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The #6 Ford Mustang was dropped and Waters thus attempted to depart from the pit bay with a rattle gun still connected to his right-front wheel.
He quickly stopped and prevented a larger incident but stewards determined a breach of the Supercars Operations Manual and hence a fine of $500, of which half is suspended until the end of the year so long as no similar breach is committed.
Tickford had attempted to argue it was not in breach of Rule D11.7.3, which states: “Each Car must be completely free of all hoses, tools, Team Members and any other equipment at any time whilst the Car is moving,” on the basis that the gun was disconnected from the nut when Waters began to drive off.
However, stewards decided that close proximity, if indeed that was the case, did not constitute “completely free” and hence the breach.
Half of the fine was suspended because of the “swift and appropriate action” to prevent the incident becoming any worse.
The Fact states in the stewards report was: “During the Session Car 6 was dropped in its Pit Bay with a wheel gun still connected to the front right wheel and the Car moved off with the wheel gun still not completely free and the Car Controller had to direct the Driver to stop the Car and it was pushed back to its Pit Bay.”
The official Reason for the penalty was as follows:
“Although disputed by the Competitor, the Stewards are satisfied that available video evidence showed the wheel gun connected to the front right wheel when the Car was dropped. The Competitor argued that the wheel gun was disconnected from the wheel nut when the Car moved off from its standing position. Although evidence of direct connection between the wheel gun and the nut after the Car commenced to move was less clear, there is no doubt that it was at the very least in very close proximity. The Stewards are satisfied that, regardless of any doubt on the fact of a continuing connection, it could not be said that the Car was completely free of the wheel gun when the Car commenced to move. The Stewards consider the word ‘completely’ when used in the Rule to mean that the equipment should at least be a safe distance away from the Car. That was not the case in this instance.
“The Competitor acknowledged that the wheel nut was not tight when the air spike attendant dropped the Car and that explained why, when the Car moved off, the wheel gun operator put his hand up on the bonnet of the Car to warn the Driver to stop (which was immediately obeyed). Had it not been for the gun operator’s presence of mind to have given that warning, the Car would have been released onto the circuit with a loose wheel. The incident was a consequence of the air spike attendant’s decision to pull the spike and drop the Car when a wheel gun was still connected to the front right wheel because the attendant had not yet finished securing that wheel. For all these reasons the Stewards are satisfied that the Rule was breached and determined to issue a fine in the sum of $500 to the Competitor.
“As this was a Practice session, no other Car was affected and the Car only moved a short distance before it was stopped, the Stewards consider this to be a less serious infringement of this kind than those, for example, where equipment is dragged behind a Car. The Stewards also noted the swift and appropriate action by the Team to stop the Car before it had moved any significant distance. For these reasons the Stewards determine to suspend $250 of the fine to 31 December 2024.”
Meanwhile, the Blanchard Racing Team’s Aaron Love was fined $500 after breaching the pit lane speed limit during Practice 1.
