TICKFORD Racing has not lost hope of getting Cam Waters back on track for the Sunday leg of the Darwin Triple Crown.
The #6 Monster Energy Ford burst into flames at the start of Lap 5 in this afternoon’s race, and it was quite some time before the blaze was fully extinguished, Waters having parked on drivers’ left at the exit of Turn 1.
When James Courtney’s Mustang suffered a similar fate in the Saturday race at Albert Park, the team quickly came to the conclusion it would be unable to complete repairs in time for the Sunday race.
However, there is optimism that Waters’ weekend at Hidden Valley is not done yet.
“We’re going to have a crack at fixing it,” said Tickford CEO Tim Edwards.
“Interestingly, it’s probably less (damage) than JC’s fire from the Grand Prix.
“It’s a different type of fire, even though you saw flames coming through the firewall it doesn’t look like it has done much internal damage whereas JC’s had a lot of internal damage as well as external.
“But it’s still a huge amount and obviously wiring harnesses and all those sorts of things.
“Fortunately the category carry one for the pitlane so we’ve got our hands on that and we’ll swap all of that.”
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The paddock is relatively calm about the fire compared to Albert Park given the cause on this occasion has been identified as a loose fuel fitting.
“There’s plenty of hindsight going on in the pitlane that maybe it should have been laid out a bit differently but we’re all masters of hindsight,” he said.
“Obviously the Fords have the same fuel connection there on the engine and with the benefit of hindsight, it probably could have been laid out a little bit differently but you live and learn.”
Waters thankfully emerged unscathed, although the timing of the incident was especially unfortunate given he was leading the race on merit.
“It’s heartbreaking on a number of fronts,” Edwards said.
“There’s the toll on the team and the financial toll as well.
“There’s been so much talk about the competitiveness of the Ford teams and that was a race that we had good car speed and what appeared to be good tyre life so I think Cam was in the box seat. Not to be.”
Capping a nightmare afternoon for Tickford, its best-placed finisher was Thomas Randle in 21st.
James Courtney was 23rd while Declan Fraser joined Waters in retiring from the race.