Warren Luff’s McElrea Racing team is working into the night to keep the Carrera Cup leader’s title hopes alive.
Luff, who narrowly heads the championship from Steven Richards and Craig Baird, crashed heavily in Thursday’s second practice session, destroying the rear end of his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car.
McElrea Racing faces a mountain of car repairs which it must complete in order to return Luff to the race track if he has any hope of remaining in the title hunt.
McElrea Racing boss, Andy McElrea, believes his squad will be capable of the repairs, though the team has a monumental task ahead.
“It’s about as big a job as you can do and still be done on a race weekend,” said McElrea.
“We’ve got to replace both rear chassis rails, the rear cross-rail, replace the engine, rear suspension and most of the front suspension, rear engine cover, rear wing, front bumper… so it’s going to be pretty fresh by the morning.
“We had a big night earlier in the year at Phillip Island after Luffy was taken out by another competitor, but this one is going to be a fair bit later, I think.”
McElrea added the support of his team-mates was what made the extensive repair possible.
“It was very close to us putting a cover on it for the weekend but we have had extraordinary generosity from a couple of our team-mates who have helped us swing it back into feasibility and getting this championship back on track,” he said.
“Without that support this wouldn’t have happened.”
Luff currently holds a six point lead over Richards in the Carrera Cup standings, with Baird 26 points adrift from the series leader.
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia will hold its qualifying session at 0900 Friday, with the opening Porsche race to start at 1425.