Hill was dealt a drive-through penalty in the 200km Sunday race having twice made side-to-side contact with the rookie on the main straight.
The Matt Stone Racing driver’s infringement was deemed to constitute dangerous driving, which relates to “any intentional action by a driver which creates serious risk to others”.
Hill later said his actions were in response to being “leant on” by Bates, explaining he was “trying to tell him to back down” but “didn’t mean to knock him off”.
Bates and Matt Stone both subsequently condemned Hill’s actions, with the team boss declaring it “one of the silliest things I’ve seen happen in a race car in a while”.
The deliberate nature of the contact raised questions of whether Hill should have faced further sanctions beyond those handed out in-race.
While officials noted the penalty applied was consistent with that imposed for similar breaches in the past, Brown has called for a rethink.
Buy tickets
Zach Bates is hit by BOTH MSR cars and he ends up off the road!
Follow the action live with our Live Timing: https://t.co/mDWXIwVczr#RepcoSC #Supercars pic.twitter.com/NdSZrsOGEm
— Supercars (@supercars) August 10, 2025
The incident came in the same race that Ryan Wood received a 15-second time penalty for spinning Brown – an action officials classed as careless driving.
“I’m torn because I think something more should be done than just a drive-through,” said Brown of Hill’s act, speaking while sitting alongside Bates on the Lucky Dogs podcast.
“What Woody did on me, somebody accidentally takes someone out, I find that just an accidental head-high in rugby, but if someone does what Cam did, I look at that as like a spear tackle.
“He literally ran you from the full left side, hit you three times, and then didn’t even stop when he knew there wasn’t a car width left, he actually put you off the road.
“I think it was fully intentional and they actually should do something more about it.”
Asked what punishment he thinks would be appropriate; Brown suggested parking the driver on Friday at The Bend.
“I think sit out first practice at Tailem Bend or something like that, that’s not too bad that it ruins everything, or you miss a round, but it’s bad enough…” he said.
“Everyone is going ‘oh, I got hot under the collar’. It’s going to teach them that when they get hot under the collar there’s a bigger consequence than just a drive-through or a stop-and-go.
“There’s a level of frustration and then there’s doing that. I think you’ve got to be able to hold your emotions in enough to not do that.”
Bates finished the race in 20th after a subsequent collision with Hill’s teammate Nick Percat, who received a 15-second careless driving penalty for contact between the cars at Turn 2.
Hill was classified 24th after his pit lane penalty and now sits 12th in the championship, 108 points behind the 10th place Finals cut-off.
Discussion about this post