Love crashes out of Sydney testing

Aaron Love's Sydney test is likely at an early end after a heavy crash at Turn 2.

Love was pitched off the road on an out-lap when his Blanchard Racing Team Ford suffered a suspected brake failure.

The Perth-born driver was 18th on the time sheets at the time of the accident, with Nick Percat leading for Matt Stone Racing.

The #3 CoolDrive Ford Mustang Supercar sustained heavy rear damage in the incident, which triggered the first red flag of the day.

Love walked away unscathed, and was seen talking to mechanics in the BRT garage shortly after the crash.

The stoppage came in the final hour of the four-hour morning session.

"We were just cycling through our schedule for the day. We were making some progress which was nice, we were getting a good read on the car which was quite positive," said Love after returning to the pits.

"We're still don't know the exact cause as to what went wrong, but we'll have to look into that. We've got a fairly big job ahead of everyone to at least try and get this thing back on track for Friday, but we'll see how it goes.

"We hit the rear, kind of left-rear first, just from trying to get it down through the gears, just to try and slow it down any way I could.

"Fortunately I'm ok, but unfortunately I don't think the car is in as good a shape as I am at the moment."

It's the worst possible start to his sophomore campaign in Supercars for the 22-year-old, who finished the 2024 season as the last of the full-time drivers after an at times trying rookie campaign.

Blanchard Racing Team have welcomed several new staff for 2025, including Love's new race engineer Daniel Veronese, who engineered Aaron Cameron to a runner-up finish in the 2024 Dunlop Super2 Series.

"The boys and girls have worked so hard after Adelaide to have a full reset; rebuild, restructure, we've got some new people in here, a whole new set of processes and ways we go about things.

"So far I think it's been paying off a little bit from the limited time we've had running, we've made some good progress I think, and the lap charts just don't necessarily represent that at the moment, but out understanding of the car has definitely improved."

"It's not something you want to happen for anyone to start the year, let alone ever, so it's a big shame. We've got a fair bit of work ahead of us like I said to try and reset and go again, it definitely won't be easy."

Nick Percat topped the opening session of the Destination NSW Sydney Test Day for Matt Stone Racing. On-track action for Session 2 begins at 2:00pm local time following a 60 minute fuel churn practice session.