WestCoast Racing has completed the build of a new car for Gianni Morbidelli ahead of this weekend’s TCR International Series races in Singapore, after his previous car was destroyed in an accident in Thailand.
Morbidelli’s Honda Civic TCR suffered irreparable damage to its chassis in the race two shunt at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, which left his team with a mammoth task to prepare another car for the following event.
Morbidelli’s Race Engineer Paul Ridgeway immediately knew that his car could not be repaired when it returned to the pits in Thailand, and Team Manager James Nixon then launched an emergency plan to prepare a new car for the next event.
JAS Motorsport delivered a new chassis to their Asian workshop in Sepang on Friday September 9, with then arrived in Singapore the following day, along with the containers carrying parts and equipment from Thailand.
Three engineers, Marc Butler, Gavin Ovenden and Ronny Hyrskylahti then spent the weekend working by the docks to strip the damaged car and building a new Civic.
On Sunday the job was complete, with the car loaded into the container to go to the Marina Bay Street Circuit paddock after having been painted in a Singapore bodyshop.
“These three guys have done a two-week work in two-and-a-half days!” said Nixon. “Now we will load it on a truck and deliver it to the Marina Bay Circuit paddock.
“We need to thank JAS Motorsport for supplying the chassis and parts in time despite the short notice and SEL that took care of the logistics and transportation. Without them we wouldn’t be able to attempt this.”