Macauley Jones’ take on “odd” pit lane clash

Macauley Jones has described being turned around in pit lane at the Vailo Adelaide 500 as “a bit of an odd one.”

He had pitted at the end of Lap 16 of Race 28 of the Repco Supercars Championship but, as he looked to file into the Brad Jones Racing pit bay, PremiAir Racing released James Golding.

The latter clouted the #96 Pizza Hut Camaro in its right-rear corner, causing Jones to spin into the Matt Stone Racing bay located between, and his BJR crew was forced to right his car with go-jacks.

Having climbed an effective four positions to that point, Jones dropped two laps due to the repairs which the contact necessitated and would finish 22nd.

“Had a good start actually – it felt really speedy at first stint there,” he recalled.

“[The car] Was using its tyres a little bit hard in the first stint, then getting turned around in pit lane was a bit of an odd one to be honest.

“That kind of turned our race into a bit of a disaster; sort of went two laps down from that and really just had to truck along with what we had.

“So, that was a bit of a frustrating end to what was looking promising.”

Unsurprisingly, Golding’s #31 PremIAir Racing entry was issued a drive-through penalty.

“The Stewards imposed a Pit Lane Penalty on Car 31 James Golding for a breach of Schedule B2 Article 7.3 A Car being released from its Pit Bay must do so without impeding any other Car in Pit Lane,” read the stewards report.

“Car 31 was released from its Pit Bay and made heavy contact with Car 96, which was entering its Pit Bay, causing Car 96 to spin.”

That was one of two penalties arising from/in Race 28, the other being a five-second hold for Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert after what was judged as a bump-and-run in his battle with Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Broc Feeney.

Feeney’s team-mate Shane van Gisbergen was found to have no case to answer when he clashed with Thomas Randle shortly after the Tickford Racing driver’s first pit stop.

Randle had emerged just ahead of Car #97 before van Gisbergen put a move on him at Turn 9.

The Tickford pilot went outside of the #97 Camaro when they next arrived at Turn 4, where side-to-side contact ensued, causing steering damage to the #55 Mustang.

Randle claimed that van Gisbergen had opened up his steering and hence caused the hit, but officials did not see it that way.

“The Driver of Car 55 suggested that the Driver of Car 97 opened the steering onto Car 55 when was attempting to overtake Car 97,” read the stewards report.

“Having reviewed available broadcast vision the DRD determined not to refer the matter to the Stewards because there was no evidence that Car 97 moved under braking and therefore no breach of the rules could be established.”

Earlier, Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Nick Percat avoided punishment after it was found his and Jack Le Brocq’s wheels interlocked exiting Turn 14, sending the latter into the barriers.

Ironically, Percat replaces Le Brocq in the #34 Matt Stone Racing entry in 2024.

WAU was docked 30 teams’ championship points and fined $1500 following Race 27 after a wheel nut from Percat’s #2 entry rolled into the fast lane during a pit stop.

Today’s pit lane run-in was hardly the first of its kind in Adelaide, with Chaz Mostert turned 90 degrees after being released in the path of Rick Kelly in 2019.