A matter of principle

Prodrive Racing Australia says it decided to lodge a protest against Craig Lowndes on "principle" because he escaped a points penalty for running into the back of championship leader Mark Winterbottom.

The Red Bull Racing Australia Holden Commodore VF made contact with the back of the Pepsi Max Ford Falcon FG X as they battled during the wet Sunday race at the Sydney Motorsport Park SuperSprint.

Winterbottom spun off at turn two and was then collected by PRA team-mate Andre Heimgartner in the Super Black Racing Falcon.Winterbottom went on to finish 16th with bent steering while Lowndes finished 10th, narrowing the points gap between them (albeit still 255 points at the end of the day).

Driving Standards Observer Jason Bargwanna interviewed both parties post-race and reviewed footage and data before ruling the clash a racing incident.

But team principal Tim Edwards said PRA couldn't abide by that decision. Its protest against Lowndes will be heard at the Wilson Security Sandown 500 in mid-September.

"It's the principle," Edwards told v8supercars.com.au. "You can't get punted off the track and someone just gets away with it scott-free.

"It's not the way we operate. If all of a sudden you can bump and run and punt people off and they lose four, five, six places then that's something we have not tolerated in the past.

"At the end of the day we had no intention of protesting it, it's only the fact that nothing has been done about it.

"Our grievance is probably more with that than what Craig actually did. To us it was a no brainer that Craig would get a points penalty and we would all move on."

As reported yesterday, Winterbottom has questioned via Twitter whether Lowndes crashed into him deliberately or not. But Edwards said that was not relevant to the rules of racing.

"From our perspective he (Lowndes) should have been penalised for it, because it's a clear case of him making a mistake," said Edwards.

"It doesn't matter whether it was intentional, the rules aren't based around whether it was intentional or not. If you make a mistake and punt someone off then you pay a penalty for it."

If Lowndes is found guilty he will likely suffer some form of points penalty, which could elevate PRA driver David Reynolds from fourth to third in the championship. PRA's $4000 protest fee is returned if the protest is upheld.

Winterbottom and PRA team manager Chris O'Toole attended the meeting with Bargwanna over the incident and reviewed the video and overlayed throttle and brakes traces.

"Their feedback on it is it is quite clear from the vision that Frosty is hard on the brakes because the brake lights are on and the throttle trace from the car behind is still hard into it," said Edwards.

"What the guys reckon is it looks pretty bloody obvious that he made a mistake and he needs to be punished for it, because it had a big impact on our day."

Edwards acknowledged that there was some latitude being given to racers by Bargwanna to rub panels and make contact in races.For instance both Jason Bright and Shane van Gisbergen escaped any sanction for their late-race contact last Sunday that saw the former short-cut the circuit after the latter had knocked him into a spin.

And at Ipswich last month van Gisbergen and Winterbottom's team-mate Chaz Mostert had a ding-dong 'rubbing is racing' scrap that ended up with both of them losing a position to Craig Lowndes.

"I don't know where the line sits," admitted Edwards. "If you bump someone and maybe get past that one car maybe you accept that.

"But bumping someone and the consequence of that is they lose multiple positons, they then got clipped by another car that damages the car and he then has to fight on for the rest of the race with a damaged car; there is more consequence to that. He didn't lose one spot he lost multiple spots.

"It's not for me to decide where the line is. But there does seem to be more of an acceptance (of contact) at the moment."Well clearly there is, because he (Lowndes) has done it and their view is that's okay."