WAU to learn from costly pit stop mistake 

Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing says it will learn from a costly avoidable pit stop error that prevented Scott Pye from claiming a top 10 finish in Race 18 at Townsville.

Pye was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop late in the race after an incorrect tyre had been fitted to his car during his second visit to pit lane.

The South Australian had been running inside the top 10 for the majority of the race having climbed to seventh on the opening lap.

The tyre blunder put an end to Pye’s top 10 hopes as he pitted for a third time on lap 45 of 70, two laps after the previous stop to correct the mistake.

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As result, he lost sixth in the championship standings after eventually coming home in 21st position.

“Today, the team made an avoidable error that will stick in the craw and we will learn from (it),” said co-team principal Mathew Nilsson.

“The bar has been raised internally because there is some great potential, but that is not the level we wish to operate.

“We need to go back and assess what happened, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

It proved to be challenging weekend for the team as their ZB Commodores struggled to adapt to the Townsville street circuit resulting in only one top 10 finish from the two races.

The Reid Park track had been a happy hunting ground for the team previously having scored podium results every year except last season.

Pye finished 14th on Saturday after qualifying 19th while team-mate James Courtney converted a 14th start into 17th at the flag following an incident packed race.

Courtney did however finish eighth on Sunday after qualifying ninth as both WAU Holdens made the Armor All Top 10 Shootout.

The cars will head straight to Queensland Raceway for the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint (July 20-22), instead of returning to the Clayton workshop in Melbourne.