Garry Jacobson has been fined for causing the crash between himself and Lee Holdsworth in Supercars Championship Practice 1 at the Superloop Adelaide 500.
Jacobson was moving slowly on the exit of Senna Chicane in the latter minutes of the session when Holdsworth arrived at speed and had no room to manoeuvre between the Matt Stone Racing car and the wall on driver’s right.
The wheel-to-wheel contact caused noticeable damage to the left-front corner of Holdsworth’s #5 Tickford Racing Mustang and left both stranded, line astern, just beyond the track limits at the end of Wakefield Road.
Stewards found Jacobson at fault and issued a $1000 fine, while the red flag saw the 45-minute session cut approximately two minutes short.
“Following the Session, the DRD conducted an investigation into an incident at the exit of Turn 3 when Car #5, Lee Holdsworth, collided with the rear of Car #35, Garry Jacobsen, as a result of which both Cars sustained suspension damage and the Session was Red flagged,” read the stewards summary.
“The Driver of Car #35 admitted to a breach of Article 3.11 of Schedule B2 (Driving unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner potentially dangerous to other Drivers) and the Stewards imposed a Fine on the Driver of Car #35 in the sum of $1,000.”
Jacobson had already admitted fault shortly after returning to the pits, stating, “When you’re in the wrong you’re in the wrong, I’ll wear it.
“I was going too slow. I had a green set of tyres on, was doing brake temp.
“When I was going up the hill from Turn 3 to 4 I thought ‘I’ll stay to the right, he’ll go left’.
“I saw him struggling in the mirrors and I think it was just a clumsy error on my behalf.
“I’m sorry to Tickford and to the boys. When it’s your fault, it is your fault.”
Holdsworth recalled, “We just went out on greens, we’d tuned the car up and were getting somewhere.
“I came through Turn 1-2-3 fully committed, had the (head)lights on and saw Jacobson up the road.
“I just assumed he would get out of the way but he sat on the racing line.
“I went to go left, he went left, so then I went right and he went right.
“It’s one of those things. It’s a bit annoying at this stage of the weekend.
“He straight away said sorry, he stuffed up. We’ll move on.”
No other matters were investigated following Thursday’s proceedings at the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship season-opener.
Practice 2 starts tomorrow at 14:05 local time/14:35 AEDT.
Replay: Holdsworth and Jacobson clash
This could have been much worse. Practice 1 is Red Flagged and cut short as a result.#VASC pic.twitter.com/DWQoFulDK5
— Supercars (@supercars) February 20, 2020