DJR Bathurst 1000 ‘fairness’ protest dismissed

DJR lodged a protest after Mustang runners were on Friday denied engine upgrades proposed in the wake of a pre-event study into the impact of altitude on the Ford and GM engines.

It showed the Ford to be at a disadvantage, but the proposed changes required sign-off from all teams under the terms of the Teams Racing Charter.

DJR lodged a protest following Practice 5 on Saturday morning alleging Supercars had breached its own technical parity rules.

“The subject of this Protest is the lack of fairness arising from the decision-making process and failure to implement an engine parity adjustment in the 2025 Repco Bathurst 1000, resulting in a known performance disparity between the Ford and GM engines.”

A hearing took place at 3pm on Saturday afternoon involving key staff from DJR and Supercars.

The case specifically centred on an alleged breach of Rule A1.4.5 in the Supercars Operations Manual, which states “Supercars will use its best endeavours to ensure a level playing field for all competing makes and models” in a series of specified areas.

It was ultimately deemed inadmissible and the protest dismissed. It’s understood DJR will not appeal the verdict.

“The Protest, as clarified and confirmed by the Protestor in the Hearing, is based on an allegation that V8 Supercars Australia Pty Ltd has failed to act on a recommendation to allow adjustments to be made to the Protestor’s engine(s) to achieve engine parity,” read the stewards’ reasoning.

“This is an alleged breach of Rule A1.4.5. The relief it seeks is for the Stewards to make an order or direction that V8 Supercars Australia Pty Ltd allows that to happen at this Event.

“We have had regard to Article 11.9 of the ISC (Authority of the Stewards) more specifically to the allowable powers granted in Article 11.9.3 as well as the analogous provisions in Rule A9.2.4 of the Operations Manual.

“We consider that the relief sought by the Protestor is not within the Authority or allowable powers of the Stewards under those provisions.

“So, even if the alleged breach is one that falls with the ambit of the right to protest under Article 13 of the ISC or the analogous provision in B4.4 of the Operations Manual (which we do not accept it is), and even if the alleged breach of the Rules is proved (which make no finding about), we consider that the relief sought by the Protestor is beyond the powers of the Stewards to grant and for this reason itself is good reason to deem the protest inadmissible.

“As noted earlier, the parties to this Protest are parties to a contractual agreement outside the scope of the sporting and technical regulations for this Championship and Event (i.e. the TRC) which governs the relationship of the parties for how the Category is to be managed and administered (including as to parity).

“The parties confirmed that there are dispute resolution provisions in that agreement that have not yet been activated. The Stewards consider this is the correct mechanism for the Protestor to seek the relief it desires.”

The protest verdict was delivered shortly after DJR star Brodie Kostecki led a Ford sweep of the first four positions in the Top 10 Shootout that set the grid for Sunday’s Great Race.