The Lee Holdsworth/Craig Baird Erebus Mercedes heavily damaged at Sandown will return to action at next month’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
While Erebus has a fully operational spare car following its trimming down from three cars to two this season, repair work on the crashed chassis is well on target to be finished ahead of The Great Race.
Holdsworth suffered a right-rear tyre failure at peak speed on the back straight during the final stint of the Wilson Security Sandown 500, sending the #4 E63 AMG careening across the grass and into the tyre barriers.
The 31-year-old emerged from the crash shaken but uninjured, saying that “I honestly saw my life flash before my eyes” as he had headed for the wall.
Although the damage to the car looked severe, Erebus general manager Ross Stone says that the chassis itself held up well.
“It was mainly the left-front chassis rail that we had to cut out and replace,” Stone told Speedcafe.com on Friday.
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“The car is on the jig now and, even though the boys are having the weekend off, it should be ready to go to the paint shop by Tuesday.
“Because we weren’t planning on testing before Bathurst anyway, it hasn’t really affected our build-up.”
Holdsworth has meanwhile heaped heavy praise on Erebus’ E-cell safety seat, developed specifically for the Mercedes V8 Supercars.
“We’re the only team that is running the safety cell, which I think played a huge part in keeping my safety under control,” he said of the carbon fibre/aluminium honeycomb structure.
“I can honestly say that it felt like it saved my life.
“There was a moment there where I thought I was staring death in the face and to come out of it with no injuries at all, I think that the E-cell is something that the category should look into making mandatory.”
Unmoved on the E-cell, V8 Supercars has confirmed in the wake of the Holdsworth crash that it will mandate minimum tyre pressures of 17psi from Bathurst onwards.
Low pressures have been blamed for several failures this season and are traditionally a major talking point across the Bathurst weekend.
Erebus endured a horror Sandown 500, with its sister entry of Will Davison/Alex Davison hampered by an electronics issue on the way to 21st, two laps down on the winner.
The team had run its latest engine upgrade in the car during Friday practice, before reverting to a previous spec unit for the remainder of the weekend.
Stone, who has headed up Erebus’ internal engine development program this season, says he hopes to re-introduce the upgrades on both cars at Bathurst.
“We’re still working on it and we’ll see what happens in the next week or so,” he said.
“At Sandown it was fifty-fifty whether we left it or took it out.
“The driveability was exactly what we wanted but it still needs a little bit more work.
“It’s not far away. We’re aiming to have it in both cars for Bathurst.”
Davison and Holdsworth sit 14th and 19th in the championship respectively heading to the October 9-12 Bathurst event.
VIDEO: Lee Holdsworth discusses the repair of his #4 Erebus Mercedes
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