Road rage still burns

ONE year on from the controversy of the 2019 Bathurst 1000, one team boss has reignited the debate over Scott McLaughlin’s maiden crown at Mount Panorama by declaring DJR Team Penske should be stripped of the win.

As triple- championship winner McLaughlin prepares to defend his Bathurst title this week, Erebus Motorsport co- owner Barry Ryan said DJR Team Penske’s win remained “tainted” and he was still “pissed off” about it 12 months later.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team boss Roland Dane also said the team’s Bathurst tactics last year had not sat “comfortably with anyone” outside of the Ford squad. DJR Team Penske was slapped with a record- breaking $ 250,000 fine and stripped of 300 team points for issuing an illegal team order to McLaughlin’s teammate Fabian Coulthard.

Coulthard was ordered to “goslow” in a move to hold up the field, allowing McLaughlin to extend his lead while the race was paced by a safety car. DJR Team Penske was handed another bombshell penalty on the eve of the Sandown 500 two months later after stewards found the team guilty of an engine breach at Bathurst.

McLaughlin was forced to start the Sandown race from the back of the grid and he was also stripped of his qualifying and top- 10 shootout win from Bathurst, while the team was hit with another $ 30,000 fine.

But Ryan said the penalties had not gone far enough.

“Once they did them for the ( team order) and then they had the illegal engine and should have started last on the grid well then 100 per cent they should have been stripped,” Ryan said.

“You can’t basically qualify illegally then still keep your race win. You can’t do anything about it now, but it still sits pretty bad with a lot of people.”

The Bathurst controversy took some of the shine off what was a record- breaking year for McLaughlin en route to his second Supercars championship.