Tickford cars escape structural damage
Cam Waters, Declan Fraser Fords suffered big hits in Bathurst
Fraser Mustang in 56g impact in qualifying, car repaired overnight
James Moffat crashed out of Great Race in Waters Ford
Two crashes at the Repco Bathurst 1000 haven’t proven a big setback for Tickford Racing, with the Cam Waters and Declan Fraser Fords avoiding chassis damage.
Tickford’s Great Race campaign got off to a rocky start after rookie Fraser suffered a 56g impact in a Friday qualifying crash.
The Campbellfield squad repaired the #56 overnight, but the team has been forced into action after the event following a race-ending crash for the #6 Monster Energy Ford.
Waters’ co-driver James Moffat crashed at the Dipper nearly halfway into the race. The #6 Ford was the only car to crash out of the race, which was won by Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway.
James Courtney and Zak Best brought the #5 Snowy River Caravans Ford home in sixth, with Thomas Randle/Garry Jacobson 12th and Fraser/Tyler Everingham 18th.
“The car’s fine, it’s all bolt-on stuff,” Tickford Racing CEO and Team Principal Tim Edwards said of the Waters Mustang.
“There were a couple of things that were cracked on the chassis, but that’s fine, we’ll weld that up.
“From a damage point of view, both that [#6] and #56… it’s fairly extensive pile of damage from the weekend.”
It’s still a better outcome damage-wise than 2022, when Tickford was forced into a chassis swap between Bathurst and the Gold Coast after a major pile-up for the #5 with Zane Goddard at the wheel.
Both the #5 and #55 were forced out of the 2022 Great Race before lap 5, with Best an innocent bystander in the first-lap Mountain Straight carnage.
The Waters/Moffat heartbreak followed their luckless Sandown campaign, which was undone by a freak accident early in the race. While running in the top 10, the rear wing was wiped off the car after it was hit by a wheel.
With a 20th and DNF to show from the two enduros, the Waters/Moffat pairing scored 90 points across the two races — the fewest of all full-time pairings on the grid.
It also dropped Waters from sixth to ninth in the drivers’ championship, and the Waters/Courtney Tickford crew from fifth to sixth in the teams’ standings.
“It’s hard, we knew we were very unlucky at Sandown,” Edwards said of the #6.
“For Moff to make a very uncharacteristic mistake at Bathurst… there’s no point in me saying anything about it, he’ll beat himself up about it more than anything.
“They were the fastest of the Fords that weekend, so there’s a fair chance they would’ve gotten themselves on the podium. But, ifs, buts and maybes, they ended up DNFing.”
On the damage to the Fraser car, Edwards added: “For a 56g impact, it’s amazing there wasn’t a lot more damage.
“He was fortunate, both wheels hit simultaneously on the wall, it shared the load.
“With those corners of the suspension compressing at the same time, it saved the chassis. We were very lucky there.
“Unfortunately we’ve become quite skilled in preparing damaged cars the last couple of years."
The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 on October 27-29.
