Overnight Blanchard heroics save Aaron Cameron Ford
Cameron was ruled out of Saturday's race after scary fire
BRT mechanics repaired Cameron car, both Super2 cars
Aaron Cameron is set to take the start of Sunday's Supercars action at Sandown, following an heroic overnight effort by the Blanchard Racing Team.
Cameron emerged unscathed from a scary incident in the early laps on Saturday's Penrite Oil Sandown 500 opener, after his #3 LIQUI MOLY BLAHST Ford burst into flames.
The Victorian pulled his fiery Ford over on the run to Turn 4, triggering the first Shannons Safety Car of the race. It allowed fire marshals to put out the flames.
The car still sustained significant damage, with BRT crew only receiving the car until after the race.
All-night efforts by the BRT have saved the Ford, which is set to roll out for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 10:45am AEDT. The balance of the BRT crew hadn't gone home at all as the Sandown paddock came back to life on Sunday morning.
It's understood damage to the exhaust — after a hit from Jack Le Brocq — caused the fire, BRT Team Manager Kate Harrington telling Supercars.com: "We believe the exhaust side skirts with the contact with Le Brocq have just folded in, which has started a fire with the side skirt.
"So the tips have actually folded in onto the side skirt, and then the side skirt's obviously gone up, which has burnt the rear of the car, and the PDM and the rear quarter."
BRT crew had it all to do, having to repair the damaged Super2 Fords of Lochie Dalton and Bailey Sweeny after they were damaged in separate incidents on Saturday.
“They didn't sleep. Incredible effort by the team to stay up all night and fix the car,” Cameron told Supercars.com on Sunday morning.
“It's crazy how much damage fire does, and all the cleaning that's required. So yeah, big credit to all the team.
“Thank you so much for getting me back out there today, and now it's just about getting the car up the front and making sure it was worth it for me.”
As expected, there were some red eyes and yawns in the garage.
“Well, looks like all the coffees have arrived before I got here, so I'm gonna assume Kate’s gone around and bought coffees for everyone,” Cameron laughed.
“It should be me getting them. Look, it's a big credit to not just everyone on Car 3, but Car 7 as well, coming across and helping us get this thing prepared.
“We had heaps of damage over on the Super2 cars too, so it's been a huge night for all of BRT.
“There was lots of going back to the workshop, getting parts, and yeah… we had everyone in here. Even the commercial department was helping cleaning things, so it's cool to be able to race again today.”
Boost Mobile Qualifying commences at 11:20am local time on Sunday.
