The Castrol Edge Gold Coast 600 will see David Reynolds and Dean Canto reunited with the chassis they used to win at last year’s Surfers Paradise event.
Ford Performance Racing has elected to switch the duo back into its spare chassis (FPR-1215) due to Reynolds’ heavy qualifying shunt in his regular mount at Mount Panorama.
While the Bottle-O Falcon was fixed overnight following its Friday crash and took the start on Sunday, the team will undertake a full rebuild of the car before it returns to action.
The first Next Generation Falcon completed by the team, FPR-1215 was used by Reynolds throughout 2013 before being relegated to spare duties.
It has been raced twice already this year, once by Chaz Mostert at Albert Park, and then as the Super Black Falcon at Bathurst last weekend.
Reynolds and Canto are hoping that the return to their former ride will bring with it good fortune following a heartbreaking Bathurst 1000.
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The duo were in the thick of the battle for victory until stopping suddenly on Mountain Straight with an electrical failure while running second with less than 50 laps remaining.
While both Dick Johnson Racing Fords crashed out due to tyre and gearbox problems, the Bottle-O Falcon was the only purely reliability-related retirement of the race.
The team believes that the apparent battery failure was unrelated to its Friday crash and most likely a knock-on effect of the race’s red flag stoppage, which saw the cars parked on the grid for an enforced 70 minute break.
The #55 Ford sat on the grid with its cool suit running during the early moments of the stoppage to ensure that the system would not freeze over before the team could fill it with dry ice.
Canto reported receiving low voltage warnings within 15 laps of the restart; almost 40 laps before its eventual demise.
The team had initially hoped that the minor voltage drop had been caused by bonnet damage hurting airflow to the alternator, therefore affecting its ability to charge the battery.
Moving to rectify any cooling concerns in a subsequent pitstop, the car eventually shut down on Mountain Straight while under Safety Car, leaving a battery problem as the most likely cause.
“Heat soak is never a good thing for a lot of things in the car, but there’s nothing you can do about it,” Edwards told Speedcafe.com of the earlier red flag stoppage potentially damaging the battery, which is a control part under the V8 Supercars rules.
“We had to leave the cool suits on all the cars until we got down on the grid with the dry ice, because otherwise they freeze.
“They do draw a lot of current, but you’ve got no choice when you’re getting everything together and then waiting to be able to go and touch the cars.”
Team-mate Mark Winterbottom’s cool suit did freeze over while turned off during the red flag, which the team rectified by putting his car’s used brake pads in the ice box.
Having proven one of the strongest combinations for the third year running, Reynolds and Canto both appeared shattered by their sudden exit.
Canto insists, however, that they won’t be dwelling on another lost opportunity at the Great Race.
“If I dwelled on every event that didn’t go well I wouldn’t be here,” Canto told Speedcafe.com post-race.
“There’s been plenty of times it’s been looking good and it’s gone pear-shaped.
“It’s onwards and upwards for us and we’ll try to get another surfboard on the Gold Coast.
“Our cars tend to suit the high grip level circuits we a have a good base to start with from where we finished there last year.
“The car we had (at Bathurst) was still fast but they want to fix it properly so we will go to the other car at the Gold Coast.
“Anything can happen and I’m sure we will be right up there.”
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