Fisher Torana completes unlikely rebuild

Against the odds, the Jesus Racing Torana of Andrew Fisher will be racing at Hidden Valley this weekend.

In the aftermath of the Tasmania crash with Scott Cameron and Jude Bargwanna, Fisher feared there was little chance of rebuilding “Mary” the Torana within a month after it sustained two heavy hits.

But thanks to a widespread effort from the Touring Car Masters community, led by mighty efforts from Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars and many others, the car is not only rebuilt, but ready to race at Darwin.

Not only that, but Fisher even got the chance to shakedown the Torana at Calder Park over the weekend, and it went well.

Fisher was thankful for all the support he and the team have received to make it happen with the latest step of assistance from David Hender being critical to completing the journey.

The Andrew Fisher Torana getting loaded on David Hender’s truck. Image: Jesus Racing

“It is pretty amazing and been a huge TCM community effort,” he told Auto Action.

“My boys have done a great job the whole time and Gary’s boys have been amazing.

“David Hender is putting in a big effort driving our car up, which gave us an extra three days, which is really what saved us because we needed them to make it.

“We did nine or 10 laps to check it was all systems go and she seemed fine.

“We had to rewire everything and wanted to make sure that all worked, drove over a few kerbs and it all came together.”

To say thanks to all the rebuilding efforts by Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars, Fisher is bringing three of their workers to Darwin to enjoy all the action and see the pleasing result of their hard work.

In addition to Gary O’Brien, Stevan Bishop and John Laitalai have also been invited to enjoy the action.

“To say thank you, we have brought a couple of the boys up from Garry O’Brien’s Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars workshop to spectate and enjoy the weekend,” he said.

The rebuilt Jesus Racing Torana. Image: Supplied

“Garry will be there as well so it will be nice to have the Bendigo boys there after spending so much time on the car.”

With Hidden Valley being a horsepower track due to the 1.1km pit straight, Fisher is coming into Round 3 with an open mind.

“It is a great car and will get up there and see where we are at,” he said.

“It was a pretty major rebuild, so you have to hope for the best and plan for the worst.

“Hopefully, we can pick up from Eastern Creek and early in the Tassie weekend, where we had some speed.

“Straight line handling down the 1.2km straight makes it a lot easier to overtake people than using brakes approaching the corners, but it is what it is.

“Time to reset and get things back on track.”

Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE

Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine