Randle was ruled out of the 200km race by Supercars’ medical delegate Dr Carl Le early on Sunday afternoon.
The 30-year-old is suffering the after effects of a brutal Saturday race in which he completed the 200km distance without a working cool suit.
Tickford has its four Super2 drivers – including Randle’s Enduro Cup co-driver Reuben Goodall – at the circuit, while Winterbottom is present on TV duties.
Team boss Simon Brookhouse said the fact the Super2 race was directly before the main game encounter was the determining factor.
“We really had to wait for Supercars to make their decisions,” Brookhouse told Speedcafe.
“Dr Carl only saw Thomas after the Porsche race to absolutely rule him out, so then it was up to the stewards, and obviously they ruled in our favour to put Frosty in.
Click here now.
“One of the questions that’s obviously going to be raised is why we didn’t use Reuben or one of our other Super2 drivers.
“The truth of the matter is, they’ve been out there racing out for 50 minutes and we just thought that’d be too big a risk, whereas Frosty is fresh to get in the car and go.
“If we had more time and made the decision and the boys weren’t racing in DS2, we may well have used one of those kids.
“But because their points are important, we didn’t want to pull them out of that race.”
Brookhouse said that, while Supercars officially ruled Randle out of the race, Tickford was not prepared to put him in the car regardless.
“We weren’t going to let him race, even if Dr. Carl said he was okay because he’s just not in the right frame of mind,” he said.
“Safety has got to come first and we didn’t want to have a driver out there who we thought was not 100 percent right because it could endanger other people as well.
“And Thomas, by his own admission, didn’t want to go out there.
“He’s really, really disappointed. He’s shattered, he feels he’s let everybody down, but as we said, at the end of the day, it’s just a car race.
“Given what Thomas has been through his life, he knows more than anyone that it’s just a car race.”
Randle had received treatment on Saturday evening and returned to the car for qualifying this morning.
“He’s just suffering from late onset heat exhaustion, heat stress that in the doctors’ mind could go for another couple of days,” Brookhouse added.
“All his vitals in his physicals were fine, his blood pressure, his heart rate, but just in the heat he’s dizzy and foggy.”
Winterbottom, who mentors Tickford’s Super2 drivers, is set to co-drive the team’s Monster entry with Cam Waters in the Enduro Cup.
The 45-year-old has climbed aboard Randle’s Castrol Mustang wearing his Monster Energy suit and helmet.
“We’re just lucky that his race gear stays in the truck,” said Brookhouse. “It’s not like we deliberately put it in. He just leaves it there.”
Winterbottom will start the race from pit lane.
Discussion about this post