MOTORSPORT: Crazy Bathurst in limbo

The results of the 2016 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 remain in limbo today following Triple Eight Racing’s decision to appeal a 15sec time penalty against Jamie Whincup that demoted him and co-driver Paul Dumbrell from first to 11th place in a pulsating race.

The penalty delivered a fairytale win to the tiny Tekno Autosports team of lead driver Will Davison and owner, Jonathon Webb (pictured), just holding off Whincup’s Red Bull team-mate Shane van Gisbergen and his co-driver Alex Premat. Third went to the smallest and poorest team in pitlane, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, and its pairing of Nick Percat and V8 veteran Cameron McConville.

All three teams on the podium were driving Holden Commodore VFs.

The appeal, which was made on Sunday night and must be backed up by detailed evidence within two days, means Whincup would be reinstated for the win if it is upheld, handing him his fifth Bathurst victory and the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship lead. No date has yet been set for when the appeal will be heard by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sports.

Whincup’s penalty was imposed for knocking Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin off the track during a late-race passing move for second place at The Chase.

Triple Eight is arguing the severity of the penalty does not match the three-level grading system that has been applied to on-track clashes throughout the season.

“Our view is, in the drivers’ briefing all year let alone at Bathurst, the drivers were shown videos of level one, two and three driving infringements,” explained Red Bull Team Manager, Mark Dutton.

“A level one infringement is when you go for a dive, you have bit of a rub and that car goes off and doesn’t spin and doesn’t go to the back of the field.

“We have been told all year that the penalty for a level one is a redress and if that cannot happen it is a 10-point penalty off the drivers’ championship points.

“There has never been any scope of a time penalty to be issued.”

The confirmation of the appeal was the last chapter in a typical Bathurst epic. It started quietly enough without a safety car until lap 90 when Andrew Jones hit the wall in the Brad Jones Racing BOC Commodore he was sharing with Jason Bright.

From there the race simply exploded.

Another five safety car periods ensured Whincup and Dumbrell’s dominant lead, established from the moment the race started, was wiped out. The last 70 laps became a hare and tortoise battle between cars committed to going all out and stopping more often for fuel and those driving to a consumption number and stopping less.

The key moment came when Whincup made his bold passing attempt, diving up the inside of McLaughlin’s Wilson Security S60. They made contact, McLaughlin cut across the grass, Whincup slowed to redress as the rules demand and the closely following Garth Tander hit him and then crashed into the rejoining Volvo.

Tander’s Holden Racing Team Commodore was out on the spot. McLaughlin’s car was damaged and out of contention but Whincup charged on.

The final battle boiled down to a low-on-fuel Davison trying to hold out a charging van Gisbergen. He was aided by double yellows in The Chase for Todd Kelly’s bogged carsales.com.au Altima, which meant the New Zealander could not make a lunge at one of the track’s best passing spots.

“I’m honestly speechless,” said Davison.

“That was so stressful. I knew if I lifted to save any more Shane was going to be in there.

“It coughed as I came around the last corner and ran out of fuel as I crossed the line.

“We started 17th but we knew we were quick. I can’t believe the way it panned out.”

It was Davison’s second Bathurst 1000 win and team owner Webb’s first. It also completed a unique double for him, as he was part of the winning Tekno-prepped McLaren effort that won the Bathurst 12-hour back in February.

If the results stand van Gisbergen has extended his championship lead over Whincup from seven to 139 points. If Whincup is declared the winner then he will lead van Gisbergen by 41 points with eight races and 900 points remaining in the 2016 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

Behind the podium place-getters the young gun duo of Cameron Waters and Jack Le Brocq kept their heads, while all around were losing theirs, to finish fourth in the Monster Falcon. The more fancied Prodrive tam-mates Chaz Mostert/Steve Owen and Mark Winterbottom/Dean Canto succumbed to mechanical dramas.

Defending Supercars champion Winterbottom spun out of the race and out of title contention after a brake failure at The Chase, the highest speed corner in Australian racing.

Defending Bathurst winners Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards were also out of the reckoning early after the selector rod for the transaxle gearbox broke. A previously unheard of failure, it condemned them to a 16th place finish and probably ended Lowndes’s shot at the drivers’ championship.

The TeamVortex Commodore finished one place behind the limping McLaughlin, who also can now forget any hope of holding the title aloft for GRM before defecting to DJR Team Penske next year. Just to add insult to injury, he was penalised 25 points for an unsafe re-entry to the track after the clash with Whincup.

With team owner Roger Penske watching on at Bathurst for the first time, DJR Team Penske made a statement about its rate of improvement with fifth and sixth places for Scott Pye/Tony D’Alberto and Fabian Coulthard and motoring.com.au’s Luke Youlden.

This was the most convincing performance put in by this team since its formation in 2015 and could have been even better with a little more strategy nous. It still bodes well for expectations it will become a powerhouse alongside Triple Eight as soon as next year.

Brad Jones Racing could not have the same complements dished its way. A fumbled brake pad change and fire early in the race dropped the fast-charging Tim Slade/Ash Walsh Freightliner Commodore from second to two laps off the pace.

The rash of pace cars helped get it back on to the lead lap and an eventual seventh place finish. But the Jones brothers and their team will know that in their pantheon of Bathurst close misses and hard luck stories this is one that really got away. If not for a mistake that should never have happened, the car was clearly fast enough to win.

But the hardest luck story went to the perennially unlucky Lee Holdsworth, whose Preston Hire Racing Commodore completed only two laps with a rough running engine before calling it a day.

This was only Holdsworth’s second race back after months out with serious injuries from a serious crash in Darwin in June that also destroyed a car.