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Front Page
Lowndes Stripped of Race Win Through Honest Mistake
Staff, Sunday April 29, 2001.
Page 1 of 1
Gibson Motorsport’s Craig Lowndes convincingly won the first race of the Shell Championship Series supercar round at Eastern Creek, and looked to repeat his success in the second 100km race today, before an unusual safety car incident stripped the team of the win and relegated Lowndes to 12th on the grid for the final race.The 26 year-old finished a hard-fought fifth in the final, with a sixth overall round result.
“The first race was fantastic for us. We made a great start behind Glenn Seton, came in first for an excellent pit stop that saw us take the lead; and we were never really challenged after that,” Craig Lowndes said.
“It wasn’t until the end of the race - and lots of celebration - that we found out that I’d passed Greg Murphy under a yellow flag (indicating that a safety car was coming on the circuit) on turn one as Greg was exiting the pits. I saw the flag only when I reached turn two, and slowed accordingly there, and we didn’t hear anything about it until we were called up by the stewards 45 minutes after the race.”
“Because I’d passed a driver under yellow flags we were given a 29 second penalty, which meant that we were recorded as finishing 12th in the first race and stripped of the valuable championship points for a first.
“We looked at the Channel 10 footage from the camera mounted in my 00 Falcon, and it’s evident that the position of Murphy’s car blocks my view of the flag marshalling point. I would have needed x-ray vision to see the flag, and the brakes of a jumbo jet to slow down enough to let his car, which was re-joining the track, pass me,” he said.
The team faced further misfortune when it did not hear of its error until after the race. The stiff penalty could have been avoided if Gibson Motorsport were alerted by race control to let Murphy’s Commodore take the appropriate track position shortly after the incident.
“I’m annoyed that we could have rectified the problem if we’d known about it. We were only 12 laps into a 26-lap race, I could have let him pass and then concentrate on cleanly regaining the position on the track.
“No driver likes to be sitting in stewards’ offices for an hour and a quarter after a race if there’s an issue that can be corrected on the bitumen.
“The results don’t show it, but the Gibson Motorsport 00 Falcon was the best performer in the field today. The car was quick and the team’s pitting strategy was flawless. The crew put in a lot of effort to qualify in second position on the grid, and even more to win a very competitive race. It’s a disappointment to not have these efforts rewarded.”
“We’ve taken the cards dealt to us today, and we’ll now concentrate on a round win at Hidden Valley (Darwin) in a couple of weeks time,” he said.
For further information contact:
Frances Hoy
Gibson Motorsport Media Relations
Phone: (03) 9533 4455
Mobile: 0419 778 312
