Mickcals
11-11-2004, 04:52 PM
The Sydney Morning Herald has this: Fuming Ford officials have hit out at Holden and V8 Supercar racing's judicial system, accusing them of double standards over an alleged technical breach by the Holden Racing Team (HRT).
The Mark Skaife-owned HRT will front stewards on Friday prior to the weekend's round in Tasmania over a similar breach to that which resulted in intense public scrutiny of Ford and Marcos Ambrose after the Queensland 300 in July.
Todd Kelly's car is alleged to have had an irregularity with its electronic control unit when it was third overall at the Gold Coast championship round last month.
But the matter was only made public on Wednesday when it emerged HRT would have to appear before stewards.
In Ambrose's case, his Stone Brothers Racing team was immediately hauled before stewards once the post-race problem was found, docked all its championship points from winning the round and fined.
The points were reinstated on appeal four days later and its fine reduced to $5,000.
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AdvertisementFord bosses are angry Holden has dodged the public bullets over the technical breach, as well as getting an extra three weeks before pleading its case to stewards.
"We need to understand why the system hasn't dealt with these two issues equally," Ford motorsport manager Stephen Kruk said.
"Not only has Holden got nearly three weeks to work on their defence, they've got away without any public scrutiny and without any damage to the brand in the way that Ford and Stone Brothers Racing were attacked.
"We had people from Holden like Mark Skaife and Larry Perkins (Castrol Perkins Racing team owner) accusing us of cheating.
"And what we're equally concerned about is who was able to create an environment of silence for 18 days in this case?"
The Confederation of Australian Motor Sports (CAMS), which handles stewards' inquiries, said there was nothing sinister in the delay in announcing HRT's alleged breach.
A spokesman said the suspect part was still being examined by technical officials at least four days after the Gold Coast round, though he could not say when the charge was actually laid.
Holden officials have declined to comment on the matter until after the inquiry.
"We'll go to the hearing tomorrow. If there's a penalty there, we'll react," Holden spokesman Tim Pemberton said.
Kruk said Ford was keen to see the new directive issued by V8 Supercar racing's governing body AVESCO after the Ambrose case applied to HRT tomorrow.
AVESCO said in August any technical breaches, regardless of the circumstances, would result in the car concerned being excluded from the sessions in which the breach was known to have taken place.
That would mean Kelly would be disqualified from at least the second race of that round.
"When the Stone Brothers case came out, Mark Skaife demanded our car be excluded from the round," Kruk said.
"We hope they will have no issue with the penalty they asked for to be dished out."
Ambrose goes into the weekend's round in his home state needing just 27 points more than nearest rival Jason Bright to seal back-to-back championships.
But in a busy day for stewards, Ambrose will also face an inquiry tomorrow over a pit lane altercation with Holden rival Rick Kelly at the Gold Coast.
Kelly will also have to explain his Gold Coast crash with Bright, which left Bright's Commodore destroyed.
The V8s will have practice tomorrow, before qualifying and a race on Saturday and two races on Sunday
Well, this hardly seems fair now does it.
AS soon as Ambrose was found in breach of the rules all hell breaks loose and yet now that HRT have done it, its sweeped under a blanket and hidden by the media coverage of the Ambrose/Rick Kelly incident at Indy.
the rules state that if an illegal breach of rules are found then that car will be excluded from the session it was found in - so in Todd's case he would loose all points gained in the 2nd race.
The Mark Skaife-owned HRT will front stewards on Friday prior to the weekend's round in Tasmania over a similar breach to that which resulted in intense public scrutiny of Ford and Marcos Ambrose after the Queensland 300 in July.
Todd Kelly's car is alleged to have had an irregularity with its electronic control unit when it was third overall at the Gold Coast championship round last month.
But the matter was only made public on Wednesday when it emerged HRT would have to appear before stewards.
In Ambrose's case, his Stone Brothers Racing team was immediately hauled before stewards once the post-race problem was found, docked all its championship points from winning the round and fined.
The points were reinstated on appeal four days later and its fine reduced to $5,000.
Advertisement
AdvertisementFord bosses are angry Holden has dodged the public bullets over the technical breach, as well as getting an extra three weeks before pleading its case to stewards.
"We need to understand why the system hasn't dealt with these two issues equally," Ford motorsport manager Stephen Kruk said.
"Not only has Holden got nearly three weeks to work on their defence, they've got away without any public scrutiny and without any damage to the brand in the way that Ford and Stone Brothers Racing were attacked.
"We had people from Holden like Mark Skaife and Larry Perkins (Castrol Perkins Racing team owner) accusing us of cheating.
"And what we're equally concerned about is who was able to create an environment of silence for 18 days in this case?"
The Confederation of Australian Motor Sports (CAMS), which handles stewards' inquiries, said there was nothing sinister in the delay in announcing HRT's alleged breach.
A spokesman said the suspect part was still being examined by technical officials at least four days after the Gold Coast round, though he could not say when the charge was actually laid.
Holden officials have declined to comment on the matter until after the inquiry.
"We'll go to the hearing tomorrow. If there's a penalty there, we'll react," Holden spokesman Tim Pemberton said.
Kruk said Ford was keen to see the new directive issued by V8 Supercar racing's governing body AVESCO after the Ambrose case applied to HRT tomorrow.
AVESCO said in August any technical breaches, regardless of the circumstances, would result in the car concerned being excluded from the sessions in which the breach was known to have taken place.
That would mean Kelly would be disqualified from at least the second race of that round.
"When the Stone Brothers case came out, Mark Skaife demanded our car be excluded from the round," Kruk said.
"We hope they will have no issue with the penalty they asked for to be dished out."
Ambrose goes into the weekend's round in his home state needing just 27 points more than nearest rival Jason Bright to seal back-to-back championships.
But in a busy day for stewards, Ambrose will also face an inquiry tomorrow over a pit lane altercation with Holden rival Rick Kelly at the Gold Coast.
Kelly will also have to explain his Gold Coast crash with Bright, which left Bright's Commodore destroyed.
The V8s will have practice tomorrow, before qualifying and a race on Saturday and two races on Sunday
Well, this hardly seems fair now does it.
AS soon as Ambrose was found in breach of the rules all hell breaks loose and yet now that HRT have done it, its sweeped under a blanket and hidden by the media coverage of the Ambrose/Rick Kelly incident at Indy.
the rules state that if an illegal breach of rules are found then that car will be excluded from the session it was found in - so in Todd's case he would loose all points gained in the 2nd race.