It’s hard to find an apex when the steering wheel isn’t attached.
The Triple Eight Supercars co-driver and Apex Hunters United podcast co-host clouted the barrier at the Senna Chicane during practice running on Friday.
Minor left-front damage on the Budweiser Chevrolet was repaired ahead of demo runs across the weekend, where Pye shared the Monte Carlo with owner Richard White.
Pye later described the Friday incident as scary, unfortunate and his own fault.
“I’d clipped the steering wheel on when I got in, but the steering column has two locators, and it was only on the first one,” Pye told Speedcafe.
“So it felt like it was on when I pulled it, but on my fourth lap through the Turn 1-2 chicane, it obviously just bounced at the right angle, unclipped and came off in my hands.
“It scared the hell out of me. I was looking at the steering column thinking, ‘what do I do now?’ I actually tried my best to turn it, just hanging onto the column with my bare hand.
“But I literally just veered left and went under the barrier at Turn 2. It pushed the guard in behind the front wheel and I couldn’t drive it back.
“It was unfortunate. I couldn’t have felt worse for the team. We were doing demos and they had to patch up the car. I felt gutted for them.”
Pye isn’t the first to be caught out by a NASCAR steering wheel going rogue.
Dale Earnhardt Jr, whose famous colours adorn the car Pye was driving, endured a similar incident under caution at Talladega back in 2016.
On that occasion Earnhardt veered onto the grass before managing to reattach the wheel and avoid crashing.
Pye explained his chance to drive the Chevrolet in Adelaide came courtesy of his podcast co-host Elliot Barbour, who was directly ahead of him on track when the incident occurred.
Barbour drove two NASCAR machines during the weekend as well as scoring laps in Andrew Miedecke’s Kenwood Ford Sierra RS500.
“Elliot has been to a few Calder Park days with the NASCAR guys and has a history with NASCARs through his uncle Marshall [Brewer],” explained Pye.
“When the Adelaide Motorsport Festival found out Elliot was driving, they asked if we did a pod, would I consider coming as well?
“Of course I said yes, I’ve been wanting to come to this event for a long time, and Richard offered for me to drive his car, the #8, each day in one of the sessions as well.
“So we shared it. I was back on co-driver duties over the weekend.”
Pye and Barbour recorded a live podcast with special guest Stefan Johansson on Saturday, with another episode looking back at the AMF due this week.
“I’m getting the piss taken out of me on the pod for sure,” laughed Pye.
