Tickford 'feared the worst' for Randle car as repairs commence

Tickford Racing is facing a late night in the Adelaide paddock following a big crash for Thomas Randle, whose incident brought an end to Friday's race.

Randle was caught out by standing water at the fearsome Turn 8 sweeper as rain intensified towards the end of the bp Adelaide Grand Final opener.

The #55 Castrol Mustang aquaplaned into the concrete barriers, which shifted due to the 54g impact. The dislodged barriers forced officials to suspend the race, which wasn't restarted.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Randle, who recorded his first DNF since Perth 2023.

"Yeah I'm okay, obviously it was a big hit," said Randle on the broadcast.

"It was just getting wetter out there, I thought I'd backed off enough through there, but I got to the middle of the corner and I just fully aquaplaned.

"I guess that just shows how on the limit everyone is, and unfortunately it was me in the wall.

"Just a big shame for the whole team. My bad, and I just want to repay the guys hopefully the rest of the weekend.

"Everyone works so hard, so I just feel for everyone. End of the year, we want to get a good result, and this is obviously not what we want."

Speaking to Supercars.com after the race, Tickford Team Manager Matt Roberts admitted he feared it would be a weekend-ender when he saw the impact, but suggested the team will have the car repaired well before Boost Mobile Qualifying at 10:05am local/10:35am AEDT.

“After we first saw the footage, we all feared the worst,” Roberts said.

"There is still a bit of damage, front and rear obviously, but hopefully it's not too late for the boys tonight.”

Roberts said the sister Cam Waters car nearly met a similar fate. Waters finished fifth, but was reclassified eighth following a penalty for hitting Cooper Murray.

“Cam said he was lucky he only just got through as well, because one minute earlier, there was almost a dry line creeping in," Roberts added.

“Then obviously that second band of rain came through, he said it was just ultra like shiny sheen on the track. Cam almost went in as well.

“The unfortunate thing for Tom was as soon as that tyre was on top of the road, he was aquaplaning."