MIDNIGHT OIL BURNT BY ORRCON RACING
13/4/2005 18:50 (Press Release) -
When you walk down the back of pit lane on the Saturday night of a race meeting you can normally hear very little, however last night was different at the Adelaide street circuit.
The dedicated crew at Larkham – Orrcon Racing were forced to work through the night to repair the damage caused when Jason Bargwanna hit the concrete wall at 200kmph during yesterday’s opening race.
With the team putting in an amazing 195 hours between the 15-strong crew they virtually stripped the car back to a bare shell and rebuilt the car overnight. Five crew members worked all through the night with the remaining ten split into two shifts with the first finishing at 1am and the second at 4am.
Between 3:30pm, when the car arrived back at the pit area, and 10am this morning the crew had replaced the engine, all of the running gear in the rear of the car, driveshafts and wheel clips along with all components of the front suspension. They had also repaired the door seals, B-pillar and replaced the fuel cell and steering rack.
When Bargwanna made it to the start line for today’s race there was a sense of achievement within the team.
While many on lookers believed that the car could have been too severely for repairs to be completed in time prior to today’s second race, the dedicated team at Larkham –Orrcon racing are a team that always push for success and never give in.
“When I left the track at 1am this morning to go and get some sleep the car was simply a shell with no suspension, no engine, no fuel cell, doors, nothing. It has been a remarkable effort by the guys,” said team owner Mark Larkham.
Bargwanna started today’s 78-lap race from pit lane, effectively in 34th position, to climb as high as 12th position by mid race with his eyes firmly fixed on a set on a top ten result.
Disaster struck for Bargwanna when he stopped due to an engine failure on lap 49.
“It is a complete disappointment to have the result we finished with especially considering we had something completely different to yesterday’s incident fail,” said Bargwanna.
“We were certainly on track for a top ten which would have been a really good result for the guys, none of them have even slept to make sure they turned the car around and made the start line after yesterday’s incident,” said Bargwanna.
Mark Winterbottom recovered from an opening lap incident that damaged the bonnet and the air box which was costing him time to elevate himself up 10 positions to cross the line in 14th position aboard the number 20 Orrcon Racing Falcon.
“I had a miss in the engine due to the air box damage which was costing me some time and towards the end of the race the tyres went away and the last 20 laps like driving on an ice ring,” said Winterbottom.
“Obviously it has been a very tough team for the weekend with everything that has gone on, it was good to get to the finish and gets some points on the board.”
The next round of the Championship will be the Placemakers V8 International at Pukekohe Raceway in New Zealand on April 15 – 17.
Release Date: 20/03/2005
Larkham Orrcon Racing
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