Airbox fire prematurely ends Sandown endurance race for Smiths Truck Racing
18/9/2004 17:48 (Press Release) -
A fire in the air box of the Smiths Trucks Racing VY Commodore on lap sixteen of the 161 lap Betta Electrical Sandown 500 has prematurely ended the first leg of the endurance double for Phillip Scifleet and Lee Holdsworth.
Phillip Scifleet started the race for the Smiths Trucks Racing team and had already worked his way from 31st to 24th when he was tapped from behind by Team Dynamik driver Simon Wills.
Soon after smoke started to file out from under the dash, then while trying to bring the car back to the pits the throttle of the VY Commodore stuck when the clips and casing started to melt due to the extreme heat being sent through the air box.
The fire caused extensive damage to the VY Commodore and the Smiths Trucks Team will have a mammoth job to repair the car in time for the Bob Jane Tmarts 1000 in four weeks time.
“This is really disappointing the car was going really well and Phil was doing a great job avoiding other people’s incidents,” Team owner Robert Smith said.
“I am disappointed for the guys in the team as well, they all worked really hard last night to iron out the few small handling problems the car was experiencing and it was the best it had been in the warm-up.
“The Smiths Trucks Team have got a huge job ahead of them to get the car back on track for Bathurst, we have already started pulling the car apart and have called in some key people to help with the repair.
“We will have the car ready for Bathurst and look forward to a much better result,” Smith concluded.
After a record twelve safety car periods the first of the endurance races was eventually won by Marcos Ambrose and Greg Ritter with Russell Ingall and Cameron McLean second and Steven Johnson and Warren Luff third.
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