New clue on Chev Supercars engine concerns

Brad Jones Racing’s #96 Pizza Hut Camaro was among the three to have its motor swapped on the Saturday night of the Darwin Triple Crown, along with one from Erebus Motorsport and one from Matt Stone Racing.

Now, Brad Jones himself has revealed, in his latest tech video, that his team has had multiple engines go back to KRE due to an issue with crankshaft thrust bearings.

“We’ve also got the engines out of a lot of cars currently here at BJR,” he noted, while outlining the damage caused by Andre Heimgartner’s airborne crash at Hidden Valley.

“There’s a bit of an issue with the thrust bearing on the crank, so we’ve had to send them all back to KRE; [the engines] that have recently been rebuilt.

“So, we had five engines go back up there to get rebuilt, and then they’ve got to come back here.

“Two of them need to go in the cars so we’re ready for Townsville.”

A theory circulating in the paddock is that there had been an issue with a particular batch of parts, given all three of the engines which were changed at Hidden Valley were in use for the first time since being rebuilt.

While Erebus’s Brodie Kostecki failed to start the Saturday race due to his dramas, the changes on the #96 BJR entry and #10 Matt Stone Racing entry, the latter of which finished seventh that day, were precautionary in nature after metal filings were found in filters.

KRE Racing Engines’ Kenny McNamara told Speedcafe earlier this week that investigations would begin once those engines arrived back at his South East Queensland facility today.