Sandown 500 Saturday Recap - 260km Devastation
16 Sep, 2017
TODAY'S TIMES
Practice Four - Position: 21st – 1:12.1377 // Fastest: Michael Caruso – 1:10.1714
Qualifying - Qualified: 23rd – 1:09.3954 // Provisional Pole Position: David Reynolds – 1:08.5791
Race for the Grid – 60kms (Co-Driver Race) - Started: 23rd // Finished: DNF // Winner: Luke Youlden – Erebus Penrite Racing
THE RECAP
Today ended in a 260km/ph devastation for Team CoolDrive, when Todd Hazelwood was only one lap from completing the first ‘Race to the Grid’ when he was tagged by Jono Webb and sent into a tyre wall.
It was one of the biggest crashes in recent Supercars history, with Todd hitting the wall then going into a fierce spin, with no panel left unscathed.
As you can clearly see from the images, the team will not be able to repair the damage in time for tomorrow’s 500km race. The team will return to Albury, assess the damage and see if it can be repaired, or if a new chassis is to be built for the biggest race of the year - The Bathurst 1000 - in just under 3 weeks time. Stay tuned to the CoolDrive Facebook page for updates over the coming weeks.
TODD HAZELWOOD
“I’m devastated. I just can’t believe what’s happened. I knew Jono was there and thought if I just hung where I was, I’d be ok and then the next thing I just copped a massive whack in the left-rear.”
“When you’re doing 260km per hour across the top and you get a whack like that, you’re just a passenger and I just put the hands on the helmet and tried to relax when I hit the tyre wall. When I was going up in the air I was thinking, Oh my God, this is going to be huge!”
“I’ve never had an accident like this in my life. I’ve been doing it for a while now, and I’m just shattered to be honest. I can tell you now it is probably the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
BRAD JONES
“I’m just relieved and happy that Todd was able to walk away from that. It was an accident he had no control over, and it could have been avoided. It’s a testament to how strong these cars are.”
“When you have a big accident like that I think there is a lot of shock that goes on, and the guys weren’t able to reach him on the radio, so to see him get out of the car ok was really good. It’s a positive. We can get the car fixed, but it has taken a serious beating. Looking at the mud on the car, in the car and all over Todd, it looks like he’s been down a rabbit burrow!”
“For the team, we’ve got 3 weeks until Bathurst and it looks like we’ll be building a new car between now and then. We’ll get the car assessed and go from there. Todd is super talented and I think he’ll be resilient and bounce back from this. It’s the first bell-ringer for Todd, so it would have got his attention, but it won’t slow him down.”
TIM BLANCHARD
“It all happened really quickly. Todd didn’t do anything wrong today, he got caught out with someone else making a mistake and I know he is really disappointed as it means we won’t be lining up for the 500 tomorrow. It’s his first endurance campaign and we’ve both been looking forward to racing together.”
“The main thing is that he is out of the car and he is ok. We’ll most likely have a new car now for Bathurst and aim to have a better weekend there.”
“Todd was shaken as you can imagine, but he was eager to get in his car for the Super2 series and continue his race campaign. He’s leading that championship, and he’s just keen to race.”
IMAGES – Daniel Kalisz Photographer
MEET TIM & TODD
Sunday 17th September
11:00 – 11:30 – Supercars Autograph Session – In front of Team Transporters
COMING UP
Bathurst 1000 – The Great Race
5 - 8 October 2017
Round 11 of the Virgin Australian Supercars Championship
Round 2 of the Pirtek Endurance Cup
Mount Panorama, Bathurst, NSW
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