THE Bathurst 1000 is still more than two weeks away, but for one team the race has already begun.
Team CoolDrive, which is part of the Brad Jones Racing Team collective, is racing to get a car ready in time for Mount Panorama following a horror crash at Sandown.
Todd Hazelwood, who is competing in the Enduro Cup for the first time, crashed out while travelling at 260km/hr in Saturday’s co-driver qualifying race.
He was tagged by 2016 Bathurst 1000 winner Jono Webb and speared off the track into a tyre wall.
The impact then saw the Holden sent into a spin, with panels flying off the car as it tumbled.
Fortunately Hazelwood was able to walk away from the crash and he joined lead driver Tim Blanchard in the pits to watch Sunday’s race.
“When you’re doing 260 kilometres per hour across the top and you get a whack like that, you’re just a passenger and I just put the hands on the helmet and tried to relax when I hit the tyre wall,” he said.
“When I was going up in the air I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is going to be huge.’
“I’ve never had an accident like this in my life. I’ve been doing it for a while now, and I’m just shattered to be honest. I can tell you now it is probably the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
The car was taken back to the team’s Albury base to see if anything can be salvaged, but team owner Brad Jones expects to be working on a new chassis.
“For the team, we’ve got three weeks until Bathurst and it looks like we’ll be building a new car between now and then. We’ll get the car assessed and go from there,” he said.
Blanchard, who placed 10th in last year’s Great Race, was disappointed to miss out on contesting the first leg of the Enduro Cup but pleased to see his 22-year-old co-driver uninjured.
“The main thing is that he is out of the car and he is okay. We’ll most likely have a new car now for Bathurst and aim to have a better weekend there,” he said.
With team expected to get the entry built in time, this year will mark Blanchard’s sixth Bathurst 1000, while Hazlewood is poised to make his Great Race debut.
