Coulthard Ford escapes major damage

Fabian Coulthard’s DJR Team Penske Ford will be back in action at the Castrol Edge Townsville 400 after escaping major damage in its Hidden Valley crash.

The #12 Taubmans Falcon made head-on contact with the right-side concrete wall at Turn 4 after being caught in a three-wide squeeze on the opening lap.

A rub with James Moffat’s Volvo through the 200km/h complex shot Coulthard into the path of Chaz Mostert, tagging the Prodrive Ford into a spin before hitting the wall.

Despite Coulthard’s initial fears that his car had been heavily damaged, DJRTP managing director Ryan Story says that the chassis has escaped unscathed.

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The team began the process of stripping the car this morning ahead of the next event in Townsville on July 8-10.

“With the new crash structure with the FG X, it appears the damage isn’t always as sustained as it was when we had the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) crash structure at the front of the car,” Story told Speedcafe.com.

“We’ve lost the radiator, the oil cooler, the air box and all of that sort of thing, but the damage appears to be all bolt-on parts. The chassis is pretty good.

“We’ll know more once we’ve completely stripped it back, but it looks like we’ve come out of it pretty well.”

Story agreed with the official ruling that no driver was to blame for the crash, which also took Mostert out of contention.

“It was just a three into two that didn’t quite go, which was unfortunate,” he said.

‘I think that was the nature of most of the on track action on Sunday.

“It was pretty fierce and we just happened to be on the wrong end of a couple of incidents.

“It was a racing incident, but it was pretty much fighting for sheep stations when perhaps there wasn’t a need to be doing it that early.”

Coulthard’s team-mate Scott Pye was also an early casualty in Race 13, with his new Shell Helix Ford taking damage in a multi-car incident on a restart.

Following contact from David Reynolds behind, Pye careened into the Nissan of Michael Caruso at the Turn 6 hairpin.

It was also declared a racing incident following a post-race investigation from Driving Standards Observer Jason Bargwanna.

The poor results ensure that Coulthard and Pye remain mired down in 14th and 16th in the championship respectively.