Outspoken ex-MotoGP racer Casey Stoner branded V8 Supercars’ Dunlop Series ‘a joke’ after the second-tier class was robbed of race laps due to time restrictions at Queensland Raceway.
The series saw its two 14 lap Sunday races called after just eight and 11 laps respectively as weather and incidents ensured each encounter reached its time rather than lap cut-off.
Stoner had been forced to start deep in the pack for both races after being turned around during Saturday’s opener.
The 27-year-old took to Twitter after Sunday’s morning race to decry the lack of laps.
“Dunlop Series is a joke. How can you declare a race after 8 laps of a circuit that has a 1:11.00 lap time,” he wrote in a two-part spray that was later removed from his page.
“I feel for all the privateer teams that must travel thousands of km to race then only get three 14 lap races, one of which was cut to 8 laps.”
Later in the afternoon, Stoner charged from 16th on the grid to finish fifth in a weather-hit Race 3 that saw teams forced to gamble on tyres.
Stoner and his Red Bull-Pirtek Triple Eight crew opted for slicks; a move that was just beginning to pay off as the chequered flag flew.
Although the result marked his best race finish to date by some margin, Stoner later nominated his Friday morning effort as his highlight of the weekend.
“The highlight was being quickest in the first practice,” he said, having been expected to put in a strong performance on his team’s test circuit.
“It was nice to come to a track that we knew. Obviously the experience at a circuit is helping us.
“We’ve been getting better and better and these last two weekends have been very good for us.
“But again we’re just lucking out. The first race isn’t being friendly too us and from there we’re having to fight our way through.
“We salvaged quite a lot today, there was a lot of interesting driving going on but we managed to stay out of trouble, keep the car clean and bring it home.
“But we would have liked a few more laps, I think we could have moved up a little bit further.”
Stoner will fly to Motegi this week to undertake the first in a series of tests with his former MotoGP outfit Repsol Honda.
