Triple Eight asked officials to look at the clash between Shane van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters in Race 29 of the Supercars Championship at Pukekohe, the stewards report has revealed.
Four laps later, the Triple Eight Race Engineering driver went for the criss-cross at the Hairpin and completed the move in textbook fashion when they got to Turn 11, which feeds onto the main straight, with just over two laps remaining.
The New Zealander would take a highly popular victory in Supercars’ last ever race at Pukekohe by just over a second.
Now, it has been revealed that his team did asked officials to look at the contact.
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The Deputy Race Director, listed in the supplementary regulations as ‘David Mori, James Delzoppo’, and Driving Standards Advisor, Craig Baird, reviewed the matter during the race and opted to take no further action.
“At the request of Triple Eight Racing, an allegation that Car 50, Cam Waters, failed to leave racing room for Car 97 at Turn 11 on Lap 39,” read the stewards report.
“The broadcast footage revealed that Car 97 was not alongside Car 50 and Car 97 caused contact with the rear of Car 50.”
The Lap 39 reference is presumably supposed to read Lap 35, given the pass which ultimately took place was clean, while Waters is confirmed as runner-up in the final classification.
The stewards report also confirms that Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom was punished for “reckless driving” when he put Will Brown off the road early in Race 28.
Brown’s ZB Commodore is seriously damaged and unlikely to race again, putting in jeopardy Erebus Motorsport’s wildcard entry for the Repco Bathurst 1000 given Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway were slated to drive its spare car.
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan believes Winterbottom should have his licence suspended over the incident.
Team 18 itself was also fined $1000 and penalised 20 teams’ championship points after Scott Pye’s car was not taken to the scales after Qualifying for Race 29 when instructed.
“Following the Session, the Stewards conducted a Hearing following receipt of a report from the HoM that Car 20 was not brought to the scales after an instruction was issued over RMC by the MOM at the end of the Session that 3 Cars, one of which was Car 20, was to be brought to the scales,” read the stewards report.
“While the Authorised Representative for Team 18 explained that he had accidentally disabled his radio, the Rules mandate that the Team must monitor RMC at all times and the MOM’s Authorised Representatives Instructions reminded Teams to pay particular attention to RMC instructions for parc ferme at the end of qualifying sessions as did the Race Director’s Instructions.
“The Authorised Representative acknowledged that he ought to have made enquiry as to which Cars were called to the scales if he had not heard the instruction.
“The Stewards imposed a Penalty of Loss of 20 Teams Championship Points and a Fine of $1,000 on Team 18 for a breach of Rule B6.5.10 – failing to obey instructions.”
Team 18 continues to hold eighth in the team’s championship.
No further action was taken over the multi-car incident which put Tickford’s James Courtney into the wall off the start of Race 29 as no driver was found to be wholly or predominantly to blame.
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