Love hopeful of rebuild after qualifying crash
Dunlop Series
08 Oct 2023
UPDATE: Love ruled out of Race 2 after big crash in Dunlop Series qualifying
Friday race was second at the time of crash, with Zak Best taking pole
West Aussie rookie hopeful of rebuild before 3:55pm race
Aaron Love is hopeful his Blanchard Racing Team squad can rebuild his damaged #78 Petronas Ford in time for Saturday afternoon’s Race 2 at Mount Panorama.
Love, who won Friday’s race, crashed at Reid Park in the closing minutes of ARMOR ALL Qualifying at the Repco Bathurst 1000, with the BRT Ford hitting the wall at Reid Park.
The West Aussie clouted the concrete in an incident reminiscent of Declan Fraser’s from Supercars qualifying on Friday, which was recorded at 56g.
Such was the impact, that the left front wheel was removed from the #78 Ford, with Love bringing the car to a halt down at Sulman Park.
The session was declared, and with Love triggering a red flag, the former Porsche Carrera Cup ace was demoted from second to 25th and last.
Speaking during Practice 5 for Supercars on Saturday morning, Love believes his team can pull off a quick fix with five hours to race start at 3:55pm AEDT.
“I’m all good, it was a pretty big hit,” Love said on the broadcast.
“The boys are going to try hard to get the car ready, so they’ll push hard and hopefully we can get out there.
“If not, we’ll out all our focus into [the team’s Great Race wildcard]… they’re definitely going to have a red-hot crack at it.
“They seem to think that if they’ve got all the parts, it goes all smoothly and they don’t have anything sprung on them.
“They’ll work hard and we’ve got a good chance of getting it back out there, and we’ll have a go in the race.
“We were going good in qualifying, I had a bit of time to make up in the first sector, that’s probably where the error came from.”
The incident ensured Zak Best scored a second straight pole, with the Super2 points leader set to share the Race 2 front row with title rival Kai Allen.
