Image Racing owner Terry Wyhoon has given an angry response following news that Jordan Boys has lost his Super2 race win at Bathurst due to an engine breach.
Boys left Mount Panorama with the series lead after prevailing in the finale, but stewards have since determined that the engine used in his VF Commodore was illegal.
Specifically, it was found that the Walkinshaw Racing-supplied unit breached the maximum accumulated engine power number, and did not match the engine specification document to which it was supposed to correspond, nor any other.
That shortage was said to have been caused initially by a spate of failures when a new engine specification, per Supercars’ technical regulations, debuted at the start of the 2020 Supercars Championship, and was exacerbated by supply constraints arising due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Erebus Motorsport, a technical and academy partner of Image’s, and a fellow Walkinshaw customer, then moved to reaffirm its support of the Super2 squad.
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan asserted that Image is “an innocent victim in a political situation around engine legality.”
Wyhoon himself has now told Speedcafe.com, “I can’t believe that it went this far.
“I am disappointed. I think we have, as Barry Ryan said, been caught up in a political situation.
“I know now, from listening to people, who I’m going to help in the future, and who I’m not.
“I can see the people who want to bury their heads in the sand and I can see the people that have got your back.”
Wyhoon had no such barbs for Walkinshaw Racing, and also expressed his sympathy for Boys, who has plummeted from the series lead to 13th in the standings.
“I feel for Jordan, obviously – the innocent party – and I feel for my crew, but we know that we are victims,” he added.
“I’m not pointing the finger at Walkinshaw because I can clearly understand how this happened.”
Tickford Racing’s Zak Best now leads the series ahead of Round 2 at Winton on May 29-30.
