MOTORSPORT: Penske cops record Bathurst penalty

DJR Team Penske has been hit with the biggest fine in Supercars history -- the maximum allowable points penalty -- and Fabian Coulthard’s Ford Mustang has been banished from sixth to 21st and last place in the wake of the Bathurst 1000 safety car controversy.

But critically, Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat have retained their win at Mount Panorama for the team.

The Confederation of Australian Motorsports (CAMS) announced the penalties and the reasoning behind them yesterday (Oct 20), after conducting a hearing into the affair on Saturday.

While DJR Team Penske (DJRTP) was initially charged with a breach of Supercars’ team orders rule following an inquiry on the night of the race, it was eventually found guilty last Saturday of failing to comply with the obligation of fairness demanded by the code of good conduct of global motorsport body, the FIA.

While the three-man CAMS stewards panel had no doubt DJRTP illegally slowed Coulthard to gain an advantage, it stopped short of dragging the winning team car into the issue.

“We are prepared to assume that there was no intention to advantage Car #17 [McLaughlin],” the steward ruled.

DJRTP has accepted the verdict and has not indicated any intention to appeal.

The 10-page run-down of the process and evidence and explanation of the verdict can be read here.

The fine CAMS imposed on the team was $250,000. CAMS has elected to suspend $100,000 of the fine until the end of December 2021 unless DJRTP re-offends under the code of conduct or team orders rules.

It’s the second year in row DJRTP has been levied a significant fine. In 2018 it copped $30,000 ($15,000 suspended) for accidentally running the wrong gearing in Mclaughlin’s car at Tailem Bend.

The maximum allowable 300 point teams’ championship penalty (combined with Coulthard and co-driver Tony D’Alberto’s plummet down the finishing order) has reduced DJRTP’s teams’ championship lead from 843 to 423 points.

That’s still a sizable lead, although a maximum 1728 points remain to be won this season.

Coulthard also drops from third to fourth in the drivers’ championship.

Meanwhile, McLaughlin, who has been the dominant driver this year, is on the verge of wrapping up his second successive Supercars driver’s championship on the Gold Coast this weekend, leading Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen by 622 points.

As has been previously reported, Coulthard was running in third place at Bathurst and slowed the field dramatically behind the safety car on lap 134-135, allowing McLaughlin and van Gisbergen’s team-mate Jamie Whincup in first and second to pit and get back on-track before he arrived at the DJRTP pit boom.

This allowed Coulthard to avoid double stacking, but it also meant he held every car up behind him, including cars on a different fuel strategy such as van Gisbergen and Lee Holdsworth who could have stayed on-track and passed McLaughlin and Whincup.

Coulthard’s engineer Mark Fenning instructed him to slow and show extreme caution during the safety car period, warning of debris and stating he didn’t know where the incident was, nor that he had been told where the incident was.

Meanwhile, McLaughlin’s engineer Richard Harris instructed him to “push” and never warned him of debris.

The stewards even questioned the way Fenning pronounced the word ‘debris’ as ‘debriss’, concluding it was part of a “script”. They also pointed out it would have been plainly apparent by a number of means that the incident was a car bunkered at turn 23 and there were no debris on the track.

Suspicions were also raised by the way team principal Ryan Story responded to questions from a Fox pitlane reporter about Coulthard’s slow pace.

Coulthard was immediately issued with a drive-through penalty for dropping more than five-car lengths behind the car in front. In fact, he was 47 sec behind Mclaughlin by the time he pitted!

At the post-race inquiry Story “candidly admitted” car 12 was slowed to avoid a double-stack.

“That acknowledgement was in itself is a concession of improper conduct on the part of DJRTP,” the stewards noted in their report.

At the hearing on Saturday, DJRTP argued Coulthard’s Mustang had been slowed in an attempt to deal with overheating issues. But that defies normal Supercars logic, which dictates selecting a higher gear and accelerating to get more air through the radiators as the best way to deal with such issues.

The Supercars world has reacted furiously to DJRTP’s attempt to manipulate the race result, with rival teams and their drivers understandably upset. Legendary touring car racer Larry Perkins labelled the tactics “disgraceful”.

Coulthard has copped an awful time on social media and has been subject to some disgraceful messages.

“There is no place for bullying, trolling or any other form of cowardice in our sport. Any such instances will be dealt with to the full extent of the law,” Supercars said in a statement.

“This includes, but is not limited to, the blacklisting of sites, networks, applications and individuals who participate in and propagate such behaviour,” the statement read.