Veteran driver Russell Ingall will be forced to overcome adversity before a wheel has turned at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 after his engineer was forced to withdraw from duty.
Ingall, who is sharing the Supercheap Auto Walkinshaw Racing Commodore with American-based Aussie Ryan Briscoe, will be without his engineer Matt Crawford.
Crawford suffered a nasty fall during a group cycling ride with members of the Walkinshaw crew last weekend, sustaining a broken collarbone, a broken rib and concussion.
Ingall has endured a difficult year at the Walkinshaw stable, admitting that he was ‘half expecting’ another setback.
Crawford was eager to take his place in the team this weekend but was blocked by the squad who did not want to compromise workplace insurance arrangements.
Walkinshaw has rearranged the deck chairs among its crew by putting Ty Anderson in as Crawford’s replacement.
“He was all ready to go but the team pulled the pin saying it was an insurance thing,” Ingall told Speedcafe.com of Crawford.
“We’ve got Ty who has been with the team for ages and (who) is a floating data guy.
“We had a quick debrief yesterday and I’ve worked with him before. He’s up to speed and he’s a good data guy.”
Existing staffer Bryce Seales has come in to communicate with Ingall over the in-car radio. Seales is no stranger to Ingall with the pair working together at Larry Perkins Racing.
“He’s probably been thrown into the deep end more (than Ty) because radio protocol is something you have to massage. But at least he knows me and we will sort it out okay,” Ingall said.
“It’s not ideal but I’ve been up here long enough and I sort of know what I want out of the car. We’ll just press on and get on with it.”
Ingall, two-times Bathurst 1000 winner with Perkins in 1995 and 1997, said that experience tells him that keeping Bathurst simple is a savvy approach.
“A lot of people make this race too tricky,” Ingall said.
“I said to the team this morning we’ll just fill it up with fuel, run it out, put new tyres and more fuel in it and then go again.
“If we keep doing that until we get to the end we’ll be there. We are always there every year.
“I’ve had that many curve balls thrown at me this year that I was sort of expecting another one anyway.”
