Edwards: ‘Nothing grey’ about rule breached by Triple Eight

Tickford Racing’s Tim Edwards believes there is “nothing grey” about the rule which has seen one of his cars classified Race 1 winner after Triple Eight Race Engineering was disqualified.

Shane van Gisbergen dominated Race 1 at the Thrifty Newcastle 500 and team-mate Broc Feeney crossed the finish line in second, with Cam Waters completing the provisional podium.

However, now, pending an appeal, it is Waters who is officially classified in first place after stewards established a breach of technical regulations regarding the installation of driver cooling systems.

Triple Eight Team Manager Mark Dutton claimed that he was of the understanding to have had verbal permission from Supercars Head of Motorsport, Adrian Burgess, regarding the system in the #88 and #97 Camaros this weekend.

Dutton furthermore claimed that a particular subsection of the Supercars rulebook, apparently the ‘general specification document’, has not yet been issued to teams, and hence the matter is “a little bit ambiguous”.

Edwards had a different take.

“Obviously, we just have to wait and see what happens in the appeal but, for us, there’s nothing grey about the rule; it’s black and white, apart from the fact that grey is a colour between black and white. It’s a very clear rule.

“Interestingly, we’ve had no issues with driver comfort or temperature in the car at all. All four of our drivers are comfortable.

“I mean, we elected to continue with our previous system and not change to the ChillOut system that they’ve used, and obviously, it’s caught them out.

“They’ve had to put a band-aid measure in to keep the drivers cool, but unfortunately the rules are very clear about where you can actually put the cooling mediums in the car.”

Tickford protested both Triple Eight cars while Walkinshaw Andretti United protested Car #97 specifically.

Edwards added on the matter, “If I was in their shoes, I’d probably appeal as well because they don’t want to lose a one-two.

“I mean, clearly I have my view that they should [lose the one-two] and the stewards have obviously made a decision that they think it’s very clear.

“So, maybe they’ve [Triple Eight] got some angle that I don’t see, but the rules are very clear, there is no greyness, they’re very black and white.”