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Tickford Racing’s Jake Kostecki has been fined $10,000 after he passed a car and exceeded 200km/h during a red flag period in Practice 4 at the Repco Bathurst 1000.
The breach occurred after Will Brown crashed in the latter half of the session, with stewards reporting that Kostecki passed Chaz Mostert on Conrod Straight before reaching a speed over 220km/h.
Stewards stated that his actions were “particularly reckless and below the standard of a competent Driver.”
Half of the fine is suspended until December 31, 2023, subject to there being no breach of the same nature between now and then.
“Vision was retrieved post-session from Car 56’s in-car Judicial Camera, which depicts Car 56 [Kostecki] following Car 25 [Mostert] on the Circuit at the time the red flag call was made and those cars passing 23 flag points, each flag point displaying a red flag,” read the ‘Facts’ section of the stewards report.
“The vision also depicts the cars reaching Conrod Straight, at which point, Car 25 stays to the right side of the Race Track and Car 56 accelerates and passed Car 25 (on its left).
“The telemetry data associated with the Judicial Camera for Car 56 records the car reaches a speed in excess of 220km/h while driving along Conrod Straight.”
Kostecki admitted that his actions constituted a breach, having explained that he had passed the crash site which the team had advised him of, and hence thought was he driving “within a reasonable manner”, stewards reported.
“The Driver admitted that his actions amounted to a breach of the rule,” reads the ‘Reason’ section.
“He acknowledged that he was not fully across the obligations placed on a Driver by the Rule.
“He stated that he had been told the location of the Incident that caused the red flag and had passed that point on the Race Track and felt that he was driving within a reasonable manner.
“It was pointed out to him that he should not fully rely on radio communications from his Team because there could be other reasons not within the Team’s knowledge making the Rack [sic] Track unsafe for him to be travelling at such speed.
“The Stewards consider this breach of Schedule B3, Article 3.2 to be particularly reckless and below the standard of a competent Driver.
“The potential for personal injury and/or damage to property to occur from the manner of driving was very high.
“The circumstances warrant the imposition of a penalty higher than the recommended minimum penalty of a fine of $5,000 for a breach of this rule during a Practice session.”
The aforementioned rule states, in part, “During practice, qualifying or a warm up session, all Cars shall immediately reduce speed and proceed slowly back to their respective Pit Bays.”
It also instructs that, “Overtaking is forbidden and Drivers should remember that race and service vehicles may be on the Race Track, the Race Track may be totally blocked because of an accident and weather conditions may have made the Race Track undriveable at racing speed.”
Jake Kostecki qualified 17th in the Tradie Mustang which he is sharing with brother Kurt.
