PremiAir, BRT explain Sydney testing incidents
Supercars
19 Feb
PremiAir, Blanchard teams explain Sydney testing incidents
Aaron Love crashed out of morning session after brake failure
James Golding escaped from fire early into afternoon session
James Golding and Aaron Love are both set to race on Friday at the Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round following their dramatic test-ending incidents on Wednesday.
Golding and Love both failed to complete Wednesday's Destination NSW Sydney Test Day after separate incidents during the day's running.
Blanchard Racing Team driver Love crashed at the end of the morning session, with the CoolDrive Ford Mustang crashing rearwards into the tyre barriers.
After the lunch interval, Golding walked away from a fire in his PremiAir Chevrolet Camaro. Golding managed to return his car to pit entry, where the flames were extinguished.
Both drivers walked away from their respective incidents, but lost valuable track time ahead of this weekend's Thrifty Sydney 500 - Opening Round.
In a team release, PremiAir confirmed the damage is "limited and unexpected to cause any issues" on race day on Friday. Golding said he heard a noise in the car, and once he saw the flames, acted quickly to prevent further damage.
The Gold Coast-based managed to clean the car shortly after the fire, with extensive extinguisher material spread across and through the #31 PremiAir Camaro.
PremiAir competition director Ludo lacroix said: "The day did end with a bit of stress – there is a brand new assembly that goes on top of the fuel tank that started to leak, and so fuel was spraying on top of the fuel tank and everywhere.
"When Jimmy broke to come into the pit lane it hit the exhaust and burst into flame; there would have been 3 or 4 litres of fuel straight onto the exhaust and with a lot of composite on the outside of the car it caught fire very quickly and looked really bad.
"But, it is not as bad as it looked – it wasn’t an electrical fire, there is no damaged wiring, nothing inside the cockpit, nothing inside the engine bay, it is all cosmetic damage, so I think we should be fine and still have a good car for Friday.”
BRT had outside help from Matt Stone Racing's Jimmy Stone, who joined the Ford team in repairing the extensive rear damage to the #3 Mustang. The #3 missed the entire afternoon session, with Stone aiding the chassis and bar repairs to the car.
A brake line failure left Love with no brakes heading into Turn 2, with the driver spinning the car. Stone and Supercars technical staff both assisted the repairs, given the chassis damage.
As a precaution, BRT is changing bodywork and componentry on the left-hand side of the car due to the impact.
After Wednesday's Destination NSW Sydney Test Day, Supercars will return to Sydney Motorsport Park for the opening race of what is set to be the most action-packed season in Supercars history.
Race 1 takes place on Friday night, with Race 2 on Saturday night and Race 3 on Sunday afternoon. Tickets for the February 21-23 event are on sale now.
