Erebus Motorsport strongly considered abandoning repair plans on Tim Slade’s Mercedes following his Thursday practice shunt.
The E63 AMG suffered major structural damage with the entire right-front cut back to the firewall.
It saw the loss of the shock tower, all the supporting bars to the rollcage, the A-pillar beam, a new chassis rail and cross member and all the ancillary parts.
Erebus team manager David Stuart told Speedcafe.com it currently estimates there is a 20 percent chance of the car being fixed in time for the final practice session on Saturday morning.
Ahead of parts of the chassis jig arriving in a team van from its base at Yatala in Queensland, key Erebus personnel confirmed they have already been granted permission by stewards to start Sunday’s 161-lap encounter from pitlane if they choose.
Stuart disclosed that serious consideration was given to putting the shutters down on the car’s Bathurst 1000 campaign on Thursday night.
“We debated it for a long time,” Stuart said.
“We thought that the experience we had on hand we would be able to make an effective repair and be competitive.
“Because it’s not only this race but it’s how it effects the Gold Coast and then rolling on through the remaining two rounds of the year.
“The decision we made was that if we can repair it and be satisfied with it we’ll use that same chassis for the Gold Coast.
“And we then have a chassis that’s just about complete back at Yatala which we can use for Phillip Island and Homebush.
“So in essence we talked about it for a long time and weighed up the pros and cons.”
Erebus have a total of 25 crew members between its three Mercs with four fabricators ready to commence work on the stricken #47 as soon as the team van arrives with its payload this afternoon.
V8 Supercars technical boss Frank Adamson said he has utmost faith that Erebus has the expertise to perform repairs to meet the category safety standards.
“Obviously with Paul Ceprnich here from Pace Innovations, the designer of the chassis and supplying the parts, I have no issues with the car as it goes together and I’ll keep an eye on it was it goes together to make sure everything is right,” Adamson said.
Erebus’ Ross Stone said that the car would have to be ‘100 percent right’ for it to take part in the Sunday morning pre-race warm-up which would effectively act as a shakedown.
“It will be right for warm-up, but it has to be 100 percent,” Stone said.
“There are a lot of younger guys on our team and sometime you need to put the handbrake on a bit but they are having a crack to get it going for tomorrow morning.
“(But) I won’t be disappointed if we don’t make it tomorrow.”
