Retirements

[wombat]

So Besnard is gone.

The pic that I saw only showed the front of the Ford, not the rear. They're saying not repairable for Sundy. Bad news for Bessy and Gards.

Does anyone know anything about Gardiners condition? Knocked out suggests concussion but is there any other injury?

Not the best day for model pics, Bev.

[brchi17]

Now wouldn't you think such a big team as SBR would have taken a spare car with them to Bathurst, just in case of something just like this!!!
or,
Even have one on standby at the factory back in Queensland.

I've seen what little footage there was of the accident when Wayne, ran out of brakes at the end of Mountain Straight and crashed into the concrete barrier at Griffins bend.

If ever there was a justification for all cars to carry incar camera's nows the time, because i for one would love to see what it looked like when Wayne backed it into the wall !!!!!.

cheers.

[Grubby]

The info I read only stated that Gardner official injury's were only concussion. I have not yet seen any footage or pictures of the car but it must have been a big hit.

I also would have thought that Stone Bros would have had a spare car of some description ( even if it was back at the workshop)

How late can they change driver pairings. Or are they now set in concrete. ( as per qualifying pairings ) Could we see Benard join Ambrose ?

Grubby

[terrine]

Wayne Gardiner is out of Sunday's Bathurst 1000 after crashing into a wall during practice this morning on the Mount Panorama circuit.

Gardiner will remember his 43rd birthday today for all the wrong reasons.

His brakes failed as he came to the top of Mountain Straight and he was unconscious for several minutes.

He was taken to hospital as a precaution but returned to the track to announce he was out of the race.....ABC news

Leading Ford driver David Besnard's team is out of the Bathurst 1000 after his co-driver Wayne Gardner crashed in the final practice session this morning due to a "freak accident".

Former world 500cc motorcycle champion Gardner was knocked unconscious when his front brakes failed and he hit the wall at the end of the mountain straight just 15 minutes into the one hour session but finally walked away.

He initially could not recollect the incident, suffering concussion and was under medical observation for 20 minutes before being cleared to race.

But the prognosis on their vehicle was heartbreaking with the Stone Brothers Racing team deciding they could not repair the damage in time for this afternoon's qualifying, ruling hot Ford property Besnard and Gardner out of the "Great Race".

The team is still racing the clock to resurrect the car before the next V8 Supercar round at the Indy 500 on the Gold Coast from October 25-27.....THE AGE

[BATHURSTFAN]

SBR did have 3 cars - 1 Pirtek, 2 Catex cars.I believe that the car that crashed today was the third car that Gardner was supposed to run for a couple of races during the year. It must have been renumbered to 9. Apparently they have sold the Qld 500 winning car to Kevin Mundy who must be racing at Bathurst. Unless they do a deal...

[Grubby]

Does anyone have any pictures of the crashed car ?

Grubby

[Grubby]

Just seen the little bit of footage that 10 had ( I think it's all they had ). It was a big hit.

I am surprised that a team like SBR would sell their spare car just a couple of weeks before Bathurst.
I realise that they don't expect to write a car off............but it is Bathurst and strange things happen.

Grubby

[VRSS]

I would have thought that ANY team that has Gardner as a driver would have a back-up car knowing his history of bending cars.

[Graeme]

Correct me if I'm wrong fellow contributors, but is anyone aware of another racing category other than Formula 1 which allows you use a spare car either for qualifying or for the race ??

Remember those Group C days in the early eighties whereby Grice and Moffat were nominated for, and started the race, in two cars at Bathurst, one having been added to the grid as a form of insurance to cover qualifying or race incidents.

As I recall, two of Brock's famous nine wins were achieved by jumping over to the other HDT car.

I think you'll find that Gardner has to race in the car for which he was nominated, and which was scrutineered as such.
I've seen the Channel Ten pictures of the car on the recovery truck, and it looks a twisted mess. Might be too much for the TAFE boys' magic this time 'round !!

[Grubby]

I have just seen on Sports Tonight an interview with one of the Stone Bros Boss's.
He said that for them to enter another car they would have to get the ok from the officials as well as all of the other competitors/teams. He said that this was just too hard are would more than likely not happen in time. Hence they have pulled out.

The bloke that they sold their spare car too had offered to let them use this car if needed.

Grubby

[BATHURSTFAN]

Todays Brisbane Courier Mail had a photo of the car. I don't know why its such a big deal in using another car - as long as it meets the rules.

Imagine if it was Skaife that crashed his HRT car yesterday or worse, Brock and was not able to race on Sunday. Would it be too hard to get another car on the grid then, or is SBR not wanting to go through the red tape? You would think they would pull out all stops to get another car on the track but i suppose they just want to concentrate on the Ambrose car without distractions.

I do remember (correctly?) Dick Johnson years ago nominated his Mustang for Bathurst. He did not intend to race it but had it as a back up car and also wanted to try it at Bathurst before racing the Mustang full time the following year.

I was at Surfers Paradise when the Greens Tuf car was racing and the Mustang was racing in another category and was painted white with green lettering.

[Hati]

Bathurstfan have you read Graeme's post? The big deal of using an other car is that ALL other competitors would have to approve as well as the officials. SBR didn't think that would happen (and I don't blame them either) so they have sent part of their crew home already to prep an other shell for the next round.
The car doesn't have any reusable panels, it is a total write-off.

[Graeme]

BF is right about Dick's Mustang.

At Bathurst in 1984, there was an introductory Group A class which was won by a TWR Rover in Mobil colours. That year Dick took along his newly acquired - from Zakspeed in Europe - Mustang which had been delivered in virgin white, and it was entered for racing along with the good old green XE.

