The Erebus Mercedes of Lee Holdsworth and Craig Baird involved in a huge crash during the Sandown 500 will be race ready for Bathurst.
Erebus has chosen not to use its spare car electing instead to repair the damage, after assessing the car at its workshop and finding no damage to the chassis.
The #4 Erebus Mercedes suffered massive damage after a right rear tyre failure at the fastest point of the circuit sending the car into the tyre barrier at well over 200km/h with Holdsworth at the wheel.
Holdsworth emerged from the wreckage unscathed and was able to walk himself to the medical car.
Despite the extensive bodywork damage, Erebus Motorsport general manager Ross Stone said the chassis withstood the impact.
“It was mainly the left-front chassis rail that we had to cut out and replace,” Stone told Speedcafe.com on Friday.
“The car is on the jig now and, even though the boys are having the weekend off, it should be ready to go to the paint shop by Tuesday.
“Because we weren’t planning on testing before Bathurst anyway, it hasn’t really affected our build-up.”
After the smash, Holdsworth praised the team’s E-cell safety seat which was developed last year for the Mercedes V8 Supercar, but has been used for the past four years in the team’s GT cars.
The carbon fibre safety cell which protects the driver from above the head to just below the knees is not mandatory, but Holdsworth believes it allowed him to walk away uninjured.
“We’re the only team that is running the safety cell, which I think played a huge part in keeping my safety under control,” he said of the carbon fibre/aluminium honeycomb structure.
“I can honestly say that it felt like it saved my life.
“There was a moment there where I thought I was staring death in the face and to come out of it with no injuries at all, I think that the E-cell is something that the category should look into making mandatory.”
