ANDRE Heimgartner’s Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore has been added to an unwanted list; Car of the Future Supercars written off in accidents.
The two-time race winning BJR 012 chassis was declared beyond repair after a blindsided Heimgartner slammed the back of Thomas Randle’s stalled Castrol Mustang at The Bend.
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That begs the question, of more than 100 Car of the Future chassis built and raced over the last decade, how many have been destroyed?
While the exact number depends on your definition of written off, V8 Sleuth runs you through the cars that met a premature end.
WR 017
The second Car of the Future Commodore built by Walkinshaw Racing and assigned to James Courtney for 2013 did not see out its debut season.
It endured crashes at Bathurst (in the hands of co-driver Greg Murphy) and on the Gold Coast before being destroyed in a sickening accident at Phillip Island’s penultimate round.
Courtney’s Commodore was struck in the right-hand side by an out-of-control Alex Premat, which resulted in a broken leg for the Holden Racing Team driver and irreparable damage to the car.
The destroyed chassis subsequently lay idle at Clayton for several years before being cut up.
The inner section of the driver’s door – complete with snapped side intrusion bars – was saved and presented to Courtney at his final race for the team at Newcastle in 2019.
888A-030
Triple Eight’s first Car of the Future Commodore made its test debut in striking camouflage colours in 2012 and shot to further fame as the Xbox wildcard at Bathurst the following year.
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After three years as Triple Eight’s spare car it was sold to Team 18 for 2016 when Charlie Schwerkolt broke away from Walkinshaw Racing and established his standalone team.
Halfway into its first season in Preston Hire colours this car was written-off in a first-lap crash at Hidden Valley that left driver Lee Holdsworth with fractures to his pelvis, right knee and two ribs.
The car was subsequently sent to chassis specialist Pace Innovations in Queensland, where it was deemed beyond repair. The wreck remains in Schwerkolt’s possession in Melbourne.
BJR 005
This Brad Jones Racing Commodore was debuted by Fabian Coulthard halfway through 2015 before becoming the CoolDrive Racing entry the following year.
It was decked out in a special Norm Beechey tribute livery for the 2017 Sandown 500 retro round when it was heavily damaged in the Saturday co-driver qualifying race.
Todd Hazelwood remarkably escaped uninjured – and raced his Super2 car a short time later – from the spectacular aerial incident at the end of the back straight following contact from Jonathon Webb.
The bent chassis was later stripped and lay idle at BJR until being reborn as a simulator by engineer Tony Woodward.
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FPR 1218
Ford Performance Racing built Chaz Mostert a new car for the start of the 2015 season, where the Ford squad blitzed the field with its FG X Falcon package.
Mostert drove this car to 10 pole positions, five race wins and 18 podiums in its 28-race career (including the non-championship Albert Park), which ended suddenly at Bathurst.
The reigning Bathurst winning driver crashed spectacularly on the run to Forrest’s Elbow in Friday qualifying, from which a broken leg and wrist ended his season.
As for the car, its remains sat abandoned at the team’s Melbourne workshop until 2018, when it was taken back to Bathurst for permanent display at the National Motor Racing Museum.
KR 006
Kelly Racing’s sixth Nissan Altima was built ahead of the 2016 season and assigned to Rick Kelly, debuting in the colours of lighting company Sengled.
It remained Kelly’s car for 2017 and was one of 12 caught up in a crash on the second lap of the Saturday race at Symmons Plains.
The incident started when Fabian Coulthard slid into Kelly, who was then slammed by Garth Tander, Nick Percat and Will Davison, whose car caused major damage to the Nissan’s left-side.
It was subsequently stripped back to a bare chassis and left idle at the team’s Braeside, Melbourne, workshop.
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Honourable mentions
Two Dick Johnson Racing COTF Supercars met the end of their racing lives in accidents, but it would be unfair to call them write-offs.
DJRTP06 won a record 18 races in Scott McLaughlin’s hands in 2019, including the Bathurst 1000, before being crashed heavily during Sunday qualifying on the Gold Coast.
Although marking a premature end to its racing life, the car has been restored at the team’s Stapylton workshop where it currently sits awaiting dispatch to Team Penske’s museum in the USA.
The first Penske Supercar, DJRTP01, was likewise decommissioned by the team after a heavy crash for Scott Pye at Bathurst in 2015.
That chassis though was eventually repaired by DJR and sold in 2021 to a New Zealand-based collector, where the remainder of a restoration to its Xbox guise will take place.
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Likewise, Erebus Motorsport’s 2017 Bathurst winning Commodore’s racing life ended with a major crash at Mount Panorama the following year in the hands of Anton De Pasquale.
The wreck of EMH01 though was retained by Erebus with plans to eventually return it to its Great Race-winning glory.
One of Erebus’ Mercedes-AMGs, EM02, never raced again after a big accident at Bathurst in 2014, but that lives on as the ‘Mercadore’ ride car with an AMG engine and ZB Commodore bodywork.
