Repairs underway on damaged Pye car

Team 18 has started the repair process on Scott Pye’s damaged car after his Perth crash.

Pye crashed at the end of the opening lap of Race 11 after contact with Jack Le Brocq.

Such was the impact, that the race was suspended as officials repaired a damaged gate on pit straight.

Pye suffered a 10G impact in the crash; the damage ruled him out of Race 12.

Team 18’s transporters returned to the squad’s Victorian base on Wednesday.

There, the post-mortem began, with the team having cut away much of the damage in Perth.

Pye was on site to assess the damage, as was engineer Richard Hollway.

“The guys are hard at it working away and stripping it down,” crew chief and acting team manager John Moore said.

“The damage was to an extent that we couldn’t get it out for the third race.

“We’re going to pull everything apart on the car and assess the damage.

“We need to order all the parts, so we need to put a list together before we put it back together.”

The car will spend a number of days on the jig before it is reassembled and painted.

Team 18 is facing a race against time, with two weeks until teams head to Winton for the next round.

The bulk of the damage is to the left-rear quarter of the car.

The team will use Walkinshaw Andretti United’s jig in the repair process.

It remains unlikely that the car will be repaired in time for next Tuesday’s scheduled test day at Winton Motor Raceway.

Team owner Charlie Schwerkolt described the weekend as “gut-wrenching”.

Pye’s teammate Mark Winterbottom copping two penalties across Sunday.

Winterbottom was first handed a grid drop for impeding, before he was penalised over an incident with Thomas Randle.

The 2015 champion finished 16th and 20th in the two Sunday races.

While Winterbottom’s car escaped without bruises, the mission is now on to rescue Pye’s damaged Commodore.

“We knew in Perth that it had substantial damage,” Moore said.

“We need to put it back on the jig. There’s a fair bit of damage on the left-rear edge at the wheel where it contacted the wall.

“We need to cut all the bars out and the material that’s in that area. After that, it’ll go in the paint booth before the boys get it ready.

“We’re about four days on the jig of cutting it all up, replacing components on it and get it in the booth.

“Turnaround time, we’re looking at less than a week hopefully.

"Then the boys will have less than a week to put it together to get it to Winton."