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[h=2]New Cadillac DPi chassis required for AXR[/h] By Marshall Pruett / Image by LAT








Dane Cameron's wall-moving crash at Long Beach has required the Action Express Racing team to ready a new Cadillac DPi-V.R chassis for the upcoming IMSA race at Circuit of The Americas.

Extensive damage to the underlying Dallara tub and numerous components in the engine bay necessitated the switch to a spare chassis, and according to AXR team manager Gary Nelson, assembly of the new No. 31 Cadillac for Cameron and fellow WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype title winner Eric Curran is almost complete.

We're doing very well on the project, and it certainly wasn't expected, but we had a Plan B and the 31 is right on target to be ready for the next event," he told RACER. "Normally, after almost every race, we take our cars all the way apart and inspect them, so it wasn't much of a problem to take out backup tub, put it on the stands and start assembling it.
"Pretty much the whole left-side suspension was done [in the crash]. The steering rack, rear axles and control arms – all of the things you imagine would be hurt in a hit that hard – won't race again, but we're well on the way to having new parts put together on the [spare] tub."
Nelson is waiting on final confirmation from Dallara, but it would appear the crashed tub could be salvaged for future use.
"We took the 31 car apart and quickly got the tub up to Dallara to inspect," he said. "They still had some measurements to make, but most of the conversation standing around the tub with Dallara was that the damage doesn't look too bad. If all indications prove true, it will be repaired and become our spare tub so we don't miss a beat. That's our hopeful path we're gonna be on."
Prior to moving to the carbon fiber 2017 LMP2-based cars, Nelson oversaw the production of Coyote's championship-winning Daytona Prototypes. Following many years of repairing tubeframe Coyote DPs, Long Beach left Nelson feeling impressed after gaining his first experience of dealing with a crashed carbon fiber prototype.
"From the driver safety, Dane came through it very well," he said. "It was a hard hit – as hard as we've had at Action Express – and I can't speak for other crashes, but I'm a believer that the Dallara tub did a very good job for us. When I heard we might be able to save the tub, I was pleasantly surprised because when I saw the crash, I thought we might need a new car. I think Dallara's experience of racing in America with walls with the Indy cars has paid off."
If the damaged Dallara tub can be fixed, Nelson will also get to learn the difference in price between tubeframe DP and carbon LMP2 tub repairs.


"The big difference in the carbon monocoque versus the steel tube is cost," he said. "It's one thing if we're throwing away a $25,000 DP chassis. If you have the same wreck in a [carbon] car, you don't want to be throwing away a [tub] that costs several times that amount. The number one job is to protect the driver, and the number two is to not cost too much to repair. If it costs us $25,000 to repair [the Dallara tub], we're breaking even, so I'm waiting to hear those numbers."