Brown car repairable after Pukekohe crash
Despite initial fears, Erebus Motorsport will be able to repair Will Brown's damaged car following his heavy Pukekohe crash.
Brown suffered a 56g impact at pit entry in Race 28 after contact with Mark Winterbottom.
The right-rear corner of the #9 Boost Mobile Commodore bore the brunt of the impact.
Such was the severity of the impact, that the pit entry concrete barrier was dislodged.
Brown was winded but otherwise unharmed, and returned to the Erebus garage shortly after.
Erebus had to wait until the car, chassis EMH02, returned to the team's Melbourne base to properly assess the damage.
The team wasted no time stripping the chassis and getting it on the jig.
“The guys have had a proper look at the car and we believe we can fix it in time for Bathurst,” Ryan said.
“We’ve got it to Mount Gambier and on the jig this morning, the whole rear of the car is getting cut off and we’ll replace it all.
“Once it’s done, we’ll get it to paint and then back in the workshop and start to replace all the componentry and bodywork.
“Almost every tube in the back half of the car has either been torn, twisted or bent. Items like our gear box, fuel tank housing, drive shafts and suspension components also need to be repaired or replaced.
“We knew there had been substantial damage, though you always find more as you start to pull parts and panels off it.”
Doubts were cast over the team's wildcard programme, with Brown earmarked to move into the spare.
Those fears have been allayed by Thursday's news, with Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway to race as planned.
Brown, however, is unlikely to take part in his last rookie test day next week.
Testing alongside Murphy and Stanaway the following week is a possible option.
"It'll be repaired in time for Bathurst," Brown's engineer Tom Moore told Supercars.com.
"There'll be three Boost Mobile cars on the track come the mountain.
"It's definitely back to Plan A; it's not the original Plan A, you wouldn't be going through this if you didn't have to."
Speaking of the damage, Brown said: "It was bad, but it wasn't necessarily a surprise.
"When we stripped it down, we found more than we knew.
"It got worse when we took more parts off, but we expected that."
The Murphy/Stanaway entry is one of three wildcards for this year's Great Race.
Murphy is making his first start since 2014, and Stanaway his first since 2019.
The Kiwi pairing has twice tested at Winton Motor Raceway in preparation for the event.
This year's Repco Bathurst 1000 will be held on October 6-9.
Tickets for the Repco Bathurst 1000 are available on Supercars.com and Ticketek.
