Supercars veteran Will Davison’s Bathurst 1000 hopes hang by a thread as Dick Johnson Racing mechanics race the clock to have their Mustang ready for Sunday’s Great Race.
Davison crashed spectacularly into the wall late in Friday’s qualifying, coming unstuck at the dipper with just minutes left on the clock.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Will Davison crashes into the wall.
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At almost the exact same spot where Dave Reynolds crashed horribly earlier in the session, Davison slipped on the dirt left from the Reynolds incident and hit both walls as he locked up and slid down the hill.
Davison’s Mustang clipped the left side wall with his left rear, which catapulted him across the track and into the right side wall, with both hits doing significant damage to the car.
“He got wide on that jump — he’s just sidestepped there,” Neil Crompton said.
“He’s arrived a bit too quickly then crossed up, that’s flicked him into the wall.”
The hit not only damaged the car but clearly hurt Davison himself too, who was sent straight to the medical centre to be assessed.
“It was a big accident, it was a 58G hit,” DJR team principal Ryan Story said after qualifying.
“He was taken to the medical centre where the medical team led by Dr Carl Le took terrific care of him.
“The doctors gave him a good, thorough examination and fortunately released him quite quickly.
“He’s sore and quite bruised but all things considered, for a hit that big he’s doing very well.”
Story remains uncertain if the Shell V-Power Mustang can be fixed at the circuit, and in time for Sunday’s race.
“The boys are looking at the car now,” Story added.
“We have sought dispensation to break curfew tonight.
“We believe based on the preliminary inspection that it may be possible to repair it, but as you know, these things can be like an onion: the more layers you pull back, it might get better, it might get worse.
“It was certainly a big hit. Fortunately, with these Gen3 cars, the front and rear clips are removable and replaceable.”
He said the damage at the rear is “quite significant”, with the birdcage having its tube basically torn off, which will need replacing.
“The damage at the rear is quite significant, it’s basically torn the tube off the birdcage and that will obviously be needing to be replaced.
“But as for the rest of it, we’ll need to have a good look at it.”
Story added that it “remains to be seen” if the engine – which features the GT3 crankshaft and arrived at the circuit yesterday – can be re-used if the car is repairable.
The team has already had a monster workload in recent weeks, but will likely need to work through the night if they are to get the car up and going again.
“It’s been an enormous and an incredible build-up to the Repco Bathurst 1000,” Story added.
“The Shell V-Power Racing Team mechanics and crew have done a phenomenal job, installing two engines before practice one yesterday.
“We did a transaxle replacement yesterday as well. These guys are fairly robust, they’re a phenomenal group of people and if it’s possible to get this car back on track, they will.”