A MID-Friday car switch has forced Supercars young gun Jayden Ojeda out of the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Ojeda, David Crampton, Trent Harrison and Glen Wood were set to campaign a distinctive KTM GT XBOW until striking mechanical problems during the second practice session.
Melbourne Performance Centre had a spare Audi R8 on hand, and a deal was concluded prior to Practice 4 for it to become the #50 entry for the remainder of the event.
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“It’s a brand new engine and it’s got a problem, we don’t know what actually happened,” Crampton told V8 Sleuth of the KTM’s fate.
“I think I got five laps in (Practice 2) and then I came into Turn 2 and tried to accelerate out but lost all power, and then the wastegate warning light came up on the steering wheel, which is exactly what happened at the Bathurst International.
“We had to make an executive decision of whether just to go home, and then Audi made us an offer that was pretty good.”
The deal to borrow the Audi was done less than an hour before the final running of the day, with the team going through a crash course on learning its ins-and-outs in time to take part in the session.
“We’ve had to change our data and the windscreen (panel) telemetry, the Dorian (timing transponder), the guys quickly had to learn about oil levels and the warm-up process; Glen, Trent and I had to quickly learn the steering wheel, and the ABS is completely different to the KTM,” Crampton said.
Harrison turned a handful of laps during the session, while Crampton was strapped in and waiting to take over when the red flag for Keith Kassulke’s major crash at The Chase brought Practice 4 to an early close.
The swap also requires the #50 entry to move from the Invitational class to Class A Silver, a move that forces Ojeda, classified as a Silver category driver, to the sidelines for the rest of the weekend.
“It’s really sad, Jayden did a bloody good job and we’re all devastated that he can’t join us to finish it,” Crampton said.
“The rules are two Silvers and a Bronze (in the Silver class); you can have two Bronze and two Silver but not three Silvers, so it’ll just be Glen, Trent and myself.
“Jayden’s been super good about it; it’s not going to be our last rodeo with him.”
Practice 5 for the 2023 Bathurst 12 Hour gets underway at 8:35am AEDT on Saturday.
