The badly damaged #8 Brad Jones Racing Commodore has this morning returned to the Gold Coast track after undergoing major off-site repairs and remains a slim chance of making Race 30.
Suffering major chassis and suspension damage the #8 Holden had to be straightened and welded back into shape on a jig at Pace Innovations, north of the Surfers Paradise circuit.
The car was being driven by Jason Bright’s co-driver Andrew Jones when it made heavy contact with a tyre bundle in the left-front which creased the chassis back to past the B-pillar at turn 3.
“I reckon it’s 50/50 at the moment,” Bright told Speedcafe.com
“There’s a lot of stuff left to put on the car. It’s re-drilling holes in the floorpan and putting in all the electronics.”
The damage to the #8 is said to be worse than that sustained to Tim Slade’s Erebus Mercedes at Bathurst.
Repairs continued at the Yatala workshop all through the night with the car being transported back to the track shortly before qualifying.
However there is considerable assembly work remaining ahead of the opening 102-lap race scheduled to start at 2.20pm local time.
Team co-owner Kim Jones said that while it remained touch and go the car would be back in shape for tomorrow.
