Picture: Fox Sports
Triple Eight has asked officials to review the clash between Shane van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters in Race 29 of the Supercars Championship at Pukekohe, the stewards’ report revealed.
The pair made contact on lap 35 in a thrilling battle for victory in the ITM Auckland SuperSprint finale, at which point van Gisbergen backed off and Tickford Racing’s Waters caught a big slide at the fast-paced Turn 11.
Four laps later, the Triple Eight Race Engineering rider opted for the hairpin criss-cross and finished the move in classic fashion when he came to Turn 11, which feeds into the main straight, with a little more than two laps remaining.
The New Zealander would take a hugely popular victory in the final Supercars race at Pukekohe by just over a second.
Van Gisbergen remarked in his lengthy post-race TV interview that Waters “just kicked me out of the way but maybe I wasn’t far enough; I have to see it.
Now it has been revealed that his team had asked officials to look at the contact.
The assistant race director, listed in the supplemental regulations as ‘David Mori, James Delzoppo’, and conduct standards adviser Craig Baird, reviewed the matter during the race and elected to take no further action. .
“At the request of Triple Eight Racing, an allegation that car 50, Cam Waters, did not leave the race hall for car 97 at turn 11 on lap 39,” read the stewards’ report.
“The images released revealed that car 97 was not next to car 50 and that car 97 caused contact with the rear of car 50.”
The lap 39 reference is presumably meant to read lap 35, given that the pass that eventually happened was clean, while Waters is confirmed as second in the final standings.
The stewards’ report also confirms Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom was punished for “reckless driving” when he knocked Will Brown off the road at the start of Race 28.
Brown’s ZB Commodore is badly damaged and unlikely to race again, jeopardizing Erebus Motorsport’s generic entry for the Repco Bathurst 1000 as Greg Murphy and Richie Stanaway had to drive his spare car .
Erebus CEO Barry Ryan thinks Winterbottom should have his license suspended over the incident.
Team 18 itself was also fined $1000 and penalized 20 Teams Championship points after Scott Pye’s car was not scaled after qualifying for Race 29 on instructions.
“After the session, the commissioners held a hearing after receiving a report from the HoM that car 20 was not weighed after an instruction was issued on RMC by the MOM at the end of the session that 3 cars, one of which was car 20, was to be weighed,” the stewards’ report read.
“While Team 18’s authorized representative explained that he accidentally disabled his radio, the rules state that the team must monitor the RMC at all times and instructions from authorized MOM representatives reminded teams to wear Pay particular attention to the RMC instructions for the Parc Fermé at the end of the qualifying sessions as did the Clerk of the Course instructions.
“The authorized representative acknowledged that he should have inquired about the cars that were called to the scale if he had not heard the instruction.
“The Stewards assessed a loss penalty of 20 Team Championship points and a fine of $1,000 to Team 18 for a breach of rule B6.5.10 – non-compliance with instructions.”
Team 18 continues to hold eighth place in the Tag Team Championship.
No further action was taken following the multi-car incident that put Tickford’s James Courtney in the wall from the start of Race 29 as no driver was wholly or primarily responsible.
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