McLaughlin keeps Bathurst win, Coulthard put last, DJRTP docked points and fined $250k

DJR Team Penske’s #17 entry has kept its Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 win but its second car has been relegated to last finisher due to a breach of the FIA International Sporting Code.

Additionally, the Ford squad has been docked 300 teams’ championship points, which means its tally has dropped a total of 420 points due to Fabian Coulthard’s latest penalty.

It has also been fined $250,000, of which $100,000 is suspended until 31 December 2021, on the condition that the team commits no further breach of Appendix B of the ISC and no breach of any of Rules B6.5.4,(Conduct Prejudicial) or D24 (Team Orders) of the Supercars Operations Manual prior to that date.

The release of the stewards decision confirms that the charge of a breach of Appendix B of the ISC was additionally laid on the team due to the “ambiguous terms” contained with Rule D24 of the Supercars Operations Manual, under which DJRTP was initially charged.

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It also states that, “We are prepared to assume that there was no intention to advantage Car #17,” in the instructions given to Coulthard to slow down under the Safety Car in question.

The charge is specified as follows:

The Charge

After conferring with the Stewards, the DRD subsequently laid a charge on DJRTP alleging, in lieu of a breach of Rule D24, given its ambiguous terms, a breach of Appendix B to the 2019 ISC (Code of Good Conduct), in particular the Obligation of Fairness.

The Obligation of Fairness in Appendix B to the ISC is in the following terms:

“All FIA Licence-holders and all Participants in International Competitions must not, in any way whatsoever, infringe the principles of fairness in competition, behave in an unsportsmanlike manner or attempt to influence the result of a Competition in a way that is contrary to sporting ethics, in particular within the context of betting on the Competitions registered on the International Sporting Calendar.”

DJRTP is, by virtue of the definition in the ISC, a Participant in an FIA International Competition. A breach of Appendix B to the ISC committed by a Participant is liable to a Penalty applied by the Stewards by virtue of Articles 12.2.1 and 12.2.2 of the ISC.

The stewards decision document advises that the team admitted to the breach of the ISC, reporting that: “DJRTP has admitted that in giving the direction to Car #12 to slow down after the Safety Car intervention was announced on Lap 134, it breached the Obligation of Fairness in Appendix B to the ISC.”

Stewards consider Coulthard’s penalty to be fair as he was deemed to be somewhat complicit in the breach, given that it should have become apparent to him that there was no debris on the race track in his vicinity.

They also concluded that his engineer’s mispronunciation of the word ‘debris’ in radio communications was evidence of him speaking to a ‘script’. However, stewards do not attribute the message to the actions of the engineer alone and surmise that he was a ‘conduit’ for the instruction from a more senior member of the team.

According to the decision document, the team’s authorised representative, which is managing director Ryan Story, did not give the direction and had no knowledge of it being given, which the stewards accepted.

Ultimately, a maiden Bathurst 1000 victory for Scott McLaughlin, Alexandre Premat, and indeed DJRTP in its current guise, does stand, and they do retain the 300 drivers’ championship points which they each earned.

Coulthard, however, drops from a provisional third to fourth in the championship due to he and co-driver Tony D’Alberto receiving only 84 points as a result of being classified 21st instead of their original sixth position, and promotion of Chaz Mostert from 16th to 15th.

It is noteworthy that stewards do not have the authority to impose a fine exceeding EUR250,000, and under Supercars regulations cannot penalise a team by more than 300 points.

The penalties are officially noted in the decision document as follows:

Penalty

We impose a Penalty in the following terms:

1. Fine in the sum of AUD$250,000 , $100,000 of which is suspended until 31 December 2021 on condition that DJRTP commits no breach of Appendix B of the ISC or any breach of Rule B6.5.4 (Conduct Prejudicial) or D24 (Team Orders) of the Manual prior to that date; and
2. Car #12 is demoted to finishing position 21 in the classification for Race 25; and
3. The Loss of 300 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Team’s Championship Points.

CLICK HERE to read the evidence which stewards considered in full.

