Speedcafe’s Controversy Week hits fever point today, featuring the infamous ‘Race Rage’ incident in the final round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Eastern Creek in 2003.
Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall have never really seen eye-to-eye, and this incident did nothing to sweeten their relationship.
Skaife and Ingall ran side-by-side through Turn 10 at Eastern Creek, clashing a number of times before the inevitable – one of them was in the wall. Skaife came out of the clash worse, smashing the concrete wall and ending his race.
To protest the situation, Skaife walked away from his stricken car and onto the track, giving Ingall an obvious hand gesture as he drove past. The problem was that Ingall drove towards Skaife …
CAMS had some work to do after the race, and the following statements were issues;
“Russell Ingall was found to be in breach of the Rules, bringing the sport into disrepute, for driving his car towards a person proximate to the racing surface. A penalty of exclusion from the meeting, including deduction of all points earned during the meeting, and a maximum $15,000 fine was applied (The National V8 Supercar Court of Appeal met on 4 December 2003 and reduced to $10,000). A further penalty of a three-event suspension, suspended on the basis that he is not found guilty of the same offence in the next 12 months, was also applied.”
And Skaife didn’t get away lightly, either …
“Mark Skaife was also found to be in breach of the Rules, bringing the sport into disrepute, for failure to comply with the instructions of an official and failure to retire behind the first line of safety after the incident. A penalty of a deduction of 75 championship points and a $10,000 fine was applied. A further penalty of a three-event suspension, suspended on the basis that he is not found guilty of the same offence in the next 12 months, was also applied.”
Much was made of the shunt at the time, and still today, people talk about the incident. While Speedcafe does not condone unnesessary aggressive behaviour on the race track, we do encourage entertainment – and this incident had that in spades!
