Scroll to the bottom of this story throughout the week for day-by-day coverage from the Brad Jones team following the rebuild of the car. (Footage used with permission of Team BOC)
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BRAD Jones Racing will work around the clock to have one of its frontrunners on the grid at the prestigious Melbourne Grand Prix round of the V8 Supercars.
Yesterday a shell was all that was left of the $250,000 car that hit international headlines and the fence at the Clipsal 500 meeting in Adelaide on Sunday.
The No. 8 BOC car is being rebuilt on a spare frame at the East Albury headquarters of Brad Jones Racing.
Mechanics and engineers worked until midnight Monday pulling the old car apart.
The body that will become the new race car for a “shaken” Jason Bright went into the paint shop last night.
The team’s cars and equipment were expected to leave for the second round of the series in Melbourne next Tuesday, but the new No. 8 may be sent down on a trailer later in the week.
Brad Jones Racing co-owner Kim Jones said the opening weekend of racing was a roller-coaster ride.
“At one end of the equation we have the crash that has written off the No. 8 car and at the other we leave Adelaide with Fabian Coulthard second in the drivers’ championship and the team third, behind only Red Bull Racing,” he said.
“Brighty’s was a very big accident and that chassis has gone to heaven.
“Thankfully Jason is OK but the car was a write-off and that’s not what you want as a team, a mechanic or for the bank balance.
“The new car goes into the paint shop today and will come out tomorrow morning, leaving us a little under a week to build another one.
“It’s round the clock from now until the grand prix.”
Jones said the new car would be race ready for the practice sessions on the street circuit in Melbourne.
“The guys came in at 5am on Monday to finish the spare chassis, and add a few brackets,” he said.
“But the chassis is exactly the same, welded the same, so it should be a matter of just putting it all together and then getting the settings right.
“There might be a click in the shock absorber here or some tyre pressure there, but fundamentally it will be the same car and just as quick as the last one.”
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