Walkinshaw damage detailed, drivers apologetic

Walkinshaw TWG Racing is hard at work repairing two cars and bringing a spare online after a bruising Bathurst.

Reigning champion Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood crashed in Sunday’s Repco Bathurst 1000, damaging both Toyota GR Supras ahead of the Gold Coast.

Wood’s car had been repaired after a 43G crash on Friday morning, before he dragged his car back to the garage after a 23G hit in the race.

Mostert, with five laps to go in the race, clipped the inside wall at Forrest’s Elbow and careened into the barriers, triggering the only Safety Car of the race.

The cars have returned back to Melbourne, with Walkinshaw TWG opting to move Mostert into its spare chassis for the upcoming Gold Coast round.

The damaged Mostert chassis requires significant fabrication work, as explained by engineer Sam Scaffidi in a team video: “There's a fair bit of damage to the actual front right corner of this chassis, and it's quite extensive.

"There's a big ripple in the tunnel, and a lot of the sheet metal and box section work underneath the floor has been quite extensively damaged.

"Essentially, that's why we can't really continue to use this chassis. The way it sits at the moment isn't safe and needs a fair bit of repair work.

“There's roughly about 40 man-hours in repairing this just from fabrication work. Then from there, there'll be a fair bit of work in prepping, painting, and essentially getting it back to the way it was before.”

Mostert recorded his second straight Bathurst DNF, while Wood was classified in 24th. Luckily, the #2 Mobil 1 Truck Assist Supra got away with it the second time around.

"Wasn't the outcome we wanted, but we've got plenty of work to do now on one of the shortest turnarounds of the year,” Wood’s engineer Richard Harris said.

“The chassis has been stripped down. We did obviously an intermediate repair at the circuit. The guys did an amazing job there.

"We had to do some fabrication work where the front clip fits to the main chassis, the repairs were good, we don't have to do any more work on those repairs.

“We had the [42]G hit on the front right, down at the Elbow in Practice 3. That obviously was a lot of extensive work on Friday rolling into the early hours of Saturday morning.

"In the race, we also had a 23G just on the exit of the tree, and we've done some damage on the left-hand side. We have had to make some minor repairs to the left-hand side of the car.

“She’ll be as good as new, and we're excited to get to the Gold Coast and have a bit of redemption.”

The Walkinshaw TWG crew's efforts in burning the midnight oil after Bathurst isn’t lost on their drivers.

“Bathurst never fails to throw everything at you, and this year was no different,” Mostert wrote in a blog.

“Unfortunately, with a handful of laps left I clipped the inside wall at Forrest's Elbow and had a big hit.

“I’m gutted for Fabian and every single person in the team who put so much into this campaign — the car was good and we deserved a decent result out of it."

Wood added: “A big credit to the guys and girls in the team, a massive effort to just get us out there, we knew it was going to be an uphill battle and it sure was.

“Unfortunately, when you start last your odds are stacked against you and we just didn’t have the speed to really make any headways.

“In the end when you are pushing hard, you can get unstuck pretty quickly around here and that’s what happened for me. Just a big sorry to the crew and I’m really glad Chazzie is okay cause I know how it feels down there.”

Track action on the Gold Coast commences on Friday October 23.