News
OVERNIGHT EFFORT ENSURES CLASS E POLESITTER WILL RACE
ANOTHER Bathurst overnight miracle will see the Class E pole sitting Mazda 3 SP25 take the start of the 2019 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour.The Wahlstrom Private Wealth, Signature Homes Canterbury, Total Oil, Professional Lending Solutions entry, driven by Alan Turner, Chris Holdt and Ross Donaldson, qualified on pole in class yesterday however faced a significant engine failure at the very end of the Bottom 50% qualifying session.The Kiwi team, staffed and run by a team made up primarily of New Zealanders, put the word out to source a replacement, finding one in a wrecked car in Newcastle – 328km from Bathurst.In a 10.5 hour, 660km round trip the team drove to Newcastle, secured the replacement car, returned it to Bathurst and removed the engine. Four crew members worked through the night while others slept.After returning to the circuit at 3am, the replacement unit was started at 6:15am with the team reporting that it ‘runs better than the original’.It’s the second ‘significant’ repair job undertaken this weekend after the N-Gen Racing Hyundai team made a huge effort to rebuild their Hyundai I30N following a crash in practice one earlier this weekend.