Triple Eight Race Engineering has lost the appeal over its twin disqualification from Race 1 at the Thrifty Newcastle 500.
Shane van Gisbergen took the chequered flag first and Broc Feeney second in the sister Red Bull Ampol Camaro in the opening race of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
However, both van Gisbergen’s #97 entry and Feeney’s #88 would be disqualified on the following morning of a breach of technical regulations regarding the installation of driver cooling systems.
The appeal which Triple Eight would go on to lodge has been dismissed in tonight’s hearing of the Supercars National Court of Appeal, with a full decision paper to be published by Motorsport Australia by the end of the business week.
UPDATE: Triple Eight responds to the decision
The breach was specifically of Rule C6.2.1.1 of the Supercars Operations Manual, which prescribes that the cooling system must be “mounted within the cockpit utilising the mounting points designated in the GSD for the passenger seat”.
Triple Eight had opted to install supplementary dry ice boxes in order to provide cool air to its drivers’ helmets, which is beyond the present capability of the ChillOut system it uses, but located them to the right of the driver’s seat of each car.
It claimed to have received verbal approval from Supercars Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess regarding that deviation from the rules, a situation which, in broad terms, is believed to have been commonplace due to the rushed rollout of the new Gen3 cars.
Furthermore, Triple Eight has had an especially high workload as not only the Chevrolet homologation team, but also in undertaking much of the development of Gen3 broadly.
However, Burgess denied ever giving permission to Triple Eight to mount the supplementary system on the driver’s side.
He was present in the garage when the team alleged permission occurred, but stated during the initial hearing that was in relation to another matter.
Triple Eight quickly announced it would appeal the disqualification, with the hearing commencing tonight at 18:00 local time/AEDT at Motorsport Australia headquarters and going on for approximately three-and-a-half hours.
As yet, the reason for the dismissal has not been advised.
The decision means that Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters is confirmed as the official Race 1 winner, and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert retains the championship lead.
Van Gisbergen is 11th in the drivers’ standings after winning Race 2, with Feeney 18th, and Triple Eight eighth in the teams’ championship.
Full statement from Motorsport Australia
Motorsport Australia can confirm Triple Eight Race Engineering’s appeal has been heard and dismissed and cars 97 and 88 are disqualified from race one of the Newcastle 500.
Tonight’s hearing was held in Melbourne at Motorsport Australia House in Canterbury, beginning at 6pm and concluding at 9.30pm.
A three-person panel was convened to hear the appeal. The three members are Walter Sofronoff KC, Steve Chopping and Ross Jackson.
A full and substantiative decision paper will be published by close of business on Friday and posted on the Motorsport Australia website in full.
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