LDM restructures for two cars

Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport is gearing up for the 2015 season with key personnel changesand the return of the Dodo Racing Commodore.

Former championship winning crew chief Barry Hay has made the switch from Special Projects Manager at Erebus Motorsport in 2014, in order to help the small team propel forward.He becomes team manager after 15years at Stone Brothers Racing, which morphed into Erebus for 2013.

Hay has already played a role in LDM's racing operations as they prepare for a two-car line-up.

"There has been a massive clean out of the workshop, everything has been shaken up and revisited," hesaid.

"I would like to instil some of the ideas I have learnt from Stone Brothers here and a big part of that will be getting the right people together."

Dumbrell said the appointment of Hay was part of a long-term future strategy and would continue to build on his team's development.

"I'm really excited to welcome some new crew members on board this year," Dumbrell said.

"After reviewing the structure in 2014, we have selected people that I believe to have the right experience, skill set and most importantly work ethic to take the team to the next level."

Janelle Navarro also joins the team after time at Erebus Motorsport and Ford Performance Racing.The change sees Navarro move to the role of number one mechanic, the first time the field has seen a female take up that role.

LDM's restructure transpires with the expansion back to two Holden Commodore VFs for the new year; having purchased the ex-Dodo Racing car to start the season alongside their existing chassis.Triple Eight-built chassis 031 was campaigned by Dumbrell's crew during the 2013 season as the Dodo Insurance Commodore driven by Dean Fiore.

"Due to the short turnaround from when the season concluded to the first hit-out this year, we decided it was best to purchase the Triple Eight chassis which the team already have a history with," Dumbrell said.

"The chassis has only had one year racing and was re-prepped in early 2014 before returning it to its owner...One of the main reasons for getting that particular chassis lies with what is also bolted to it.There wasn't a huge difference in terms of money between purchasing all the required parts to build a car versus purchasing the Dodo car, the main factor was time and that car is ready to race."

Workingwith theteam's fabrication partner, Jimmy's Fab Shop -anaccredited V8 Supercars chassis builder - LDM is also working towards having two new chassis constructed.

"I am looking forward to seeing LDM-001 come online hopefully for the first or second round this year," Dumbrell added.

LDM continues to finalise its line-up for the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship - Nick Percat was recently signed to drive one of the two 2015 Championship entries.