MOTORSPORT: Honda and Hyundai rebounding from TCR crash

The two crash casualties of a torrid TCR conflict at Phillip Island earlier this month are being subjected to wildly different comeback plans.

One car has been parked and the other has been revitalised with a road-going wreck as the Honda and Alfa Romeo crews race through their preparation for the third round of the carsales TCR Australia Series at The Bend, outside Adelaide, over July 12-14.

John Martin’s Honda Civic Type R is on the sidelines for now while the Alfa Romeo Giulietta of Dylan O’Keefe, who runs second to Will Brown in the TCR title race, will be fully repaired to resume racing.

The two cars were victims of biggest hit at The Island on a weekend when the TCR competition became far more physical than minor bumping and panel damage.

At the start of the third of three heats, O’Keefe spun at turn one and was then rammed by Martin as he also lost control of his car during a multi-car melee.

Neither driver was injured but there were worries that the cars, which looked badly damaged, could have been write-offs.

But both will be repaired and the Honda squad under team boss David Wall even has a brand-new car coming into the series at The Bend as it expands to a three-Civic operation with young gun Jordan Cox joining Martin and veteran Tony D’Alberto behind the wheels.

“We are going to be running three cars at Tailem Bend. We actually have four cars in the country now,” Wall told carsales.com.au.

“The damaged car is being fixed but once we realised it wouldn’t be ready in time we decided to switch the cars.”

So D’Alberto gets a new car as Martin slides into the Civic his teammate raced at the first two rounds, with Cox also getting a fresh chassis.

Wall says it is only the lack of a single piece that prevented the crashed car being returned to the grid.

“It’s not actually that bad. We are only waiting for the rear floorpan, which is coming from overseas. It hasn’t arrived yet.

“We are waiting for the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle. We wanted to fix it nicely. Not rush it, do it right.”

In contrast, the Alfa will be ready within days after a rushed trip to a wrecking yard and a run through the repair shop at Garry Rogers Motorsport.

“We’re well back into it. We are on to the final re-assembly,” team boss Ashley Seward, who is running the Alfa owned by Rogers, told carsales.

“Structurally it’s ace, it’s like a brand-new car. The rollcage was fine after the crash.”

He says the unorthodox approach to the repair was the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get the Giulietta back in action.

“We just had to get some road-car panels for the side, and we were fortunate that Barry Rogers was able to buy a wrecked car from the auctions. Then we just needed some sills and to cut the old ones out and replace them.

“By the Tuesday after the race it was in the fabrication shop at GRM. It looked bad but there was no structural damage.”

While the Honda team juggles cars and prepares to boost the TCR grid beyond 20 cars with a total of four Type Rs, after the arrival of two new Civics from Europe, the Alfa squad is looking at the championship situation.

“We were just unfortunate in race three at The Island. We were doing everything we needed to do from a championship point of view and had cut the gap to Smith in the Hyundai,” says Seward.

“Now we’ve got to play catch-up again. We’ve got the speed and Dylan is doing the job. It’s exciting.

‘We’re trying to have a shakedown before The Bend if we get the time. We’ll do that at Winton, probably early next week.”