Fiore's In-Car and LDM's Damage Plan

It was abig hit for Dean Fiore in Darwin – watch the in-car footage included here and seewhat happened to the West Australian when he was caught in the pile-up thatprevented seven cars from finishing Sunday’s last race at the SKYCITY Triple Crown. The footage also shows the view onboard with James Moffat. 

LucasDumbrell Motorsport made a quick change of plans after the damage Fiore’sCommodore sustained – the decision made by theteam on Sunday nights saw the LDM truck head straight to Queensland ahead of nextevent, the Sucrogen Townsville 400, rather than driving back to the team’s homebase in Melbourne.

Scott Pye’ssister ekol Racing Holden also sustained damage, so both have needed to go on aTriple Eight jig for repairs – and Paul Morris’ old workshop, based inQueensland, was available for the team to use.

Dumbrelldescribed the damage on Fiore’s car as significant and said it wasn’t a wholelot different to what was sustained on Pye’s car after the incident at SymmonsPlains Raceway in Tasmania, back at the second event of the Championship.

“It’s quitesignificant damage, all around the front left and the right rear – so ithad to go back on the jig,” Dumbrell said on Friday afternoon. The car hadalready been stripped at that stage.

“It’s nottoo dissimilar,” Dumbrell said when comparing the damage to Pye’s.

“But nowit’s the front left, whereas Scott’s was the front right. But it will have tobe cut back to the firewall, the same as the last one.”

Dumbrellplaced a rough $60,000 price tag on the damage – with the additional expense ofaccommodating the team in Queensland while the repairs are being carried out.

And howdoes he keep the team motivated – this is the third event of six that theLDM cars have been involved in big accidents.

“It’sdefinitely hard – but the boys are just trying to get everything togetherand hoping to have a good round in Townsville,” Dumbrell said. He was planningto do something nice for the team in Queensland to thank the crew for theirwork.

TonyD’Alberto Racing announced prior to Darwin the team’s truck would also beheading straight to Queensland.

After therace on Sunday, v8supercars.com.au spoke to Fiore, who was fine but a littlesore from the impact.

Fiore– who had two wheels in the air – said he couldn’t see the lights on thegrid, got a terrible start, and then got caught up in the accident.

“I couldsee a bit of commotion up ahead so I was staying to the left – and thensuddenly Moffat just appeared in front of me and I had nowhere to go and I hitthe wall and up I went. 

“It was (a bighit)… It was some pretty heavy impact.”

Read comments fromthe other drivers involved on the Drivers’ Quoteboard.

Can LDM have a better run at the Sucrogen Townsville 400? Tickets are available through Ticketek.