Touring Car Masters miracles at work

Some miracles have been performed by the racing community to ensure Jude Bargwanna and possibly even Andrew Fisher’s damaged cars will take on the next Touring Car Masters round at Darwin.

Bargwanna and Fisher were part of a heavy three-car crash that also involved Scott Cameron in the shortened second race of the recent round in Tasmania.

After some initial fears, there is increasing likelihood that Jesus Racing may overcome the odds and get the “Mary” Torana back on track.

The early diagnosis of the damage left Fisher worried he may have to resort to the XY Falcon he calls “Abigail.” 

But thanks to the TCM community banding together, there is a chance the Torana could somehow make it to Hidden Valley.

“In the first week I did not even know if it would be repairable to be honest,” Fisher told Auto Action.

Mary’s carers: Steve Hearn (painter and body) Brenton Farinski (team leader) Alan Royall (body) Will Lindrea (panel beater) Mick Taylor (panel beater) John Laitala (coach builder) Matt Turner (fabricator) Will Beasy (fabricator).

“It has been a case of all hands on deck and we are still prepping Abigail just in case, but we are now quite hopeful of getting to Darwin in it which would be quite extraordinary.

“Everybody is doing what they can, Gary (O’Brien) and his team have been amazing and they will give up their weekend for us, so their families have been incredible.

“Derek Van Zele in Melbourne has been amazing doing the watts link, sway bar, hub and other stuff.

“Jim Pollicina and Dean Lillie sorted the oil cooler and inner guard and Adam De Borre helping us with the shocks because we snapped one in half and Mick Zukanovic sorting the diff housing.

“My boys who are all volunteers doing what they can.

“I want to thank the amazing guys at Retro Muscle Cars, Jesus Racing and the TCM and motorsport community for going above and beyond because without their help we would not be a chance of getting to Darwin.”

Jude Bargwanna and Andrew Fisher fighting in Tasmania. Image: TCM

Meanwhile, Whiteline Racing will get Cameron’s Camaro at Hidden Valley and the Duggan Family Racing squad is also confident of getting Bargwanna’s Carlton Zero VB Commodore back despite a head-on impact with the tyres at close to 40G.

Gary O’Brien’s workshop has been hard at work with the car having been stripped down and work focussed around the left chassis rail.

Bargwanna was thrilled to confirm the Holden should be repaired by the end of this week.

“We were pretty lucky because we hit the wall at 120km/h and a 35-40G impact so we are pretty lucky,” Bargwanna told Auto Action.

“The great news is it will all be done by the end of this week and if we have enough time we could sneak in a test day before Darwin.

The Carlton Zero VB Commodore being repaired. Image: Supplied

“Garry and his team have done a stellar job. They are wizards of the panel beating industry and we thank them so much for the amount of time and commitment they have put in.

“Once the car came back after the weekend it was stripped down, the car was a lot better than we thought.

“What they have done from there is pull the front rail out and squared the car back up. They did all that on the chassis jig over the past couple of days and cut the front chassis rail on the left hand side and replaced that because that was where the main impact was hit.

“Now it is off the chassis jig and in the fabrication room getting spot welded up with the front end coming back on.”

The next TCM round is Darwin sharing the spotlight with the Supercars on June 20-22.

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