Spirited Rebuilds: BJR's brave bid to save Hazelwood's weekend

This is the fifth and final entry of Supercars.com’s Spirited Rebuild series brought to you by Spirit Super. The fifth entry covers Brad Jones Racing's bid to return Todd Hazelwood to the track after a major first-lap crash in Darwin.

It had been a topsy turvy 2021 season to Darwin for Todd Hazelwood, who had claimed just two top 10s in 11 starts.

Desperate to make up ground on the opening lap of the Hidden Valley opener, Hazelwood followed the field into Turn 1.

In his path was the Mustang of Anton De Pasquale, who after starting from pole, had been tipped into a spin.

The hapless Hazelwood could do little than hit De Pasquale's Ford head on, both cars suffering major damage.

It wasn't over for Hazelwood; having arrived on the scene in the midfield, Hazelwood still had cars in arrears.

Brad Jones Racing teammate Jack Smith, as well as Team Sydney duo Fabian Coulthard and Garry Jacobson, had nowhere to go.

Coulthard suffered major front and rear damage. The front of Smith's car was a mess.

Then, there were De Pasquale and Hazelwood, the latter taking perhaps the biggest hit of all.

All cars were returned to the lane after the race, and the post-mortem began.

With two cars heavily damaged, BJR mechanics worked into the night to repair the Smith and Hazelwood Commodores.

What was most alarming was that two cars had suffered head-on impacts.

The front left section of the #14 Pizza Hut car was crumpled in, with the car stripped of its bent panels.

Thankfully, the team’s assessment revealed the Hazelwood and Smith cars had escaped structural damage.

"Sad to say it wasn’t the worst repair we’ve had,” car #14 engineer Tony Woodward told Supercars.com.

"Really it was fairly minor damage, just lots of it.

"We quickly assessed the damage and deemed that there was nothing structural in terms of geometry or safety at play.

“It was really just cosmetic and/or subsystems that needed to be removed and replaced.”

Nick Percat - who finished third in the race - and Macauley Jones both ended Saturday with straight cars.

It enabled both BJR crews to work on the damaged Hazelwood and Smith cars.

The mechanics finished up just before one o’clock in the morning.

Still, the list of damage to Hazelwood’s car was extensive, especially to the front of the car.

The bonnet, front left guard, front bar, left and right front rail extensions, front wheel arch liner, radiator, oil cooler, front left wiring sub-loom, front left damper, front suspension arms and a pillar sheet metal on the left hand side were all replaced.

Away from the rebuilds, BJR faced a nervous wait over an investigation into Percat’s car amid a tyre breach, but he was able to hang onto his podium.

The repaired Hazelwood car was brought home by the 2017 Super2 champion 14th and 21st on Sunday.

In July, he scored four straight top 10 finishes in Townsville, including a season best finish of fourth in Race 19.

"Lots of bodywork damage was the main thing,” Woodward said.

“There was a lot of damage on the front of the car. Everything on the front was replaced.

"For the back of the car, the rear wing element, rear wing endplates, rear bar centre and sides along with the lower quarter panel mounts were all bent or destroyed.

"Fortunately car 8 was pretty straight from that race so we could use both car crews to complete the repair.

"I think we finished up around 12:30am.

“We did a fresh set-up in the morning and it was good to go for the Sunday.”

This article was presented by Spirit Super, the official superannuation partner of Supercars. Spirit Super is the industry super fund that backs all hard-working Aussies, just like those who work tirelessly to keep the Supercars on the track. With low fees and a history of strong returns, it all starts with spirit. Learn more at spiritsuper.com.au.

Motor Trades Association of Australia Superannuation Fund (ABN 14 008 650 628, AFSL 238718) is the issuer of Spirit Super. Consider the PDS and TMD at www.spiritsuper.com/pds before making a decision. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.