Fisher and Bargwanna begin TCM repairs

The race is on for Jude Bargwanna and Andrew Fisher to fix the badly damaged cars from the Touring Car Masters trip to Tasmania.
Jude Barwganna, Andrew Fisher and Scott Cameron were all caught up in a heavy crash on the opening lap of the second race at Turn 3, which brought it to an early end.
The Duggan Family Hotels Racing squad are confident of getting Bargwanna’s VB Commodore back despite a head on impact with the tyres at close to 40G and will document each step of the journey on their social media channels.
However, Fisher and the Jesus Racing team are not expecting the Torana to be on track at Hidden Valley after the car sustained two heavy hits on either side.
After the clash with Bargwanna, Fisher not only hit the concrete head on, but also bounced back across the track and into the path of Cameron’s Camaro.
Fisher admits he is yet to see the full extent of the damage on the Torana, but is fearful it will be too much to go racing at Hidden Valley.
“We have not got it back home yet and it will turn up on Friday at the repair shop where we will strip it down and see what the damage,” Fisher said fresh from one of the numerous school visits he has done in Tasmania.
“It was a big accident but the initial thing is that it is hopefully repairable.
“We are small team and all volunteers without a huge budget so it just depends on what we can afford to do and we will assess that once we know what the damage is.
“But there is not a chance of that car being on track.
“We put it on pole and won the first race in Sydney so we have been working hard with it. That is why it is devastating to have this happen.”
Fisher himself is “still sore” from the impact as he weighs whether he should make a racing return in the XY Falcon he calls “Abigale.”
Meanwhile, the initial outlook is much more positive for Bargwanna’s VB Commodore, which won the 2024 TCM title at the hands of Adam Garwood.
The youngster said the DFH team will make sure it will go racing at Darwin and will bring fans on the journey through a series of videos on their Facebook pages.
“The safety technology in these cars is way above their pay grade so I have come out unscathed,” Bargwanna said.
“We were pretty lucky because we hit the wall at 120km/h and a 35-40G impact so we are pretty lucky just have some bruising.
“It came off the boat and landed in Melbourne on Monday and sent straight to the panel beaters.
“The car is already apart and on the chassis jig and this is really crucial to have the car as straight as possible and get us to Darwin.
“The boys from Bendigo assessed the car and it is better than what we expected. The damage was not so structural.
“After a week or so hopefully we can get the car straightened up and should be able to bolt parts back onto it.
“We are going to make it happen and be in Darwin and we want everyone to follow the journey.”
In terms of the incident itself were both Fisher and Bargwanna were side by side, the pair were disappointed they could not make it through the corner.
“In the end Motorsport Australia deemed it as a racing incident after it was looked at,” Bargwanna said.
“But it is not the racing I want to be a part of and hopefully TCM can improve to keep the driving standards in line.”
“It is just one of those things unfortunately. It was a racing incident and you just need to move on. No one meant for it to happen,” Fisher said.
“We were told stories some people have not walked away from incidents at that corner so it is a testament to the safety of our cars and we are very blessed to walk away.”
TCM will race at Hidden Valley with the Supercars on June 20-22.
Image: TCM
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