Penske Mustang used illegal engine to win Bathurst race
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| No wonder that Penske Mustang was so fast at Bathurst and is much slower this weekend at Sundown |
Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat will start the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 from the rear of the grid, as the result of an engine rule breach at Bathurst.
The Confederation of Australian Motorsport has released the below statement confirming a rear of grid Sandown start, a $30,000 fine and disqualification from the Bathurst qualifying and Shootout sessions.
That strips McLaughlin of his Bathurst ARMOR ALL Pole and lap record, but leaves his win in the Sunday race, which took place after an engine change, unaffected.
The engine used in the qualifying and Shootout sessions was found to have exceeded the maximum permitted valve lift prescribed in the car's Engine Specification Document.
Full statement
CAMS Stewards have released their decision regarding a technical breach committed at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
The following information and penalty was today issued by the Stewards:
Fact:
Engine 009, which was used in Car #17 in Practice Sessions 1 to 7 (at Bathurst), in Qualifying for Race 25 and in the Top 10 Shootout (and then replaced prior to the Warm Up for Race 25), was examined by Supercars Technical personnel and the valve lift in a number of cylinders was found to have exceeded the maximum permitted valve lift prescribed by the ESD for Car #17.
Rule:
Rule C2.1.1.
Decision
Car #17, Scott McLaughlin/Alexandre Premat, is disqualified from Qualifying and the Top Ten Shootout for Race 25;
A Fine of $30,000 is imposed on Racing Team (Aust) Pty Ltd; and
Car #17, Scott McLaughlin/Alexandre Premat, is relegated to rear of Grid for Race 30 (Sunday’s Sandown race) in the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
Penske team Statement
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| Cheat to win – they lost their points but the record books will forever list them as the winners |
The engines used for the Bathurst 1000 race, in both Car #17 and Car #12, have passed all post-race inspections.
The engine in question experienced a mechanical problem during practice and qualifying. Following the Top Ten Shootout, we were granted permission by the Head of Motorsport to change the engine prior to the race.
We are confident that the build sheet for this engine indicated that it left our engine provider with measurements that were well under the allowable maximum valve lift stated within the Virgin Australia Supercars Engine Specification Document. It was also confirmed by Supercars that the control camshaft, rockers and all other components and measurements used in the engine were the ones permitted within our Engine Specifications Document.
The steward’s report confirmed that there was clearly no intent from our team to circumvent the rules and there was no evidence that we benefited from any performance advantage as the engine passed the Supercars power tests on their dynamometer post-event, returning results that did not exceed the Accumulated Power Number nor the Engine Power Weighted Average Number.
As the lift now measures a few thousandths of an inch high on a few valves, we can only conclude that either the engine wasn’t measured properly when it was initially assembled or the damage that occurred in the engine contributed to a change to the maximum valve lift in the forward cylinders.
We apologize to Scott, Alex, our partners and our supporters, and we will continue to focus on winning our second consecutive Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.
The team will be making no further comment at this time.