Walkinshaw Andretti United and Palm Trans have come to the aid of Supercars and Super2 teams with a parts run to New South Wales.
Last week Victorian-based teams made a last-minute dash to the border before new restrictions were put in place by the respective State Governments.
Erebus Motorsport, Kelly Racing, Team 18, Tickford Racing, and a handful of Super2 Series teams made the move alongside Walkinshaw Andretti United.
In the days following the move, Walkinshaw Andretti United Team Manager Anthony McDonald collaborated with Palm Trans to organise a truck to bring parts across to New South Wales.
Kelly Racing as well as Super2 Series outfits Image Racing and Anderson Motorsport both took up the offer, dropping equipment off at the Walkinshaw base to be taken across the border.
Freight hasn’t been restricted throughout the pandemic, allowing interstate travel for teams in need of parts.
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“We heard rumours on Monday morning last week that it looked like we had to get across the border ASAP,” McDonald told select media.
“Basically we got all our stuff together, but as you can imagine, we had things still in the paint shop, bodywork still waiting to come up, tyres, all that sort of stuff that wasn’t ready for us.
“We basically loaded as much as possible into the truck that day and just got across the border to Albury that night.
“I spoke to Supercars and they passed the message out to other teams from Victoria that we had a truck coming up on Wednesday and another truck coming up on Friday.”
Walkinshaw Andretti United has relocated temporarily to Sydney Motorsport Park alongside the other Victorian-based teams, all except Kelly Racing who are currently based north of Mildura.
McDonald said he envisages teams working closely together throughout the next few weeks and possible months as teams find themselves away from their bases for an extended spell.
“I think we’re going to have to work together for at least the next month or two, who knows what’s actually happening at the minute,” he said.
“I suppose our plan at the minute is to service the cars here on Sunday night, Monday (at Sydney Motorsport Park) and whatever we need to get back down to Melbourne we’ll drop over to Palm Trans.
“Luckily they’re about 10 minutes away from Eastern Creek, their New South Wales office. We’ll put the message out to the Victorian boys, if they need anything taken over there we’ll get it all down to our workshop and then they can come and collect it once it all gets down there.
“I supposed after that, we’re just going to work out how we get stuff to Northern Territory and what the process will be after that I suppose.”
McDonald said he is still waiting on direction beyond the Sydney Motorsport Park event with the prospect of a doubleheader in Darwin.
“We’re still waiting on a bit of ruling coming through from Supercars, tyre rules, formats for the two doubleheaders,” he said.
“As you can imagine we still have to order in some tyres. There’s going to be bodywork we need to get up there for two events. We’ll see what happens.”
The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship resumes this weekend with the Truck Assist Sydney SuperSprint on July 18-19.
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