we all know. They've all banded together, and really worked hard. Really proud of them.
"They haven't stopped at all, as I said. I'll try and get them home nice and early tonight, unfortunately, they don't have the Shootout, but they can leave early.
"Excited to see how the car is when we get it out there."
Supercars will return to the track on Saturday morning, with co-driver only Practice 5 at 10:05am AEDT. Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are on sale now.
