An appeal has been sensationally launched by Jamie Whincup’s Holden team in the wake of Will Davison’s controversial Bathurst 1000 triumph at Mount Panorama on Sunday.
All the wash-up from a dramatic Bathurst:
» Match report: Will Davison wins Bathurst 1000
» Complete finishing order – every car, every driver
» Re-live all the action with our live blog
The appeal is expected to be heard early next week.
Whincup’s Red Bull Racing team were livid after the four-time champion crossed the line first in the 161-lap classic but had already copped a post-race time penalty, relegating him to 11th place on the timesheets.
It set up a final dog fight for the Great Race between 2009 winner Davison and Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen over the last 11 laps.
And it didn’t disappoint.
Trying to conserve fuel, Davison somehow held out a fast finishing van Gisbergen by 0.14 of a second – the closest competitive finish in the race’s 56 year history.
Holden’s Nick Percat was third.
Remarkably, Davison never led at any stage of the 56th Great Race.
“It ran out of fuel as I crossed the finish line,” Davison said.
“I can’t believe the way it panned out.”
Neither could Whincup – or it seems Red Bull Racing.
Whincup copped a 15 second time penalty after trying to snatch second spot from Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin on lap 150.
He tried to overtake on the inside of McLaughlin at The Chase, forcing the Volvo driver off the track.
McLaughlin weaved back onto the track, spectacularly crashing with Holden’s Garth Tander prompting yet another safety car.
But Red Bull Racing appear confident after coughing up $10,000 to lodge the appeal.
Six-time Supercars series champion Whincup said he would apologise to both drivers.
“I feel sorry about that,” he said.
“I will apologise but I felt the move was on.”
He didn’t get much sympathy on Sunday.
“Whincup started all that,” said Tander.
“Jamie was being pretty desperate, it’s not on.”
Tander’s team owner Ryan Walkinshaw was more scathing.
“A @holden_racing Bathurst win robbed from us with 10 laps to go by two people running out of talent who should know better. Gutting,” he tweeted.
He added after McLaughlin apologised to Tander in the HRT sheds: “@smclaughlin good bloke for coming to apologise to the boys. Somehow I doubt we will see the other bloke who caused the whole mess.”
Whincup had looked like the man to beat, breaking the race lap record three times before fate stepped in.
Van Gisbergen still leads the Supercars series on 2248 points ahead of Whincup (2241) and Craig Lowndes (2091).
Davison is in sixth spot after his second Bathurst win.
As usual, there was no shortage of hard luck stories.
In the end, eight of the 27 cars failed to finish prompting six safety cars.
The biggest name scalp was Ford’s Mark Winterbottom whose brakes failed on lap 135.
The defending series champion remained at fifth in the drivers’ standings.
There was also no luck for sentimental favourite and defending Bathurst champion Lowndes.
The Holden veteran had hoped to claim a seventh Bathurst to honour Peter Brock on the 10th anniversary of his mentor’s death.
He finished fourth-last after his campaign was sabotaged by early gear issues.
The Great Race honoured Brock’s anniversary, attracting a four day attendance of 204,512 – the second biggest ever Bathurst crowd.
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