Supercheap Auto Racing ready for Gold Coast

20 Oct 2014

Repairs to the #47 Commodore are complete, with the team having worked around the clock to fix the damage sustained at Bathurst.

2 mins by James Pavey

Crash

Fire

2014

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Supercheap Auto Racing's Tim Slade and Tony D'Alberto will race at the Castrol EDGE Gold Coast after their team completed a marathon repair effort to fix their Holden racecar in time for this weekend's race.

Slade crashed out of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 race just over a week ago, the accident at Reid Park heavily damaging both sides of the Commodore.

Following the crash, the team had to batten down the hatches and put in more than 250 man-hours in just seven days to make sure the racecar made it to the Gold Coast in time.

"It's one of the tightest turnarounds that I've worked on, with massive effort required," Supercheap Auto Racing team manager Anthony McDonald said.

"I'm really proud of everyone at the team. It's been all hands on deck right from the start, and everyone has been pushing hard to get the Commodore ready for the Gold Coast."

The marathon effort began from the moment the transporter returned from Bathurst, with four mechanics stripping down the damaged Commodore Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon the car was moved to the team's fabrication shop where it had the entire front clip, from the firewall forward, replaced.

The Commodore headed to the paint shop at 9pm Thursday, for an urgent turnaround until 1am Friday morning.

After paint, it was delivered straight to the workshop, where the race mechanics spent a string of 13-hour days on the tools to ensure the Commodore was race-ready for this weekend's Gold Coast event.

"All of the boys worked so hard this past week, with everyone playing their part to make the deadline," McDonald said.

Supercheap Auto Racing driver Tim Slade paid testament to the team's ability to turnaround the Commodore in less than a week.

"I'm so proud of our boys, they all work so hard - and hopefully Tony D'Alberto and I can reward them this weekend with a strong result up on the Gold Coast," Slade said.

The Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore will be on-track from this Friday, with the Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600 running from October 24-26. Click here for more information on the event.