Nissan Motorsport has effectively lost a test day from its allocation following a breach of the evaluation day regulations.
The Braeside team contravened rules when it ran an evaluation day for Dunlop Super2 Series driver Bryce Fullwood, who piloted a Rick Kelly chassis at Winton in June.
Under the sporting regulations evaluation days allow teams to test a driver who is not currently a primary driver, hasn’t been a primary driver in the past three seasons and has not competed in five or more main series events the previous season.
Drivers who complete evaluation days are not eligible to compete in future Enduro events that season in a bid to prevent teams from taking advantage of evaluation days.
During evaluation days a primary driver from the team is permitted to run no more than 10 laps.
On this occasion Nissan opted to run its endurance co-driver Jack Le Brocq in the car alongside Fullwood, breaching the rules and rendering the Dunlop Super2 driver from taking up his co-driver role with Todd Kelly this year.
Following an investigation Supercars has described the issue as a ‘inadvertent paperwork error’.
As a penalty Le Brocq faced a potential ban from the Pirtek Enduro Cup but the squad has since moved to reclassify the run with the solitary Altima as one of its test days.
This means Nissan has only one of its three test days remaining for its four car outfit which is likely to be used prior to the Sandown 500 from September 15-17.
“It was an inadvertent paperwork error in the team’s interpretation of the classification of a primary driver,” read a statement from Supercars sporting and technical director David Stuart.
“Once Supercars evaluated the activities on the day and the drivers involved the evaluation day was reclassified as a Test day.”
Nissan has declined to comment after being approached by Speedcafe.com.
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