Huge repairs for Bottle-O team

The Bottle-O Racing Team will work through the night to repair David Reynolds' Falcon, after Thursday's fastest man crashed the car in today's qualifying session.

Both the front and rear of the car need to be repaired, though team boss Rod Nash rates the damage a five out of 10 on the reparability scale.

"Some of the accidents over the years in these things are horrendous - so on a scale of one to 10, we'd like to play it up and say it's a 10," Nash told v8supercars.com.au.

"But it's up there, it's more a five, it's fixable.

"You start getting into seven and eight where you try and fix them, and they're just not reparable. I think five is high damage but it should be reparable with some masterminding from the fabrication team."

Nash talked through the damage and what the crew would need to do overnight.

"It was high impact at those speeds up there," Nash said.

"The first bit was the front - it ripped all the front suspension out and did some minor damage to the chassis rail, but it's not actually bent. It's got dints in it... so probably a few repairs there and we'll just bolt the front end on.

"The rear's a different kettle of fish because that's what took the brunt of it on the right hand side.

"So it squashed the left and the right together a little bit, and it's had some movement inside on the fuel tank and stuff. So there's some quite delicate fabrication work and welding that's got to be done.

"Basically they just simulate their own jig by measurements and then they start cutting and welding in pieces to get the chassis aligned again and that allows them to start building the rear of the car back on.

"Funnily enough it was only a few race meetings ago, Eastern Creek where he took the rear off it and the rear's gone again. But it hasn't touched the roll cage - the main roll cage is all good, so it's just going to come down to some delicate fabrication work and its probably quite time consuming but we've got all night! It's not the first time all-nighters have been done at Bathurst."

While Reynolds won't be taking part in tomorrow's ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout, it is important to have a run in the practice session at 10.20am local time.

"Getting it back out on track also gives some feedback of what the car's doing," Nash said. "The times you repair the car and go out to the race Sunday, nine times out of 10 an issue will let you down.

"So it's important to get through it tonight and then get out in practice tomorrow and that will tell them exactly where the car's at and they can tweak it from there.

"Plus for Dave, it does knock your confidence - so he needs to get out there, get back on the bike and get it happening again.

"But I think he's pretty right - it was just one of those things that happens, it's just a matter of getting back out there again."

With the news of stablemate Chaz Mostert's exclusion from qualifying, the two are set to start alongside one another, with Jamie Whincup in front in 24th.

"These are long days, and the way both Triple Eight and FPR are, they weave the magic with their engineering strategies and what do you know, the cars are up in the top 10 somewhere.

"So it's not out of the question - the only thing is this race has traditionally become a sprint race, so not starting up the front is certainly an impairment no question. But it's not unachievable."

While Todd Kelly was investigated for obstructing Reynolds, he was cleared by the Stewards.

"I crested the hill, lost the rear and it was all over," Reynolds said earlier.

"That's racing unfortunately - it's the biggest race of the year but it's also the longest race of the year so we've got to look at the positives.

"People can win this from last - I definitely think I can, and I definitely have the car to make it happen, Hopefully it's not too bad, the boys can fix it and we can get it out tomorrow."