Results: Race 25, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 Updated

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Drivers	Car	Laps	Race time
1	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	S.McLaughlin/A.Premat	Ford Mustang GT	161	6:27:51.5260
2	97	Red Bull Holden Racing Team	S.van Gisbergen/G.Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:52.2060
3	22	Mobil 1 Racing	J.Courtney/J.Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:53.4029
4	888	Red Bull Holden Racing Team	J.Whincup/C.Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:54.1959
5	9	Penrite Racing	D.Reynolds/L.Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:55.1691
6	18	Irwin Racing	M.Winterbottom/S.Richards	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:57.1487
7	2	Mobil 1 Racing	S.Pye/W.Luff	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:58.1348
8	15	Castrol Racing	R.Kelly/D.Wood	Nissan Altima	161	6:27:58.1993
9	5	The Bottle-O Racing Team	L.Holdsworth/T.Randle	Ford Mustang GT	161	6:27:58.5099
10	23	Milwaukee Racing	W.Davison/A.Davison	Ford Mustang GT	161	6:27:59.2294
11	34	Boost Mobile Racing	J.Golding/R.Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:27:59.3822
12	33	Boost Mobile Racing	R.Stanaway/C.Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	161	6:28:02.7883
13	78	Team Harvey Norman	S.De Silvestro/A.Rullo	Nissan Altima	160	6:28:04.9060
14	8	7-Eleven Mobil Racing	N.Percat/T.Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	160	6:28:31.9520
15	55	Supercheap Auto Racing	C.Mostert/J.Moffat	Ford Mustang GT	160	6:28:32.0538
16	21	Team CoolDrive	M.Jones/D.Canto	Holden Commodore ZB	160	6:28:32.5413
17	19	Truck Assist TEKNO Racing	J.Le Brocq/J.Webb	Holden Commodore ZB	160	6:28:32.5632
18	27	NAPA Auto Parts Racing	A.Rossi/J.Hinchcliffe	Holden Commodore ZB	159	6:28:04.6436
19	3	RABBLE.club Racing	G.Jacobson/D.Fiore	Nissan Altima	159	6:28:25.4751
20	6	Monster Energy Racing Team	C.Waters/M.Caruso	Ford Mustang GT	148	6:28:03.2689
21	12	Shell V-Power Racing Team	F.Coulthard/T.D’Alberto	Ford Mustang GT	161	6:27:55.5946
DNF	7	Plus Fitness Racing	A.Heimgartner/B.Fullwood	Nissan Altima	157	6:13:56.2720
DNF	99	Penrite Racing	A.De Pasquale/W.Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	125	4:56:49.2597
DNF	56	Team Arcoweld Racing	B.Kostecki/J.Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	111	4:14:41.8455
DNF	35	Bigmate Racing	T.Hazelwood/J.Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	98	3:41:34.4961
DNF	14	Freightliner Alliance Racing	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB

Note: Car #12 relegated to 21st position

Drivers’ championship Updated

Pos	Driver	Pts
1	Scott McLaughlin	3308
2	Shane van Gisbergen	2686
3	Chaz Mostert	2447
4	Fabian Coulthard	2401
5	Jamie Whincup	2380
6	David Reynolds	2306
7	Cameron Waters	2065
8	Nick Percat	2020
9	Will Davison	1967
10	Lee Holdsworth	1872
11	James Courtney	1768
12	Mark Winterbottom	1720
13	Anton De Pasquale	1665
14	Scott Pye	1552
15	Andre Heimgartner	1526
16	Rick Kelly	1482
17	Tim Slade	1458
18	James Golding	1361
19	Todd Hazelwood	1291
20	Simona De Silvestro	1261
21	Macauley Jones	1005
22	Jack Le Brocq	1000
23	Garry Jacobson	950
24	Richie Stanaway	872
25	Michael Caruso	312
26	Alexandre Premat	300
27	Chris Pither	297
28	Jack Smith	285
29	Garth Tander	276
30	Thomas Randle	276
31	Jack Perkins	258
32	Craig Lowndes	240
33	Luke Youlden	222
34	Tim Blanchard	219
35	Steven Richards	204
36	Warren Luff	192
37	Dale Wood	180
38	Alex Davison	156
39	Richard Muscat	144
40	Alex Rullo	132
41	James Moffat	120
42	Dean Canto	114
43	Jonathon Webb	108
44	James Hinchcliffe	102
45	Alexander Rossi	102
46	Dean Fiore	96
47	Tony D’Alberto	84
48	William Brown	0
49	Ashley Walsh	0
50	Bryce Fullwood	0
51	Brodie Kostecki	0
52	Jake Kostecki	0

Teams’ championship Updated

Pos	Car(s)		Team/Sponsor(s)	Pts
1	12	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	5349
2	97	888	Red Bull Holden Racing Team	4926
3	5	55	The Bottle-O Racing Team & Supercheap Auto Racing	4269
4	6	23	Monster Energy Racing	3952
5	9	99	Penrite Racing	3941
6	8	24	Freightliner Alliance & 7-Eleven Mobil Racing	3478
7	2	22	Mobil 1 Racing	3260
8	7	15	Castrol Racing & Plus Fitness Racing	2958
9	33	34	Boost Mobile Racing	2614
10	3	78	Team Harvey Norman & RABBLE.club Racing	2181
11	18		IRWIN Racing	1660
12	35		Bigmate Racing	1231
13	21		Team CoolDrive	1005
14	19		Truck Assist Tekno Racing	970