The Mustang had green logo signage of Palmer and Greens-Tuf and bore number 71 instead of 17. It was not intended to be raced unless something disasterous happened in practice, as did the previous year with the trees in 1983.

[monaro]

Grubby.
I'm not too sure about the rules on changing the driver pairings but I do know that it would be impossible for Ambrose and Besnard to drive together due to different sponsors (Pirtek and Caltex). This is why SBR have had to rely on less experienced co-drivers, often with poor results, e.g Queensland 500 last year.

[monaro]

Just saw on Channel Ten's coverage that Besnard will be driving with Glen Seton tomorrow as Owen Kelly is sick. I don't know how this works with the sponsors but it appears that my theory is all wrong. Oh well, it'll make for an interesting race.

[BATHURSTFAN]

HATI, what I was saying is that why is it such a big deal AS IN why are the rules that way where SBR has to get permission from the other teams and officials.

It should be a matter of a adjusting the paperwork, not having to go through all the red tape. Its seems that changing Besnard to FTR with Seton was no big deal (as in getting approval) so why is a car change required to go through a bigger process.

I was not saying that SBR was being slack, just why should replacing a car involve so much drama.

Like I said what if Skaife or Brock smashed their car on Saturday and could not use another car that was made available to them?.

[Hati]

Sorry Bathurstfan if I fired off too quickly, wasn't meant to offend you. I do agree with you they make the rules way too hard to overcome a given situation sometimes. I suppose they have a reason why is like that. Since they play in sheep stations all the rules got that much more complicated.

[BATHURSTFAN]

HATI, no worries.

[Glen Alexander]

On driver changes, they had until noon Saturday to get in with the driver change. The sad thing for Owen Kelly is, on Sunday he was fit to drive.

On the Caltex car, I asked David's dad Jeff about it, the car is not repairable. The impact twisted the rollcage and that was that, one stuffed Falcon. The crash was caused by just the front brakes failing. When Gardner went to turn into Konica bend, the back brakes were all he had. Imagine pulling your handbrake at that speed and trying to turn in, I don't think you'll get very far!! Poor bastards.

Another sad story was the Ozemail Falcon of Jones/Bowe. That car so SO strong all weekend, and the breakage of one little bolt in the suspension ruined any chance of a win for them, which I believe they would have.

Glen

[brchi17]

Hey Glen,
do you know with your contacts, if the rumor that I heard that the crash involving car 9, was caused by Wayne knocking the brake bais adjuster right around to full rear brakes. Which is why he had no front brakes at the end of Mountain Straight ???
I would be intrested to know if this was the case, considering who it was that was driving at the time.
Cheers.

[Hati]

The rumour has it that the switch under the dash used to disable the front brakes to assist pad change was knocked while getting in/changing drivers, which in turn resulted in the accident. If this is true why don't they fit a BIG red light in the middle of the dash to tell the driver that is on.

[Grubby]

Hati

I must agree with you. If the switch is in a position that has any posibility of being accidently turned on/off you would think that they would have some sort of light on the dash somewhere.

I guess they will now

Grubby

[Glen Alexander]

I just emailed Jeff, will let you all know what he tells me when he replies.

Glen

[wombat]

I know that I'm showing my ignorance concerning the interior of V8 Supercars, but I am a tad confused.

I understood that the brake adjuster thingamy was a gradual bias(front/rear) device, not an on/off switch. Perhaps one of you guys can enrich my knowledge base my explaining the brake adjuster and defining whether the "front brake switch is a separate doodad.


Thanks

Dave

[Hati]

Yes wombat, the bias adjuster is a lever, the switch mentioned kills the front brakes so they can change the pads without having to bleed them. Different ballgame all together ;)

[wombat]

Not wanting to labour the point Hati, but where is the lever located exactly. Can it be knocked by knee, elbow, wrist etc?

You guys have mixed the two devices in your discussions and I am genuinely misunderstanding.

[Hati]

As far as I know the bias lever is next to the anti roll bar adjusters (left hand side of driver seat), the switch is under the dash in a supposedly foolproof location. Try telling that to Wayne Gardner.

[Glen Alexander]

I got a reply from Jeff, he said to not read too much into the brake failure story, more like a brain failure. It seems that Wayne Gardner just had a shocker!!! Should've stayed with Simon Wills, they proved to be a dominant force together.

Glen

[Grubby]

That's interesting Glen. No-one has said this before.

But we are talking about Wayne Gardner so I'm not surprised.

Grubby

[Richard Poole]

We were talking to Wayne a few hours after the accident and he told us that the lever is located in front of the seat and was bumped (another Ford driver said theirs is beside the seat where it cannot be moved accidentaly). He jumped on the brakes at the first corner and only had rear brakes. The Pi data shows that he was pumping the brakes like mad but the rears locked and threw him into the wall.

It was a big accident and he was still visibly shaken hours after.

[Grubby]

Thanks Richard

Ok I apologise to Wayne Gardner & his fans, it wasn't a driving error by Gardner

I bet Stone Bros move the location of this lever now.

Grubby

[wombat]

Thanks Richard for the info.

This cant be the first time that this has happened, especially in a Holden where apparently the lever is in a location that I would think is hazardous (dangerous even).

Has there been other "misadventures" that have occured that have been put down to driver error or tyres or contact with foreign objects that might have been attributable to accidental driver contact with a poorly located lever?

Richard, is the lever identifiable in 1:18 models? The most recent one that I have is a 1999 Falcon.