Stewards decisions pending on multiple Taupo incidents

A handful of drivers were slapped with time penalties during the chaotic 60-lap encounter and Matt Payne has now been issued a five-second, post-race sanction for late contact with Thomas Randle.

However, according to the stewards report, “There are ongoing DRD investigations into other Incidents that happened during the Race (but the outcome will not impact the final classification).”

One of those must be the mess which unfolded in pit lane when almost the entirety of the 24-car field stopped under the second Safety Car period, given a post-race investigation was advised on timing during the race.

The other incidents are likely to include the Triple Eight wheel nut which broke free and found its way into the fast lane during a Will Brown pit stop and the stray wheel from the Chaz Mostert Walkinshaw Andretti United entry.

UPDATE: Triple Eight, WAU cop penalties over Race 7 dramas

A Safety Car prompted 21 drivers to pit on Lap 9 of Race 7, forcing Grove Racing, Team 18, and Erebus Motorsport into stack stops.

With those teams occupying three of four consecutive pit booms, there appeared to be at least three instances of contact between two cars, encompassing all possible combinations of those teams, while Cameron Hill of Matt Stone Racing – which is located between Team 18 and Erebus in the Taupo pits – was heavily delayed in his exit.

When Brown pitted his #87 Camaro on Lap 28, the wheel nut from the outgoing left-front popped out and ended up in the fast lane.

Mostert then lost an entire wheel while he was already crawling around the track on Lap 42 after his right-rear had come loose.

Given stewards specified that the investigations will not impact on the final classification, any penalties which are issued will presumably be fines and/or teams’ championship points penalties.

In recent years, a typical penalty for a stray wheel on the race track (unless a technical failure) has been $3000 with half suspended in the first instance of such an incident, as was the case for Eggleston Motorsport (in Super2) in 2022 and the Blanchard Racing Team in 2021.

Payne, who was part of the aforementioned Grove double-stack, drops from 13th to 14th due to a Lap 58 driving infringement when he made contact with Randle at Turn 6.

The beneficiary of the sanction is Brodie Kostecki, who was among those serving a hold penalty in a pit stop, in his case for hitting James Courtney’s BRT entry on Lap 14.

The stewards report also reveals that BRT, Courtney, and team-mate Aaron Love have been fined $250 each after failing to attend a driver’s briefing on time.