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Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport will utilise a Garry Rogers Motorsport-built Holden for the Castrol Edge Gold Coast 600 due to the heavy damage sustained by its own chassis at Bathurst.
Russell Ingall and co-driver Tim Blanchard will step into one of two Commodores prepared by GRM for Dragon Motor Racing’s ill-fated Bathurst wildcard campaign.
Blanchard crashed LDM’s regular Triple Eight-built mount at The Cutting during the closing stages at Bathurst following a suspension failure caused by damage from an earlier incident between Ingall and Lee Holdsworth.
The GRM Holden, raced in 2013 by Alexandre Premat, will receive LDM’s NRE powerplant ahead of the October 26-28 Gold Coast meeting.
LDM’s is one of four teams reverting to a back-up chassis this weekend, joining Ford Performance Racing (#55), the Holden Racing Team (#2) and Erebus Motorsport (#4), which also copped the brunt of the Bathurst carnage.
While LDM ran two full-time entries last year, the second chassis is owned by former team sponsor R&T Pumps and is now housed in Queensland.
“It is a massive financial investment to have another car sitting here and not one that we can afford so we are very fortunate that we are able to utilise Dragon Motor Racing’s,” said Dumbrell.
“It will need to be stickered, we will also fit our own engine and its associated components, (but) it is almost ready to go.
“Looking at the performance of the GRM cars last year, I have no doubt that we have a car that is capable of running up the front.”
Dumbrell expressed particular gratitude towards GRM, which runs the factory Volvo Polestar Racing outfit in the V8 Supercars Championship.
“We wouldn’t be racing next weekend without the help of Tony Klein, Dragon Motor Racing and Garry Rogers Motorsport, I really can’t thank them enough,” he said.
“It’s fantastic, although we are competitors on the track, another team is willing to offer their support, ensuring we are on the grid for the Gold Coast race.
“The crew (LDM) have been working hard to get the car ready and although they will put in some big hours over the weekend, the mood is quite upbeat with everyone looking forward to going racing.”
LDM hopes to have its regular chassis back online for the following championship event at Phillip Island on November 14-16.
